Vol. 3 No. 11 | March 15, 2023

Courts

No published opinions this week.

Dispositions Other than by Published Opinions

The Supreme Court of Oklahoma Court Calendar

The Supreme Court of Oklahoma is in session year round, unless otherwise noted. The Court regularly schedules conferences on Mondays and other days as needed.

More

Join us Tuesday, March 21, for our annual Day at the Capitol! Walk-in registration begins at 9:30 a.m. at the Oklahoma Bar Center, 1901 N. Lincoln Blvd. in Oklahoma City. During the event, OBA members will hear about legislation that impacts various practice areas. Attendees will also hear from judges and bar leaders. Lunch will be served at the bar center before attendees head to the Capitol to meet with legislators. This program has been approved for 3 hours of general MCLE credit. RSVP to Mark Schneidewent by March 17.

"The federal juvenile delinquency statutes are codified in Title 18 of the United States Code sections 5031 to 5043. An attorney who takes on a federal juvenile case should carefully read the juvenile act. The purpose of the Federal Juvenile Delinquency Act 'is to remove juveniles from the ordinary criminal process in order to avoid the stigma of a prior criminal conviction and to encourage treatment and rehabilitation.' The 'legal and practical benefits of being tried as a juvenile … include pretrial detention in a foster home or community-based facility near the juvenile's home instead of an adult prison; and the sealing of the records and the withholding of the juvenile's name and picture from the media.' Juvenile proceedings are viewed as civil rather than criminal proceedings."

The Mock Trial program, now in its 43rd year, involves teams of students portraying attorneys and defendants in a courtroom setting, with judges and attorneys evaluating their performance. The final round of competition was held Tuesday, March 7, at the Page Belcher Federal Building in Tulsa.

"The Mock Trial competition has grown and now appeals to high school students who are interested in drama, debate, public speaking, art and journalism,” OBA Mock Trial Committee Chair Jennifer Bruner Soltani said. “This competition gives students a unique opportunity to develop public speaking, presentation and critical thinking skills in a trial format but also offers courtroom artist and journalist components. The experience is one of a kind for students, teachers and legal community volunteers.”

The Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC) announces the three nominees for the position of judge for the Court of Civil Appeals, District 2, Office 2. After concluding the review process and conducting in person interviews, the JNC submitted to the governor the following nominees for this position:

  • Bevan G. Stockdell, Edmond
  • James R. Huber, Tulsa
  • Jana K. Wallace, Finley

Under Article 7B, Section 4 of the Oklahoma Constitution, the governor has 60 days to appoint an individual to this position. If he does not do so, the chief justice of the Supreme Court shall make the appointment.

"Do you know someone who might have the skills to be a courtroom interpreter? The 2023 training program for the Oklahoma Supreme Court's Language Access Program is now enrolling! These intensive three-day programs will be held in Oklahoma City on April 5-7 and in Woodward on April 12-14.

Qualified interpreters play an essential role in ensuring equal access to justice and helping court proceedings function efficiently and effectively. To further this important goal, the Oklahoma Supreme Court has implemented a credentialing program for interpreters in the Oklahoma courts. As the Language Access Program continues to grow, credentialed interpreters have excellent potential to be busy and successful in serving Oklahoma courts."

Featured CLE

By Jim Calloway, OBA Management Assistance Program Director

Barron Henley, of Affinity Consulting, spoke at ABA TECHSHOW on mastering Microsoft Word (my title, not his). Barron has done similar programs for the OBA before. His program is half great tips and improved efficiency and half voicing all the frustrations we have experienced with Word. You know these, e.g. “How can deleting one word change the font in an entire sentence?” Barron’s Answer: Fonts in Word can be tricky. When you think you have changed the font, you may have actually placed one font on top of another. So, when you delete you may delete the font insertion, revealing the original font that was hiding below. If you have a Word document form that has been used for years, there could be dozens of fonts piled on top of each other, especially if it was converted from WordPerfect years ago.

When you are spending more time fighting with formatting (and reformatting) a document than on writing the document, here is a pro tip to get you back on track. On the Home tab, in the Font Group, click the Clear All Formatting button. This leaves only the text. Then apply any needed formatting or Style. PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote also have this feature.

The Oklahoma Bar Journal is a publication of the Oklahoma Bar Association. All rights reserved. Copyright© 2023 Oklahoma Bar Association. Statements or opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff. Although advertising copy is reviewed, no endorsement of any product or service offered by any advertisement is intended or implied by publication. Advertisers are solely responsible for the content of their ads, and the OBA reserves the right to edit or reject any advertising copy for any reason. Legal articles carried in The Oklahoma Bar Journal are selected by the Board of Editors. Information about submissions can be found at www.okbar.org.