Client References

I was charged with a number of drug related crimes in Multnomah County. My first lawyer negotiated with the District Attorney's office and they came back with an offer that would have had me agree to go to away for a long prison term. I was shocked.

I hired Mr. O'Rourke's office and they went to work immediately. Because the case was old we had to do a great deal of work in a short period of time. Mr. O'Rourke set out a plan that would try to convince the District Attorney that I was not guilty of many of the charges against me and that I should not be sent to prison.

Without going into detail, all of the preparation and work paid off. Mr. O'Rourke was able to convince the DA that I had not done most of the things that they had charged me with. Instead of 30 months in prison I was given five weekends in jail.

Mr. O'Rourke and his staff worked very hard for me. They made it clear that they didn't just care about my case, they cared about me and my future.

S.S.

During the summer of 2008 I hit a low in my life, one that I would not wish upon my worst enemy. My alcohol addiction/abuse had become so reckless that I did not care about anyone or anything, including myself. This was overwhelmingly apparent when, after drinking heavily one evening, I jumped in my car while intoxicated (just like I always did) and drove less than one mile; I got into a head-on collision. To make things even worse, I abandoned the car and ran away into the darkness, only thinking of myself and how I was going to "prevent" more trouble for myself. I had finally done the unthinkable while demonstrating how cowardly and truly selfish I had become.

The next day I was arrested and charged with multiple crimes, one of which was a Class B felony. I quickly retained an attorney and chose him based on his close proximity to the courthouse and the DA's office. For the next three months I would sit and wait. I was constantly looking on the internet for cases similar to mine to see what the outcomes were. Things were beginning to look pretty grim for me.

Through the months of scouring the internet, James O'Rourke and Associates' webpage kept showing up over and over again. In the beginning I passed it off as coincidence, however I was getting a lot of good information off the site. One day I decided to pick up the phone and call James O'Rourke's office. The professionalism and genuine caring approach Mr. O'Rourke demonstrated in our first phone call was something I desperately needed at that time in my life. Mr. O'Rourke was very honest with me and told me very clearly what my future might hold, and what he believed I needed to do immediately. I gained more out of that 15 minute call than I had gotten in the whole three months from the attorney I hired to represent me initially.

I immediately retained Mr. O'Rourke as my attorney and relieved my other attorney of his duties to represent me. This decision would later prove to be a crucial turning point in my life and one of the best decisions I have ever made. Mr. O'Rourke devised a plan that would keep me safe, from the day I hired him until the day I would enter the courtroom. What I would experience over the next six months was nothing short of a miracle. Most of the time I had no idea why he was recommending that I do certain things, sometimes I would even question if I was doing the right thing. All of these questions and unknowns would be answered in early 2009 during my sentencing hearing. Everything that I had done from the day I hired Mr. O'Rourke to the day I walked into the courtroom was about to make sense.

Entering the courtroom that day and looking at some real prison time was scary, but what unfolded over the next 60 minutes was truly a landmark event. I won't go into great detail now but will say that the plan Mr. O'Rourke designed for me, and that I executed, was about to rewrite the history books forever, and open up doors that had never been opened before. Because Of Mr. O'Rourke's amazing knowledge of the law and his ability to go beyond the surface of the attorney/prosecutor banter, I received an outcome that even I did not expect. The opportunities I was given, and the doors that were opened due to Mr. O'Rourke's experience and vast amount of resources, have changed my life forever.

The representation, professionalism, knowledge, and true caring nature that James O'Rourke displays is rare and should be considered a gift to anyone that is presented with the opportunity to have him represent them.

Thank you James for everything that you have done for me and the things you continue to do on my behalf.

B.H.

Mr. O'Rourke,

Without your representation and well executed plan my son would likely have been sentenced to time in jail and not had the opportunity to experience the long-term in-house treatment program you arranged for and subsequently recommended to the judge. With charges in three different counties you strategically set upon a course of action that left one case resolution feeding into the next, with an end result that was compassionate and healing, and resulted in a solution that was in the best interest of both my son and the public at large. The complicated details of my son's charges, handled so expertly by you and your staff, prompted one judge to say to my son --"You are lucky you have such a good attorney - who has set out such a great program for you."

By the way, your court room demeanor was that of a gentle kitten who packed the gentle "wallop" of a Lion. It was obvious in all three counties that you were held in high regard and respected by the judges.

Thank you Mr. O'Rourke for all you did. Please accept my entire family's heartfelt thanks and admiration. I doubt that my son's outcome would have been the same if left in anyone else's hands.

Lorraine B.

Mr. O'Rourke,

I wish to personally thank you for the prompt, knowledgeable and efficient legal services you recently provided to our family. My wife and I are both retired Federal law enforcement officials. As such, both of us have spent quite a large portion of our careers in and around various local, state and federal criminal courts. The legal advise you provided as well as the expertise and professionalism you exhibited in court proceedings assisted us in obtaining a fair and equitable result. Please continue the fine work.

Best regards,

David D.

I retained James O'Rourke to handle my alcohol related legal issues. His reputation for handling cases like mine was impeccable. My expectation was for him to find a loophole in my case and get me out of trouble. Based on my previous experience with attorneys I was skeptical.

What I received from Jim O'Rourke was (and still is) astounding. I found myself face to face with a man who was far more concerned about my well being than winning my case or how much he could charge me.

He is absolutely brilliant and in my opinion the best there is at what he does. This however, pales in comparison to what unfolded. Rather than seeing me as a likely "repeat client", he saw a broken woman with a much bigger problem than legal issues.

Because his passion to help people change their lives is genuine, he was able to gently guide me to realize and admit I was an alcoholic.

Because there was no judgment and his compassion heartfelt, I allowed myself to trust him. He made it possible for me to enter residential treatment. I know without Jim O'Rourke my outcome would have ended in jail, death or worse... still living in my alcoholic despair and absolutely powerless to stop.

I believe I was divinely guided to Jim O'Rourke. I am humbled by his goodness and grateful for the gift of his representation. In addition to a miraculous outcome legally, Jim O'Rourke saved my life.

-C. M.

We feel compelled to write a testimonial to the superlative help James F. O'Rourke, Jr. And Associates gave us with our son's case. Hopefully this will be read by someone who, like us, finds themselves in a desperate legal situation. We can say without hesitation or reservation that our son got the best legal help possible.

Our son was injured when he punctured his arm on the job. It formed a blood clot at the injury; which admittedly was painful. The doctor he was referred to, immediately and recklessly put him on a regimen of huge doses of Oxycontin (a powerful, time-released opiate drug) to manage his pain. Within two months, our son had become hopelessly addicted to the medication. When the injury got better and the Workers Compensation insurance ran out, the doctor abruptly cut off the narcotics without counseling for or concerns about substance dependence. Workers Compensation would not pay for drug treatment.

In the desperation and insanity that is the progressive disease of drug addiction, our son succumbed to the behaviors that were unthinkable and absolutely uncharacteristic of the great kid that he had been is whole life prior. Since the "legal" source of the drugs had dried up; he resorted to buying it from illegal sources. Because the street value of Oxycontin is so high and he was unable to work; he started injecting the drug. During the dementia that these circumstanced led to; he committed several robberies to pay for his new addiction. His crimes were so inept and ill conceived, driven by the physical need for this heroin-like drug; he was arrested about ten days into his "crime spree".

His situation was abhorrent; he was facing a sentence of up to 58 years, 4 months of Measure Eleven time. When we went to his first settlement conference; some sentencing numbers were discussed. The prosecutor mentioned that he would be lucky to get 140 months. The judge concurred. At this point our first attorney basically gave up. The sum of his advice to my son was: "you better get your head around doing prison time, A LOT of prison time."

We decided that we needed to hire another attorney. We found Mr. O'Rourke through the Oregonians against measure eleven website. We were impressed with Jim from our very first phone conversation. He promptly came to our house to consult with us. We only talked a short while, and we knew that he was the right attorney for our case. We were impressed with his knowledge of measure eleven, the problems that substance abuse can cause, and the treatment and other resources that he has at his disposal. We were especially impressed with the plan he devised for our son's defense and to get and keep him clean and sober.

Hiring a defense attorney is a substantial investment. We went back and forth on the subject: can we afford an attorney? In retrospect we realize that we couldn't afford not to hire one. We feel that we got more than our money's worth hiring O'Rourke and Associates. They are still helping our son; even though the case is closed and he is incarcerated for a lot less than 140 months! There were more expensive attorneys out there, but we believe that we couldn't have had a better defense at any price.

Every interaction we had with Mr. O'Rourke left us with the impression that we were his only client; worthy of his full attention. He gave our son more than just legal advice; he gave him life skills advice. He remains truly concerned about his well being.

-Greg and Gail P.