BARTLESVILLE LAW BLOG

This year, the Oklahoma state legislature passed nearly five hundred new laws. Below is a description of some of the most important laws passed this year. Some of these are brand new statutes, others are amendments to existing statutes. Most of these laws will go into effect this November 1; others have already gone into effect.   Birth Certificates HB 1688 – allows parents to apply for a “minor correction” of an error in a child’s birth certificate within one year of the chi

If you have received a summons in a civil case, you have twenty days to respond. In a small claims case, you do not need to respond until your hearing date, or until seven days after you receive a copy of the petition, whichever is later. If you receive a motion in an ongoing civil case, you generally have fifteen days to respond. In any of those cases, you may ask for an extension of the deadline, and judges are often lenient in granting extensions. Depending on how long you

This September 1, the “Oklahoma Expedited Actions Act” goes into effect. The Expedited Actions Act is designed to make civil lawsuits go...

Foreclosure can be a confusing, stressful process. Unfortunately, it’s also quite common; in recent years, almost half  of the civil...

There’s only one type of breach of contract. But there are many types of actions that constitute a breach of contract. My internet...

In most civil cases, the plaintiff must prove the correctness of his case by a “preponderance of the evidence” – that is, more likely...

Someone has sued you, and you’ve lost the lawsuit, and the judge has ordered you to pay. You wonder: what can the court do to make you...

To sue a government agency (or city or county) in Oklahoma, you have to comply with the Governmental Tort Claims Act (GTCA). You first...

If you’ve done work on a vehicle, or furnished storage space for a vehicle, and the vehicle’s owner won’t pay you, you have a lien on the...

If you’ve helped someone who is in need, that last thing you want is to be sued as a result of doing a good deed. Fortunately, Oklahoma...

Someone has breached a contract against you, and you wonder: what should you do? Step 1: Gather together all records of your dealings...

You’re a contractor, and you’ve done work on someone’s property. They won’t pay you. You wonder: What can you do? One way of enforcing a...

Often, when spouses get divorced, one or both spouses owe debt. Recently someone asked me, “What happens to debt in divorce cases?” If...

An increasingly used service in the American court system is “legal ghostwriting.” Legal ghostwriting is the practice where someone...

Elsewhere on this blog, I have written that if a debt collector attempts to collect from you, you have certain rights under the Fair Debt...

A credit card company has sued you for credit card debt, and you wonder: What can I do? In this post, I’ll describe various courses of...

If you have any experience with land dealings, you likely know that any time land is conveyed, the deed (or other document conveying the...

About two-thirds of civil lawsuits settle out of court. (See a study showing that here.) So, if you’re in a civil lawsuit, you will...

With few exceptions, the answer is no. If property is in your name, or if you have an interest in the property, you have the right to...

Every year, I publish a list of new laws that the Oklahoma legislature has enacted in the past year. What follows, is a list of some of...