Tulsa Attorney Blog
State Question 805: Why Is It a Constitutional Amendment? (Part 2)
In Oklahoma, you need to get 8% of the voting population to sign off on your initiative petition if you want to introduce it to be a new law. Read more »State Question 805: What's It About? (Part 1)
Oklahoma locks up 655 people for every 100,000, which makes Oklahoma the number one nation in the world for lock-ups. Read more »How Do You Read a Motor Vehicle Collision Report in Oklahoma?
How do you read a motor vehicle collision report in the state of Oklahoma? Hey everybody, Christopher Stevens here, a certified paralegal with the Wirth Law Office in Tulsa, Oklahoma working in personal injury law alongside a Tulsa personal injury attorney. I am going to show you how to read a motor vehicle collision report in the state of Oklahoma. Read more »Does McGirt Affect People's Rights to Vote?
McGirt and the right to vote. I'm Oklahoma criminal attorney James Wirth, and I'm talking about how the McGirt decision may affect people's rights to vote. Read more »Wirth Law Office's own Retired Judge Ken Adair is reviewee about State Question 805
What is Oklahoma State Question 805? State Question 805 would forbid a person's previous non-violent felony convictions from being used against them to increase the person's sentence. Hon. (Ret.) Ken Adair spent nine years as a district judge in Oklahoma. He believes the reform that SQ 805 brings is long overdue. Read more »McGirt Class Action Suit for Return of Fines & Costs Taken by Oklahoma in MCN
The United States Supreme Court on July 9th of 2020 decided that the Muskogee Creek Nation Reservation was never disestablished. Read more »Do You Need to Call the Police After a Motor Vehicle Collision?
Without the police there, there's no ref calling balls strikes, anything like that. It was kind of he said, she said scenario. Read more »What About Indian Victims Under the McGirt Precedent?
What about Indian victims under the McGirt precedent? Tulsa attorney, James Wirth answers. Read more »Can You Vote in Oklahoma After a Felony Conviction?
Election laws are governed by state law. It does not necessarily matter where your conviction is, it's where you're planning to register to vote. In Oklahoma, the law is different than some states. Read more »Should You Ask for Witness Statements After a Motor Vehicle Collision?
Most of the time, you're probably not going to get too many people to stop. It's one of the unfortunate realities nowadays. But if you are able to get someone who is stopping at the scene, checking to see if people are all right, just ask them, "Hey, would you mind if I get a brief statement from you?" Read more »McGirt Class Action: Municipalities' Response
Oklahoma attorney, James Wirth discusses the municipalities' response to the class action lawsuit under McGirt. Read more »McGirt Class Action: State's Response
What is the state's response to the class-action lawsuit, seeking fines and costs back to defendants who were prosecuted improperly in state court in the Muscogee (Creek) Nation? Tulsa criminal attorney James Wirth has that answer. Read more »McGirt: Can Tribes Prosecute Non-Indians?
The Violence Against Women Act that became federal law in 1994, it added the ability for tribes to prosecute certain offenses even against non-natives. And those crimes are domestic violence, dating violence, violation of protective orders, where one of the three things occurs. Read more »McGirt: Where Are the Tribal/Reservation Boundaries?
Where are the tribal boundaries? Oklahoma attorney, James Wirth, speaks on McGirt and the repercussions that follow it. Read more »McGirt: When Jurisdiction Not Addressed at Trial and Direct Appeal is Pending
What happens when you did not question the jurisdiction of the court under McGirt at your trial and your case is now on direct appeal? Oklahoma Attorney, James Wirth answers. Read more »McGirt: Direct Appeal Denied at the Trial Level?
What happens when you make a McGirt argument on direct appeal after being denied at the trial level? Tulsa attorney, James Wirth answers that question. Read more »McGirt Dismissal in Tulsa County
They are dismissing many cases if you have clear evidence that the defendant is Native American and clear evidence that it occurred within the boundaries of the Muskogee Creek Nation, then they are dismissing those and sending those off to either the tribe or the Feds for potential prosecution, depending on what the circumstances of the case are and where it needs to be potentially tried. Read more »Has COVID Affected Bankruptcy?
The Cares Act Is a Governmental Relief Program and It Has Changed the Bankruptcy Code Temporarily Read more »McGirt: Who Has Burden of Proof to Establish Tribal Membership or Lack Thereof?
Who has the burden of proof for the defendant's tribal membership or lack thereof for prosecution in state court? Tulsa attorney, James Wirth has the answer. Read more »McGirt: Tulsa County DA is Stipulating to Tribal Membership but Setting Up Blood Quantum Battle?
United States Supreme Court on July 9th, 2020, decided that for vast areas in Northeast Oklahoma that the state courts, meaning the county courts, the district attorney's offices, particularly Tulsa County, lacked jurisdiction to charge Native Americans. Read more »McGirt: Tulsa Federal Head Prosecutor Hit with "Absolute Tsunami of Cases!"
KTUL interviewed Trent Shore, and he is the Chief Federal Prosecutor for the Northern District of Oklahoma, which covers about a third of the state of Oklahoma, but primarily deals with all of these issues with the Muskogee Creek Nation not being disestablished and all of these prosecutions that are going that direction. So hundreds, if not thousands, of cases were improperly tried in state court and now need to go to federal and tribal courts, if they have the ability to do that after the amount of time that's gone by. And the quote from Trent Shore in that article is that he's being hit and his department's being hit with an absolute tsunami of cases. He's describing that in the last 20 years, they've handled three homicides, but they've picked up about 20 homicides just in the last six weeks. Read more »McGirt: Oklahoma Attorney General Not Conceding Existence of Reservations
The United States Supreme Court case that decided that most of Northeast Oklahoma is reservation land still because the tribes reservations were not disestablished through statehood. And that all of these cases that the States have prosecuted against native Americans over the last 100 years, they never have the authority to do that. Read more »McGirt: Why Pursue Expungement Instead of Post-Conviction Relief for Some Completed Cases
Why pursue expungement instead of post-conviction relief for completed sentences that fall under McGirt? Tulsa attorney James Wirth answers. Read more »Where Do I File My Oklahoma Divorce?
Where do I file my Oklahoma divorce? Tulsa Attorney James Wirth has that answer. For starters, the person that files gets to choose jurisdiction to an extent because it's first to file that makes that choice. That said, there are limited options for where you can file. In order to file a divorce in the State of Oklahoma either the petitioner or the respondent has to be an actual resident in good faith of Oklahoma for six months prior to the filing of the petition. Read more »What is Required to File a Legal Separation Petition in Oklahoma?
What is the jurisdictional requirement to file a separate maintenance or legal separation case? Oklahoma Attorney James Wirth has the answer. Read more »
