Oregon State Bar v. Smith

942 P.2d 793, 149 Or. App. 171, 1997 Ore. App. LEXIS 962
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJuly 9, 1997
DocketC94-0597CV; CA A89206
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 942 P.2d 793 (Oregon State Bar v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oregon State Bar v. Smith, 942 P.2d 793, 149 Or. App. 171, 1997 Ore. App. LEXIS 962 (Or. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

*173 HASELTON, J.

Defendants, People’s Paralegal Service, Inc., and its president, Robin Smith, appeal from a judgment declaring them to have engaged in activities that constitute the unauthorized practice of law, ORS 9.160, and enjoining them from those activities. ORS 9.166. They argue that the injunction violated rights of free expression under the Oregon Constitution, Article I, section 8, and due process under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. We affirm.

From 1987 until 1995, when the injunction issued, defendants operated a business providing “legal technician” services for a fee. The services included providing consumers 1 with various legal forms available to the public through such sources as Stevens Ness Publishing Company, NOLO PRESS, bankruptcy courts, and the Oregon State Bar, and advising them with respect to their individual legal concerns. 2 Defendants never attempted to represent consumers in court, nor did they sign any documents as attorneys. Moreover, People’s Paralegal posted signs at its place of business advising consumers that its employees were not attorneys, and its intake sheets, which were signed by the consumers, included the following statement: *174 Nevertheless, defendants did provide legal advice to consumers, and some of those persons relied on defendants’ advice in resolving their legal problems.

*173 “WE ARE NOT ATTORNEYS. WE ARE LEGAL TECHNICIANS. OUR SERVICE PROVIDES PREPARATION OF THE PAPERS INCLUDING TYPING, NOTARY SERVICE, AND PROCEDURAL INFORMATION. * * * IF YOU REQUIRE LEGAL ADVICE PLEASE SEE AN ATTORNEY.”

*174 Plaintiff Oregon State Bar brought this action in April 1995, alleging that defendants were engaged in the unlawful practice of law under ORS 9.160 and seeking injunctive relief under ORS 9.166. 3 Defendants answered and asserted, inter alia, affirmative defenses that ORS 9.160, either facially or as applied, violated rights of free expression under Article I, section 8, of the Oregon Constitution and also violated constitutional due process guarantees. The trial court disagreed and granted the injunction, which provided, in part:

“[Defendants] * * * are * * * enjoined from practicing law including:
“1. Enjoined from any personal contact with any persons in the nature of consultation, explanation, recommendation, or advice regarding their legal matters.
“2. Enj oined from meeting with any persons to discuss their individual facts and circumstances relating to their need or desire for legal forms, legal services or legal assistance.
“3. Enjoined from obtaining information orally, in writing, or in any other manner relating to individual facts and circumstances so as to assist any persons with their legal matters.
“4. Enjoined from advising any persons regarding their eligibility for or advisability of legal remedies to address any person’s particular legal matters.
*175 “5. Enj oined from advising any persons regarding procedural functions of the court system as it relates to any person’s particular legal matters including advice regarding jurisdiction or venue.
“6. Enjoined from assisting in selecting particular forms, documents or pleadings for any persons to address their legal matters.
“7. Enjoined from assisting in any way with the preparation or filling out of legal forms, or any parts of such forms, documents or pleadings for any persons.
“8. Enjoined from assisting, suggesting or advising any persons how forms, documents or pleadings should be used to address or to solve particular legal problems.
“9. Nothing included in this Judgment and Decree precludes Defendant Smith from working for someone authorized to practice law so long as she is acting within the course of her duties and under the direction and supervision of an individual authorized to practice law.”

On appeal, defendants renew and reiterate their constitutional challenges to ORS 9.160, both on its face and as applied. We begin with defendants’ free expression arguments under Article I, section 8. Article I, section 8, provides:

“No law shall be passed restraining the free expression of opinion, or restricting the right to speak, write, or print freely on any subject whatever; but every person shall be responsible for the abuse of this right.”

Defendants’ principal argument is that, because the practice of law necessarily involves the “exchange of legal information,” ORS 9.160 impermissibly prohibits, or impairs, constitutionally protected expression. Plaintiff responds that the statute does not explicitly refer to expression or to the content of expression. Rather, plaintiff argues, the statute is merely directed to regulating the practice of a profession, which, like many other professions, involves expression. Thus, plaintiff reasons, ORS 9.160 does not embody an impermissibly “content-driven” restriction of expression. Before addressing those arguments, it is useful — indeed, essential — to briefly review the history of the regulation of law practice in Oregon.

*176 During territorial times and for the first 60 years of Oregon’s statehood, restrictions on the practice of law were minimal. That relative lack of regulation appears to have been a product of post-Jacksonian and, later, populist hostility to a perceived professional elite. Barlow F. Christensen, The Unauthorized Practice of Law: Do Good Fences Really Make Good Neighbors — or Even Good Sense?, 1980 Am B Foun Res J 159, 169-74. 4 The restrictions that were imposed pertained solely to litigation practice — that is, to qualifications to appear before courts and to sign pleadings.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
942 P.2d 793, 149 Or. App. 171, 1997 Ore. App. LEXIS 962, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oregon-state-bar-v-smith-orctapp-1997.