Notice of State Filing Fee Changes Effective October 1, 2011 

Each of Oregon's 36 counties has a circuit court. In most counties, the court has its offices in the county courthouse. In a few counties, the court has offices and courtrooms in more than one location. Our directories list the main location for each circuit court.

Up until January 1998, Oregon had a third state trial court called the district court, which had limited jurisdiction over smaller civil cases and lesser crimes. On January 15, 1998, the district courts merged into the circuit courts.

The state is divided into 27 judicial districts, each of which has one or more counties. State law determines the number of judges elected in each district, generally based on population and volume of cases. Because some Oregon counties have relatively small populations and caseloads, the legislature has combined them into multicounty judicial districts. As of January 2007, Oregon has 173 circuit judge positions.

Circuit judges are elected by judicial district.

The Oregon Complex Litigation Court was established in 2011 to promote efficiency and sharing of judicial resources in complex circuit court civil cases across the state.

For a more detailed description of circuit courts, see An Introduction to the Courts of Oregon.

See our Statistics pages for information on circuit court caseloads and the number of judges needed to handle them.

Each circuit court's Supplemental Local Rules (SLR) are on our Rules page.

A table showing the Oregon Tort Claims Act liability limits can be found here.

The drop-down boxes to the left on this page have links to circuit court websites and daily calendars for those courts that have online calendars.  Circuit courts develop and maintain their own websites. We have included a contact page for each circuit court that does not yet publish its own website. If you have questions about a circuit court website, please contact the circuit court directly.

If you have questions about court-related services available in your county, check the court's website or contact the circuit court directly. Our FAQ page has some general information that may also be helpful. If you are a crime victim who needs help, the Department of Justice and your county's district attorney have crime victim assistance programs.  Many of those programs have offices in the county courthouse.