Both the United States and Oregon have numerous laws protecting citizens against the deprivation of civil rights by governmental officials and employees. Civil rights include freedom of speech and religion, freedom from excessive force or wrongful arrest by police, taking private property without due process or reasonable compensation, and wrongful discrimination.
We represent people with civil rights claims.
Civil Rights — Past Case Example
Charley Merten obtained an $8.7 million verdict against a City of Portland housing inspector who caused a single parent with two children and two grandchildren living with her to lose her home in the case of Turner v. Hallberg. For many years, the housing inspectors for the city had been purchasing homes they had themselves cited for housing violations. These purchases usually followed when the homeowner gave up trying to fight the fines levied because of the housing citations. In this case, the jury found that the inspector deliberately set out to overwhelm the homeowner with more than 20 alleged housing violations so that she would be forced to stop making payments on her mortgage and thereby enabling the inspector to buy her home once it went into foreclosure. The inspector’s sideline in addition to working with the city was to buy run-down houses, fix them up, and resell them for profit. Merten asked the jury to send a message to the remaining housing inspectors that this conduct would not be tolerated. As a result of this case, the City changed its ethical rules applicable to the housing inspectors and forbade them from purchasing any home that they had inspected.