Panel reviews bill to streamline appeals from justice and municipal courts

The Senate Committee on Judiciary on April 14 heard testimony on House Bill 2460A, a package of statutory changes intended to reorganize and clarify the law governing appeals from justice and municipal courts. The bill, carried to committee by members of the Oregon Law Commission, would standardize notice and docketing rules, set uniform deadlines and fees processes for notices of appeal, and clarify the circuit court—s scope of review and authority on such appeals.

Krista Obold Eshelman, supervising appellate attorney at Youth Rights and Justice and a commissioner on the Oregon Law Commission, told the committee the measure —takes provisions that were scattered across multiple statutes, reorganizes them, and focuses on making the appeals process more cohesive and user-friendly,— with particular attention to litigants who appear pro se.— Eshelman said the work group spent several years developing consensus among stakeholders and requested passage of the bill.

The bill would, among other changes, clarify jurisdictional limits (including a provision that jurisdiction over animal abuse offenses does not extend to felony cases), require municipal courts to rule on the constitutionality of a charter ordinance provision before addressing related merits claims, prohibit conditional guilty pleas in justice and municipal courts, and standardize record-keeping and docketing procedures and designate those records as public. It would also require local courts to provide contact information for the person to whom a party must send a notice of appeal and direct the State Court Administrator to create a model notice-of-appeal form. The measure sets an operative date of Jan. 1, 2026 for most provisions and would take effect 90 days after the governor signs it, with limited exceptions for statutory compilation directions identified in the bill.

Washington County Justice Court Judge Dan Cross, speaking for the Oregon Justice of the Peace Association, described practical effects the bill would have on small-claims and other local-court litigants. Cross said the bill increases the time a litigant has to perfect an appeal from 10 days to 30 days and explained the current practice requiring an appellant to file the circuit court filing fee and deposit the full judgment amount (up to $10,000 in justice court) with the justice court while the appeal proceeds. Cross said the 30-day deadline will —be a substantial increase in appellate rights for litigants in small-claims cases.—

Justin Kidd, Justice of the Peace for Marion County, appearing for the Oregon Judges Association, said the bill —increases access to justice— by making available a clearer, consolidated set of rules about what may be appealed from local courts and how to perfect an appeal. Kidd also noted that the measure was intended primarily to clarify appeals from courts that are not courts of record; courts of record would continue to follow the existing path to the Court of Appeals.

Committee members questioned whether expanded appeal avenues would increase workload for the circuit courts and whether circuit courts— capacity to process fee-waiver petitions could create an effective —no cost— route to circuit court review. Cross and Kidd responded that current appeal volumes from local courts are very low and that while the bill may increase appeals, fiscal-impact statements have projected only minimal effects. Cross and others noted that circuit court fee rules and fee waivers remain under circuit-court authority and that the bill does not change those existing provisions.

The committee heard discussion about the status of justice courts as courts of record. Kidd and other witnesses noted statutory limits on when a justice court may be a court of record and that making a local court a court of record typically requires the judge to be an attorney; that requirement was not proposed to change in this bill.

No committee vote on House Bill 2460A was recorded at the hearing. Supporters urged the committee to pass the bill out of the committee to give litigants clearer appellate procedures and uniform notice and docket rules across Oregon.

The committee closed the public hearing on House Bill 2460A and proceeded to the next agenda item.