The Oregon Record,
Self-Defense to Section 1983

Criminal defense work makes up the larger part of the Oregon casework: homicide defense, and self-defense matters that turn on a firearm, brought to Professor Gilbertson by the defense and worked in Oregon's state courts. The other lane is civil rights litigation, with use of force, wrongful death, false arrest and police misconduct among the claims.

A homicide defense retention in Oregon begins with the state's own investigation, read as police work. What matters is how the scene was handled and photographed, how each witness was interviewed and how the interview was recorded, what video exists, whether from a body-worn camera, a patrol car or a surveillance camera, and what the reports say when set beside all of it. In the civil work the center of gravity moves to the force itself: the video and the reports again, the statements and deposition transcripts, and the involved officer's training file and disciplinary history, read against the agency's own policy.

Both kinds of record are held to one measure. Whatever the file shows, an officer's decision or an investigator's, is set against the policy the agency itself issued and against what generally accepted police practice called for, judged on the totality of the facts and circumstances, and a force question is judged as it stood in the moment, not in retrospect. Where an Oregon record raises a medical or scientific question, the opinion says so and defers to qualified experts, and the police practices opinion is written to stand beside theirs rather than in their place.

The panel that follows gives the Oregon count and splits it by court and by matter type; the rows under it are the published Oregon matters. One is a federal excessive force claim against the city of Eagle Point, filed in the District of Oregon. The other is a state homicide prosecution in which the defense called Gilbertson as a trial witness. The results behind those rows are set out, with every other published matter, on the case history page, and the nationwide count that the Oregon figure sits inside is kept in the Library, on the note about how many matters there are, and where.

The state courts carry the larger share of the Oregon file and the federal court carries the rest, and the two forums put the analysis to work on different conduct. In federal court the conduct under review is the officer's: the seizure or the force, the policy and training standing behind it, and whether the record supports the account the reports give of it, set out in an expert report written with Rule 702 in view from the first draft. In the state courts the conduct under review is the investigation's, examined for the defense, and the force under examination is the accused's own, not an officer's.

Admissibility is retaining counsel's question in either forum, and no website settles it. What the analysis controls is narrower: a report sourced page by page to the file, so that whatever rule the court applies, the basis for each opinion can be found where the report says it is. Counsel weighing an expert from outside the state will find the practical side of that decision in the Library, in its answer to which jurisdictions a nationwide expert covers.

Professor Gilbertson's testimony has been admitted in the state courts of Oregon, and it has not been excluded at trial in any state or federal court. The courts where testimony has been admitted are listed on the Library page on how many matters and where.

Retaining from Oregon runs on the same terms as every engagement. It opens with a conflict check, and counsel hears about a conflict immediately. A first inquiry holds the case type and posture, the jurisdiction and case number, the governing deadlines, what the record contains so far, and the parties for the conflict check. Nothing privileged travels with a first inquiry, and privileged material is never exchanged by email.

After retention the record travels on physical media, a computer flash drive or an external hard drive by mail or courier; online sharing services are not used. Depositions are taken by Zoom or a similar platform, so an Oregon deposition does not wait on a travel calendar. Expert reports require sixty days of advance notice, and a bullet-point outline of the report is approved with retaining counsel before writing begins.

The practice is based in Naples, Florida, and trial testimony is offered in Oregon on the published travel terms. The fee schedule and the travel terms are set out in full on the For Counsel page, and the Library note on what to send with a first inquiry covers the first step item by item.