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ORS 174.020

Applied in 237 court decisions — leading case State v. Gaines (2009)

Most recently applied in 347 Or. App. 637 - Fircrest Properties, LLC v. Simmons (March 2026)

Amended by 2001 c.438 §1; 2017 c.17 §16

How often courts cite this section

2001201020202026180
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1)(a) In the construction of a statute, a court shall pursue the intention of the legislature if possible.

(b) To assist a court in its construction of a statute, a party may offer the legislative history of the statute.

(2) When a general provision and a particular provision are inconsistent, the latter is paramount to the former so that a particular intent controls a general intent that is inconsistent with the particular intent.

(3) A court may limit its consideration of legislative history to the information that the parties provide to the court. A court shall give the weight to the legislative history that the court considers to be appropriate.

Official source: Oregon State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Oregon statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.