State v. Buffum

ORS 426.100(1) is one of the procedures that the legislature created to protect allegedly mentally ill persons who face involuntary mental commitment and its accompanying massive curtailment of liberty. The required advice of rights is an integral part of the legislature’s attempt “to ensure that *559all allegedly mentally ill persons get the benefit of a full and fair hearing[.]” State v. Allison, 129 Or App 47, 50, 877 P2d 660 (1994). The majority, however, has taken something that the legislature designed as a protection and converted it into a trap. It allows the trial court to give advice…