OKLAHOMA SUPREME COURT STRUGGLES WITH BASIC VOCABULARY

Legal Fellow In case anyone wondered whether the Oklahoma Supreme Court would turn over a new leaf in 2024 and begin interpreting the law as written—as opposed to legislating from the bench—it dispelled that notion with its first case of the year. In Stricklen v. Multiple Injury Trust Fund, the Court was asked to decide whether a section of law from the 2013 workers’ compensation reform was a “special law.” You can’t blame the Petitioner for trying. The Oklahoma Supreme Court has struck down a number of that reform’s provisions under the guise that the law was a “special law.”