Removes provisions prohibiting a county court or board of county commissioners from establishing a justice of the peace district that includes the county seat or city in which a circuit court regularly holds court.

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83rd OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2025 Regular Session
Senate Bill 226
Sponsored by Senator MANNING JR; Senators GOLDEN, PATTERSON, PROZANSKI (Presession filed.)
SUMMARY
The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject
to consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor’s brief statement of the essential features of the
measure as introduced. The statement includes a measure digest written in compliance with applicable readability
standards.
Digest: The Act removes the law that stops a county from making a justice of the peace district
that includes parts of some cities. (Flesch Readability Score: 73.1).
Removes provisions prohibiting a county court or board of county commissioners from estab-
lishing a justice of the peace district that includes the county seat or city in which a circuit court
regularly holds court.
A BILL FOR AN ACT
Relating to justice of the peace districts; amending ORS 51.020.
Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Oregon:
SECTION 1.
ORS 51.020 is amended to read:
51.020. (1) The county court or board of county commissioners of every county may set off and
establish, or modify the boundaries of, justice of the peace districts within the county. No more
than six justice of the peace districts shall be set off or established or permitted to remain in ex-
istence within any county. [ Except in the counties of Baker, Crook, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Morrow,
Sherman, Tillamook and Wheeler, a justice of the peace district may not include any portion of the city
that is the county seat for the county or any portion of a city in which a circuit court regularly holds
court. In the counties of Baker, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Morrow, Sherman, Tillamook and Wheeler, a
justice of the peace district in existence on January 15, 1998, may include any portion of the city that
is the county seat for the county, or any portion of a city in which a circuit court regularly holds court,
until such time as the justice court ceases to provide judicial services within the county seat or city.
If the justice court ceases to provide judicial services within the county seat or city, the district that
includes portions of the county seat or city shall cease to exist and may not thereafter be
reestablished.]
(2) At the time that the county court or board of county commissioners of a county sets off and
establishes the boundaries of a justice of the peace district, the county court or board of county
commissioners may require as a qualification for the office that a person serving as justice of the
peace in the district be a member of the Oregon State Bar.
[(3) The prohibition of subsection (1) of this section on a justice of the peace district that includes
any portion of the city that is the county seat for the county, or any portion of a city in which a circuit
court regularly holds court, does not prevent a justice of the peace from conducting an arraignment for
a person in custody in the city that is the county seat for the county, or in a city in which a circuit
court regularly holds court, if the accusatory instrument for the offense was filed in the justice court
and the offense was committed within the boundaries of the justice of the peace district. ]
NOTE: Matter in boldfaced type in an amended section is new; matter [ italic and bracketed] is existing law to be omitted.
New sections are in boldfaced type.
LC 940