Tulsa Attorney Blog
State Court Defines Primary Physical Custody in Oklahoma Joint Custody Orders
In a landmark child custody ruling, The Oklahoma Supreme Court has decided parents who share share joint custody of a child may not petition to relocate the child unless a court has declared one parent to be the primary physical custodian. A Tulsa child custody attoroIn a landmark child custody ruling, The Oklahoma Supreme Court has decided parents who share share joint custody of a child may not petition to relocate the child unless a court has declared one parent to be the primary physical custodian. explains how the ruling affects parents with various types of child custody in Oklahoma. Read more »Oklahoma Supreme Court Finds Speedy Trial Violation in DUI License Revocation
The Oklahoma Supreme Court handed down speedy trial guidelines for DPS drivers license revocation hearings, suggesting the hearings must be scheduled within 60 days after DPS receives a request for a hearing. But DPS has been notoriously reluctant to accept its losses. While the new precedent could pave the way for streamlined hearing process, we anticipate the DPS docket will remain clogged with cases the Supreme Court would likely dismiss but DPS will more likely refuse to let go until told to do so by a superior court. Read more »Wirth Law Office Expungement Attorney in the Tulsa World
Tulsa expungement attorney James Wirth sponsored a full-page ad in the Jan. 29, 2017 Tulsa World to explain the benefits of sealing court records in view of recent changes in Oklahoma expungement law. Read more »Appeals Court: Oklahoma DUI Prosecutions Can Rely on Invalid Rules
Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals concluded DUI attorneys cannot challenge admissibility of breathalyzer results based on the Board of Tests failure to follow state rules for authorizing breathalyzer equipment. Read more »Tulsa Common Law Marriage Attorney on Fox 23
Oklahoma courts require clear and convincing evidence when a common law marriage is alleged. Common law marriage can occur with a meeting of the minds between two partners who agree to be married, but proving that agreement can be a more complicated endeavor. Read more »New Law Allows Fast Track Expungement in Oklahoma
A Tulsa expungment lawyer explains how people convicted of some misdemenaors are immediately eligible to have the conviction removed from public records. Wait times for other expungments were cut from 10 years to five years. The law also allows some people convicted of two non-violent felonies to seek expungment. Read more »Tulsa Personal Injury Attorney Interviewed on KTUL-TV
Tulsa auto accident attorney James Wirth spoke with Tulsa's Channel 8 about the limits of auto liability coverage and how policy limits affect personal injury lawsuits in Oklahoma. The reporter needed more information about Oklahoma personal injury law after a victim of the 2015 Oklahoma State University homecoming crash filed a lawsuit seeking compensation for damages. Read more »Can I Get A Tulsa Public Defender if I Post Bail?
Posting bond can reduce your chances of getting a court-appointed attorney in Oklahoma. Yet, even if you post bond, when you appear in court without an attorney the court must still ask whether you can afford an attorney. If a court fails to ask about your ability to pay for legal counsel, any decisions the court makes while you do not have a lawyer might be reversed on appeal. Read more »Court Declines to Review Case that Invalidated Oklahoma DUI Breathalyzer Tests
State Failed to Adopt Valid Intoxilyzer 8000 Rules The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Sept. 26, 2016 declined to review the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals decision in a drivers license revocation case that effectively – should – make breath test evidence from the current generation of breathalyzer machines inadmissible in Oklahoma DUI cases. It might […] Read more »What is First-Degree Manslaughter Resisting Criminal Attempt in Oklahoma?
First degree manslaughter charges filed against a Tulsa police officer for killing an unarmed suspect who disobeyed orders highlight a narrow distinction between justifiable self-defense homicide and unlawful killing in a heat of passion or while preventing a criminal attempt. Read more »Pawnee Business Counsel Appoints Earl Lawson as Tribal Prosecutor
The Pawnee Business Council has appointed Wirth Law Office of-counsel attorney Earl Lawson as Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma's prosecutor in Pawnee Nation District Court. Read more »Speedy Trial Violations Void Drivers License Revocations in Oklahoma DUI Arrests
The Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals decided year-long delays before DUI drivers license revocations hearings amount to speedy trial violations. While Oklahoma DPS says the delays are the result of budget constraints, the agency is also awaiting the Oklahoma Supreme Court's possible review of a decision that undermined the agency's reliance on a current generation of breathalyzers. The Intoxilyzer 8000 is used to gather evidence for drivers license revocations and for DUI criminal cases. Read more »Tulsa Attorney Provides Legal Expertise on Bail Bonds in Oklahoma
Publication Investigated Alleged Hate Crime TalkingPointsMemo.com quoted Tulsa attorney James Wirth in an article about a shooting in which Khalid Jabara, a Tulsa man of Lebanese heritage, was shot to death on his front doorstep. Witnesses alleged a neighbor charged as a suspect in the south-side killing, Stanley Vernon Majors, was motivated by ethnic hatred. The […] Read more »Audit: Rogers County DA Office Deleted Financial Records
State auditors cited two Oklahoma felony laws as criteria for a finding that the District Attorney's Office in Rogers County deleted financial records. The audit also cites a misdemeanor provision of the Oklahoma Open Records Act, which forbids public officials from deleting public records. Read more »Will Tulsa Jury Trial Delays Cause Oklahoma Speedy Trial Violations?
Tulsa County court officials have announced jury trials will be suspended for two full months during the summer of 2016. The court cut two jury weeks from the schedule on either side of judge's regular July summer vacation time after state officials announced a $1.3 billion budget shortfall. Delays in jury trial schedules pose questions about potential speedy trial violations. Read more »Database Ranks Tulsa County, Oklahoma Near Top of Exonerations List
A University of Michigan Law School study reveals Tulsa County has one of the highest rates of exoneration for a county its size anywhere in the nation. False allegations, perjury and official misconduct contributed to many of the convictions that were later overturned. Read more »Can I Fight a Tulsa Oklahoma Texting and Driving Ticket?
Oklahoma's texting and driving law includes ambiguities similar to those in an Indiana law a federal court called "largely inefficacious" and "probably wrong. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals said a police officer who sees a driver holding a cell phone has no reasonable basis to suspect the driver is illegally texting and driving. Read more »Oklahoma Court Reverses Sentence on Tulsa Prosecutor's Misconduct
An Assistant District Attorney's dramatic reenactment using a doll during a closing arguments was way over the top, even for Oklahoma's often prosecution-friendly Court of Criminal Appeals.
The court overturned a defendant's life-without-parole sentence because of the prosecutor's theatrical behavior. Although it was not published as precedent, the case summarizes standards that my be used to identify prosecutorial misconduct during arguments by attorneys in Oklahoma criminal trials.. Read more »Wagoner County Sheriff Faces Civil Asset Forfeiture Extortion Charge
A grand jury indictment of Wagoner County Sheriff Bob Colbert on felony charges related to asset seizure sheds light on the narrow difference between civil asset forfeitures purpose for restricting flow of criminal assets and civil forfeitures used as an alternative form of punitive criminal justice. Read more »Deadlines Include Weekend Days in Oklahoma Criminal Courts
Twice in 2016, five-day deadlines to appeal judicial disqualifications will be reduced to one day because of court holidays and rigid Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals opinions. The unreasonably short deadlines result from the court's refusal to apply it's own appellate rules to lower criminal courts, a stern refusal to recognize some civil procedure as applicable to all Oklahoma courts and a strained interpretation of Oklahoma law to conclude the legislature mandated rules that are not spelled out in any Oklahoma law. Read more »Tulsa District Court Announces Felony Domestic Violence Court
Tulsa County District Court has ordered the creation of a felony domestic violence court and assigned "certain specific felony matters" to the new FDV docket. Read more »House Approves Oklahoma Expungement Law Reforms
The Oklahoma Senate is considering a bill that would reduce waiting periods for expungement of court records in misdemeanor and non-violent felony cases. The reform would also for the first time allow expungement of two non-violent felonies, allow immediate expungement of some misdemeanors where fines were under $501, and allow expungement of misdemeanors or non-violent felonies resulting in deferred judgements even after prior misdemeanor convictions. Read more »Washington County Judge Upholds Oklahoma Citizen Participation Act
A Washington County court has dismissed a lawsuit on free speech grounds under a fast-track procedure created in the 2014 Oklahoma Citizens Participation Act. The decision runs contrary to two previous OCPA decisions in other libel cases, all of which involve the same group of Rogers County defendants, sued by former District Attorney Janice Steidley. The contrary rulings set the stage for an appellate decision on the Oklahoma law intended to provide timely relief when a libel lawsuit challenges constitutionally protected advocacy. Read more »Federal Judge Calls Broken Arrow Detective Testimony 'False'
Officers on a DEA task force testified falsely that police did not enter a house before a judge issued a search warrant. When a federal judge excluded evidence because of false police testimony, prosecutors dismissed the synthetic marijuana case Read more »Fed Court Delivers Smackdown Opinion of Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals
In a stinging review of Oklahoma criminal procedure, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals Bemoaned Oklahoma's short appellate deadlines and lack of a prison mailbox rule for computing deadlines pegged to dates court documents are issued. Read more »
