Self Representation in the U.S. Oregon District Courts

General Disclaimer: This information was collected from public sources and is not intended to replace professional legal advice, given by a licensed attorney.

In some cases you may find difficulty finding attorney who will commit to taking your case to court. The reason for this situation can be as simple as:

• An attorney is not available to take your case before your filing deadline approaches
• You cannot afford pay your attorney fees and/or retainer out of pocket
• An attorney believes that your case is going to consume too much of their time
• An attorney does not understand the merit of your case and is not interested in spending more time listening to you
• An attorneys office liability insurance does not provide enough coverage to protect them in case that you do not prevail in a civil litigation suit (does not directly apply to employment discrimination suits) .

There are of course other, simple and more complex cases, which we do not intend to discuss here.

in cases where you cannot find a suitable attorney for hire, apparently the courts allow for self-representation (Pro Se in legaleeze).

Click on the link below to discover more details about the process:

Representing Yourself

Among other things there is a special repository of legal forms that you can choose form and fill according to your needs. Click on this link: Pro Se Forms to see the appropriate list of forms.

Here is a sample content, copied from the Representing Yourself web site:

Pro Se Resources

The United States District Court for the District of Oregon uses the federal judiciary’s Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) system to support electronic filing, service, and access to court records. The CM/ECF system contains the official court records of proceedings. (See Local Rule [LR] 5-3(a). The Court no longer maintains paper files.

As a self-represented party, non-prisoner, you may (1) apply for a user account which will allow you to file documents electronically with the Court through the CM/ECF system or (2) consent to electronic service of documents upon you via e-mail from the CM/ECF system when documents are filed in your case. Each option is explained on the following pages, and you must mark on the application form on the next page the option for which you are applying. ANY REQUEST MUST BE APPROVED BY THE COURT BEFORE IT BECOMES EFFECTIVE. You will be notified by an order whether your application is approved.

The following tutorials must be completed by pro se parties wishing to apply for registration in CM/ECF:

Preparing Documents for Electronic Filing

Logging in and Changing Your Password in CM/ECF

Filing a Document in CM/ECF

The pro se party (non-prisoner) Application for CM/ECF Registration is available here:

Application for CM/ECF Registration as a Self-Represented Party

"Collective Action" vs. "Class Action" employment discrimination law suits

While conducting my employment discrimination research project over the last 13 months, I found out that besides filing for administrative law hearings and judgments with State agencies (like BOLI in Oregon) and the EEOC Federal agency, as well as filing an individual civil law suit, there are additional options for employees to seek justice. While the term "Class Action" is quite well known and employers (including Intel Corp., Google and Apple) have been successfully sued through class actions suits, there is an additional option, which is referred to as "Collective Action".

Since I am not a professional attorney, I prefer to leave it up to you to understand the significance of a Collective Action.

For more information, click on the links below.

What Is a Collective Action Under the FLSA?

Drawing The Line Between Collective And Class Actions

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RULE 23 CLASS ACTIONS AND FLSA..., 890 PLI/Lit 293

In addition, I highly recommend that you ask your local library to purchase a book written by Patricia G. Barnes under the title:

  "Overcoming Age Discrimination in Employment"

I already ordered a paperback copy through the Tigrad, Oregon cooperative library.

The book is very new (published in January of 2016) and therefor covers all the latest aspects of treating age discrimination cases under existing laws and court decisions.

Note that besides the hard-copy version, the book is also available in electronic format through Amazon for only $9.99

Here is the Amazon link:

https://www.amazon.com/Overcoming-Age-Discrimination-Employment-Essential-ebook/dp/B01B86AJ4Q#navbar

If you are 40 years old or older and have any reason to believe that you have been discriminated by your employer, due to your age, I urge you to immediately file a complaint with the State agency that is responsible for enforcing Civil Rights in employment in your state (BOLI in Oregon, Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) in California, Human Rights Commission (WSHRC) in Washington State, etc. ), as well a the EEOC. In most cases, if your complaint is accepted by your state agency within 180 days of alleged violation (or 300 days in states that provide anti discrimination in emplacement laws), the relevant State agency co-files your complaint with the EEOC. Otherwise, you have to immediately contact the EEOC and file your complaint directly with them.

I offer to conduct educational classes on the subject, if there are enough people interested in pursuing the Administrative Complaint process.

--Dr. Flywheel

Employee File Content RequestArticle Revised Today

We have revised the article content with new and important information. For the revised article please check the link below:
http://www.pdx-tie.org/2016/06/employee-file-content-request.html

I highly recommend reading the guide to Personnel Records that BOLI put out for employers education. There is a lot to be learned from this document. Check out this link:
https://www.oregon.gov/boli/ta/docs/ta_col_05-24-2011_personnel_records.pdf

--Dr. Flywheel

Employee File Content Request

Whether you are currently employed at Intel Corp. or your employment was terminated due to voluntary or involuntary action (including retirement) we advise you to request a certified copy of your employment file. By having a certified copy in your possession, you can verify the accuracy of the information that is kept about your employment history at your employer. This will also give you an opportunity to correct erroneous information, discover missing information, and find out if your file contain information that should not have been included there in the first place (like another person's documents).

You initiate the process by asking for a CERTIFIED copy of your employee file from Intel Corp. via U.S. Mail. Oregon law (ORS 652.750)requires the employer to provide a hard copy, not an electronic document, upon receiving your request.

Under Oregon law an employer could be subject to a fine of $1000 for not providing the employment file content in response to an employee request.

Note that the Oregon BOLI issued a guideline to employers regarding employee file content requests. see:  Personnel Records Requests

A copy of this document is also available in the "Legal" folder of the Eliminati shared Google Drive, alongside other important documents. Please review and use as needed.

NOTE: For employees located in states other than Oregon, we advise finding if there are similar laws in your state that entitle you to request a certified copy of your employment file for your review. It is very likely that your rights are covered by your state law. If you find out the relevant information for your state, please add this information as a comment to this article and we will use your information to update the content of this article, accordingly. If in doubt, please send a message to any one of our editors and we will respond back to you within a short time.

Added State of California information per Al Putman (thanks Al):

CA Labor Code Section 1198.5:
California law provides that current and former employees (or a representative) have the right to inspect and receive a copy of the personnel files and records that relate to the employee’s performance or to any grievance concerning the employee.
Time limit is 30 days subject to a $750 penalty.

CA Labor Code Section 432:
Employers are required to give an employee or job applicant, upon request, a copy of any instrument that the employee or applicant has signed relating to the obtaining or holding of employment.

CA Labor Code Section 226:
Employers are required to permit current and former employees to inspect or copy payroll records pertaining to that current or former employee.
Time limit is 21 days subject to a $750 penalty.

Added Washington State information per Ed Stanford:

Washington state filing:
http://www.lni.wa.gov/workplacerights/files/policies/esc7.pdf

RCW 49.12.240 through 49.12.260

To enable you to take a quick action, we provided a generic template that you can customize with your own personal details. We advise sending your request via U.S. Priority Mail. By using this service, you will be guaranteed faster delivery and the transaction ID on your receipt would allow you to track and confirm your letter delivery. Typical cost of this mailing service is $6.45, depending on your location.

Address
City State Zip
Date

Intel Corporation
2200 Mission College Boulevard
Santa Clara, CA 95054

Attention Human Resources:

Under Oregon law (ORS 652.750), I am hereby requesting a certified hard copy (paper—not electronic) of all of my Intel Employment Records including performance reviews, pay letter including ratings (salary raises, SSL, etc.), and appeals decision, which have been used to determine my qualifications for employment, promotions, and employment termination.

Send the certified paper copies of my records to:
John Q Citizen
Address
City State ZIp

Thank you,

John Q Citizen
WWID 12345678

Hillsboro Library Study and Conference Rooms

It takes a little searching to find them, but reservations for rooms at the Hillsboro Main Library and Shute Libraries can be found at the following (obscure) URL.

http://hillsboro-oregon.gov/index.aspx?page=164

The Study Rooms hold 4 people comfortably, and the Conference Rooms hold up to 8 seated.  These are free to Library patrons, you just need your Library # and PIN # to reserve them.

The other larger rooms do have a rental fees, but they are pretty reasonable.  There is a 'Room Rental' link on the Study Rooms page above.

How to join pdx-tie@googlegroups.com (The Intel Eliminati)

Request to join PDX-TIE (The Intel Eliminati)

To help evaluate applications to the list, send your LinkedIn profile or other professional
information.  Or alternatively, have someone at intel.com verify that you were employed
there, and send an e-mail from their @intel.com account to confirm it.

If you are an employer and looking for a qualified candidate to fill a job, please leave a comment under any of the articles in the Job Opportunities section. Our editors will receive a notification of your message and if approved, your job details will be published on this web site.

This group is intended for people who were recently laid off from Intel, dealing with
insurance, unemployment, and so on. To protect people's privacy, at this time only those who were laid off or taken a VSP are included.
Thank you

Group Link https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/pdx-tie