In light of the recent decision of the Oregon Supreme Court decision in *Johnson v Gibson*, 358 OR 624 (March 3, 2016), which held that agents and employees of landowners are not covered by the recreational immunity statute, thus virtually eviscerating the statute, numerous bills were introduced to add agents and employees, fix additional issues related to tort cap limits, or both, as well as bills completely removing public entities from the recreational immunity statute. AOC has already taken a position to support the former (restoration) and oppose the latter (removing public entities). The Oregon Trial Lawyers Association (OTLA) opposes restoration, unless the legal standard is altered. A small work group was convened by the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and met on March 7, at 2:00 PM. AOC Legal Counsel was a part of that work group, representing local governments. A resolution was achieved, which will likely result in Section 1 of Senate Bill 327 moving forward in the next week or two. That will fix the problem in the recreational immunity statute pointed out by the Oregon Supreme Court in the Johnson case.
Contributed by: Rob Bovett | AOC legal counsel