Vol. 4 No. 18 | May 1, 2024

Courts

No published opinions this week.

No published opinions this week.

2024 OK CIV APP 13: GARRETT v. BELL

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.

Member Transitions

2024 WIL Conference STD Med Rec

More

The deadline for submitting nominating petitions for 2025 OBA leadership is 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 8. View the Board of Governors Vacancies page on the OBA website to see a list of current vacancies and nominating petition forms.

The Board of Governors is comprised of 17 active members of the Oklahoma Bar Association. One representative is elected for each of the nine Supreme Court judicial districts, as such districts existed prior to January 1, 2020 [Order No. SCBD 4483 (2020 OK 17)], by lawyers in those respective districts plus three statewide at-large members and the Young Lawyers Division chairperson. Officers are the president, vice president, president-elect and secretary/treasurer.

Calling all county bar associations! It's time to submit your local delegates to this year's House of Delegates, to be held during the 2024 OBA Annual Meeting, July 12 at the Embassy Suites in Norman.

In accordance with OBA bylaws, the House of Delegates shall be composed of one delegate or alternate from each county of the state, who shall be an active or senior member of the bar of such county. A PDF is available online with the count of members per county and the corresponding number of delegates and alternates allowed for each county.

Contact Mark Schneidewent at marks@okbar.org for more information.

The OBA is proud to welcome Oklahoma Attorneys Mutual Insurance Co. as a co-sponsor of the 2024 Annual Meeting.

For professional liability, Oklahoma Attorneys Mutual Insurance Co. is the only insurer owned by OBA members. OAMIC, which started in 1980, only serves lawyers who practice in Oklahoma and has policy options for lawyers in any area of practice. They also offer a broad range of court bonds. If you're attending the Annual Meeting, stop by and visit the OAMIC table, as well as other sponsor tables, to learn how their services can benefit your professional practice!

There are still opportunities available to sponsor the 2024 Annual Meeting.

The OBA CLE Department provides a value of at least $600 worth of CLE programs annually to OBA members. Hundreds of in-person seminars, webcast programs and encores and on-demand programs are available. Members can also schedule group webcasts that allow five or more members to view a webcast together at their home or office. See all available programs at https://ok.webcredenza.com.

The OBA is excited for you to join us for the 2024 OBA Annual Meeting! Connect with attorneys from across the state by becoming a sponsor or vendor. This is a great way to network and share your product or service. The deadline to apply is Saturday, June 1. Please note that space is limited.

A current exhibit at the Judicial Learning Center and Museum in Oklahoma City on the federal murder trials of two men who were charged with killing Osage Indians in the early 1920s was the feature of a December seminar and exhibit opening. The exhibit is open to the public through November 2024.

This exhibit, titled “The Osage Reign of Terror: The Untold Legal History,” is presented by the Historical Society of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma and tracks the murders of wealthy Osage tribal members, the arrival of agents with the Bureau of Investigation, and the federal prosecutors who charged William K. Hale and John Ramsey with a number of the murders. The exhibit provides an accurate and thorough legal history of the federal trials that followed the Osage Reign of Terror, particularly the 1926 Oklahoma City trial that took place in one of the historic courtrooms in the museum. The featured events are the topic of the book and movie of the same name, Killers of the Flower Moon.

The museum, formerly a U.S. Post Office building and a courthouse, is located at 215 Dean A. McGee Ave. in Oklahoma City. For more information on the exhibit or to schedule a guided tour, contact Executive Director Leigh Wedge at leigh@fjlcm.org or text 405-697-6117.

Featured CLE

The Em Dash for Lawyers

By OBA MAP Director Jim Calloway

This week’s tip covers a typographic symbol, the em dash, which is like a hyphen — but longer (see what I did there?). So why would a lawyer use an em dash?

Here’s the definition of em dash from Thesaurus.com: "In general, the em dash is seen as being more interruptive or striking than other punctuation, so it is often used stylistically to draw a reader’s attention to a particular bit of information."

An em dash can be useful in legal writing to emphasize important points. On my iPhone, two hyphens are changed to an em dash, but it doesn’t work that way in word processing software. There are many ways to add an em dash to your documents, so read this quick outline by digitaltrends to pick out your preferred method of inserting one.

Why is it called an em dash? Because in typography, the dash was as long as the capital M as opposed to the en dash, which was the size of the capital letter N.

The Oklahoma Bar Journal is a publication of the Oklahoma Bar Association. All rights reserved. Copyright© 2024 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.