Rule 5 Court Of Tax Review Panel

When you file a tax case that needs to go before a special court panel, the Oklahoma Supreme Court's Chief Justice picks a judicial district to handle it. This district cannot be the same one where the property in question is located. This keeps things fair, since local judges won't decide cases about property in their own area.

Once the case is assigned, the presiding judge in that district picks three judges to hear it. These judges can be active or retired, but they must be qualified to handle tax cases. The three-judge panel then decides which county will actually host the hearing.

If there are multiple complaints, protests, or appeals about the same county or the same property, the court tries to group them together and assign them to the same panel. This avoids having different judges make conflicting decisions about the same property or area.

Finally, one judge on the panel acts as the Chief Judge, running the proceedings. This is normally the judge who has served the longest, unless the Chief Justice picks someone else for the job.