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Date: 10/27/2009
In response to Oregon's budget crisis, the 2009 Oregon Legislature has approved significant increases to the fees required to file a case. The fees are supposed to be temporary and apply to all civil actions filed on or after October 1, 2009 and before July 1, 2011. While there are some exceptions to these increased fees, those exceptions generally involve family law and residential landlord/tenant cases.
Under the new fee regime, the filing fee is determined by the amount of damages alleged, the number of named plaintiffs, and the number of named defendants. Each named plaintiff and each named defendant increases the fee. The amount of the increase depends upon the amount claimed. The same fees also apply to third-party complaints. Defendants and third-party defendants pay fees when filing their first appearance, the amount of which depending upon how many defendants or third-party defendants are appearing and the amount of the claim.
In the construction industry, the new higher fees might have the most impact on lien foreclosure cases or construction defect actions, which can often involve many parties. An example might best illustrate how significant the filing fee changes are. Imagine a situation in which a contractor has a lien on a property for $60,000, needs to file a lien foreclosure action in Multnomah County, Oregon, and names seven parties as defendants because they each claim some interest in the property. Before the new filing fees went into effect, the plaintiff's filing fee for such an action was $189, and defendants paid $188 for each appearance (two or more defendants could appear together and pay one total fee of $188). Now, the plaintiff's filing fee for that same action would be $1,517. Moreover, each defendant would have to pay a fee of $335 with its first appearance (there is no discount for more than one defendant filing together). Note that if a case was filed before October 1, 2009, the defendants pay the fee under the old fee schedule, even if they are filing an appearance after October 1, 2009.
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