State v. S.A.

It is within the bounds of ORS 426.090 to proceed on a citation that supplies a person with the nature of the information about the specific reasons they are believed to be mentally ill by referencing an attached document

The appellant here was committed to the custody of the Mental Health Division of the Oregon Health Authority for a period not to exceed 180 days and now asserts her appeal on the grounds that the trial court erred by failing to comply with ORS 426.090. The appellant claims that the citation did not include the necessary amount of information about the alleged mental illness and she also claims that the handwritten correction of the date on the notice was improper. The court found that it is not obvious that the state’s incorporation-by-reference approach [by merely referring to the mental illness description attachment rather than describing it on the citation], fails to satisfy ORS 426.090. Additionally, the court found that it is not obvious that ORS 426.090 prohibits handwritten corrections nor that handwritten corrections burden a due process procedural right. Therefore, the citation was proper under ORS 426.090. The Oregon Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s decision.