GLOSSARY
(These terms are used internally in appellate opinion drafting, Judicial Assistant and Law Clerk materials, on the website, etc., but may or may not be referred to elsewhere in this manual.)
Advance Notice-A one-day advance notice of Oregon Appellate Court cases scheduled to be released that is posted on the OJD Publications website-usually Tuesday of each week for Court of Appeals cases and Wednesday of each week for Supreme Court cases.
Advance Sheets-Opinions of cases issued weekly by the Oregon Appellate Courts, including, as issued, both the Regular and Magistrate Divisions of the Oregon Tax Court, and compiled together into a softbound book that is published bimonthly by the Publications Program. Advance Sheets are available by subscription or by issue.
Affirmed by an Equally Divided Court-When an even number of justices or judges meet to decide a case, a situation can arise where the court is evenly split regarding its disposition. In that event, the case will be considered affirmed, and no majority written opinion will be issued.
AWOP-Term of art used in the Court of Appeals to refer to cases that are affirmed without opinion. No precedential value is accorded those decisions, which are published by case caption and number only.
Bluebook-Shorthand reference to the citation manual, The Bluebook, A Uniform System of Citation, which is published and distributed by the Harvard Law Review Association.
Citation-Form by which authoritative sources are identified for easy reference. For the most part, Oregon Appellate Courts do not use periods in citations.
A string citation is a proscribed order listing more than one authority to support a legal position (usually set out starting with strength of authority, jurisdiction, rank of court, and date) and often introduced with a signal.
A parallel citation is an additional reference to the same case published by a different source.
A full citation sets out the official source followed by a parallel source.
A short form citation is a subsequent reference to a case already set out in full and is a less complete citation but which still clearly identifies the referenced material.
A jump or pinpoint citation refers to the specific page on which a legal authority is cited.
Common Law-Law created by judicial opinions, not statutes. Hyphenate when using this term as an adjective before a noun.
Cost Box-Printed on title page of slip opinion and used to designate expense costs (not attorney fees) that are allowed by the court. This information is not published in the Advance Sheets or the Oregon Reports.
Court of Appeals-In Oregon, an intermediate appellate court that has jurisdiction to hear most civil and criminal appeals from circuit court (exceptions include death-penalty cases and Tax Court appeals) and review most state administrative agency actions. Its primary function is the correction of error by the application of principles of law; formulation of law is a secondary function performed as required for deciding cases.
Department-A department is a group of three judges in the Court of Appeals, designated by the Chief Judge, that generally hears and decides cases together. If a member of a department must be recused or is unavailable for any reason, the Chief Judge will assign another judge to sit on a particular case. Accordingly, the "panel" of judges that hears and decides a case may or may not correspond to the make-up of the "department" to which the case is assigned. One judge in each department is the "presiding judge." The presiding judge presides at oral argument, makes written case assignments, and administers the department. Each department has a number, which appears, among other places, on the court's oral argument calendar, and a color, which corresponds to the color of the cover sheet on its draft opinions. Department 1 is pink; Department 2 is blue, Department 3 is green, and Department 4 is purple. Each department generally meets twice a month to discuss draft opinions circulated since the last department meeting. When all three judges on the panel agree that an opinion is ready, it is "approved to go down."
Dictum-Statements in an opinion that are not necessary to the disposition of the case.
Disposition by Order-A court may choose to dispose of a matter by issuing an order instead of an opinion. Acceptance of Certified Questions or Appeals, issuance of Alternative Writs of Mandamus, amendments of typographical errors, and the certification of ballot titles are examples of such orders.
Discretionary Review-Indicates that a court chooses whether or not to review a case.
En Banc-Cases in which all available judges participate in the consideration and vote on the outcome.
Footnotes-Notes at the bottom of a page citing or commenting on the part of the text to which they are referenced. Generally a footnote contains information of lesser importance to the larger body of work.
Full Court-In the Court of Appeals, any judge may refer to the full court an opinion approved to go down by a panel. The full court meets once a month to discuss cases referred to it. Reasons for referral include, but are not limited to, the following: (1) the opinion would overrule a prior case; (2) the same or similar issue is before several departments of the court; (3) a judge not on the panel disagrees with the result or reasoning. Not all cases referred to full court are taken en banc; a vote of the majority of the judges available to participate is required.
Magistrate Division-The Magistrate Division tries or mediates all tax appeals, unless the Tax Court judge assigns the case to the Regular Division. A party may appeal from a magistrate's final decision to the judge of the Tax Court. Hearings in the Magistrate Division are often informal proceedings. Hearings may be by telephone or in person and may be held around the state. A taxpayer may choose to represent himself or herself or to be represented by a lawyer, public accountant, real estate broker, appraiser, or other individual.
Media Releases-Media releases are issued weekly and contain summaries of cases issued or otherwise decided by the Oregon appellate courts. Court of Appeals cases that have been Affirmed Without Opinion are listed by name and county of origin only. Supreme Court petitions for review allowed and denied are listed by case name and number. Other miscellaneous Supreme Court matters, such as public meetings, are included on the media releases.
Miranda-Refers to the United States Supreme Court decision Miranda v. Arizona, 384 US 436, 86 S Ct 1602, 16 L Ed 2d 694 (1966), from which the rules regarding the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney are taken.
On Appeal / Review-A party "appeals" from a lower court as of right, but a party "seeks review" in court of the action of an administrative agency or when the higher court has discretion whether to take the case. The related documents are called "notice of appeal" and "petition for judicial review" (in the case of an administrative proceeding) or "petition for review" (in the case of a petition to the Oregon Supreme Court). Within an administrative system, the correct term is "appeal." For example, a party may "appeal" to the Workers' Compensation Board from the order of an administrative law judge.
ORAP-Acronym for Oregon Rules of Appellate Procedure. Those rules are applicable to proceedings in the Oregon Supreme Court and Court of Appeals and supplement the statutory requirements. The most recent version can be accessed on the Oregon Judicial Department's website, on the Rules page.
Oregon Reports-Hardbound volumes of the opinions issued by the Oregon Appellate Courts, published separately by individual court. The Oregon Reports is the official reporter for Oregon case law, and published and distributed by the Office of the State Court Administrator, Publications Program.
Parenthetical Information-When used in relation to citation, text within parentheses that usually indicates alterations to text or provides explanatory statements.
Per Curiam-By the court.
Precedent-Except as provided in ORAP 10.30, all written Oregon appellate court opinions have the same precedential weight, whether signed or issued per curiam.
Publications-The program of the State of Oregon Law Library that is responsible for publishing the official version of the Oregon Appellate Courts opinions (and miscellaneous other official materials) in hardbound volumes as the Oregon Reports, in softbound biweekly Advance Sheets, and online.
Publications Website-The Publications website, managed by the Publications Program, includes links to Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and Tax Court opinions since 1998, currently in publication format (not slip opinion format). The page numbers in opinions on the Publications website can slightly vary from the page numbers ultimately used in the Oregon Reports, due to minor edits that might be made after an opinion is issued. The Publications website also includes links to all media releases issued by the appellate courts, and printable and online versions of this Style Manual.
Release Date-Date that opinions are released to the public via the Appellate Courts Records Section. Currently the Court of Appeals releases opinions to the public on Wednesdays, and the Supreme Court releases opinions to the public on Thursdays or other days as necessary.
Running Head-Term of art used when referring to the official case name used for citation purposes that is printed as part of the header information when a case gets published in the official reports.
Signals-Introductory words indicating support, comparison, or contradiction of a stated proposition. Those words are italicized, and generally are followed by a parenthetical statement explaining the relevance of the citation.
Slip Opinion-Appellate court decisions in an 81/2" x 11" format using the court's initial pagination, and filed in the electronic case file as a document image linked to the case register in the Appellate Case Management System. Once linked, the slip opinion can be viewed electronically by the public in the Records Office public viewing station, unless the case is confidential. Paper copies of slip opinions also are mailed to the parties.
Summary Disposition-A summary disposition is a disposition of an appeal, a judicial review, or other proceeding pending in an appellate court without full briefing and submission to the courts on the merits of the case. Summary dispositions include dismissals, summary affirmances, and summary reversals. By various statutes governing particular kinds of cases, the Court of Appeals has authority to summarily affirm trial court decisions in particular cases if the court determines that the appeal does not present a substantial question of law.
Supreme Court-The highest court in Oregon and the final arbiter of Oregon law. Its primary function is as law-announcing forum. The Supreme Court has discretionary review, e.g., cases on review from the Court of Appeals; direct review, e.g., death-penalty cases, tax cases, and disciplinary matters; and original discretionary jurisdiction, e.g., mandamus, quo warranto, habeas corpus, and certified questions.
Tag Line-The court's formal disposition of a case. The tag line is listed both on the title page and as the last line of an opinion.
Tax Court-The Tax Court is a special court that has exclusive, statewide jurisdiction to hear only cases that involve Oregon's tax laws, including income taxes, corporate excise taxes, property taxes, timber taxes, cigarette taxes, local budget laws, and property tax limitations. There are no jury trials, and appeals go directly to the Supreme Court. The Oregon Tax Court has two divisions-the Regular Division and the Magistrate Division.
TCR / TCR-MD-Acronyms for the Tax Court rules and Tax Court Rules-Magistrate Division. Those rules are applicable to proceedings in the Oregon Tax Court and supplement statutory requirements. To the degree the wording of a Tax Court Rule mirrors that of an Oregon Rule of Civil Procedure, case interpretations of the Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure are authoritative for applying the Tax Court Rules. For circumstances not addressed by the Tax Court Rules-Magistrate Division, proceedings in the Magistrate Division defer to the guidance of the Tax Court Rules.