Sluggish and Incompetent: State Report Exposes Judge Basden’s Negligence in Domestic Court

The Olympic Herald previously reported on a troubling pattern of unethical behavior, administrative overreach, and cronyism in Judge Brent Basden’s courtroom.

However, a newly released state report exposes a failure that goes beyond questionable hiring practices: a complete administrative collapse of the Clallam County domestic relations court system.

According to the 2026 Washington State of the Judiciary Report, Clallam County has become a devastating bottleneck for families seeking legal resolution.

A Dereliction of Administrative Duty

During the 2024 reporting period, Judge Basden served as the Presiding Judge for Clallam County. Under Washington State General Rule 29, the Presiding Judge holds significant and nondelegable administrative responsibilities.

GR 29 explicitly tasks the Presiding Judge with leading the management of the court’s business and allocating resources to ensure disputes are resolved fairly and expeditiously.

Specifically, GR 29(f)(1) mandates that the Presiding Judge supervise the judicial district to “ensure the expeditious and efficient processing of all cases.” Furthermore, GR 29(h) dictates that the Presiding Judge must supervise judicial officers to guarantee timely processing and possesses the authority to propose remedial action for any failure to perform these duties.

The recent caseload statistics reveal a staggering failure to uphold these critical mandates.

A Staggering Backlog

The numbers presented in the report are nothing short of alarming. Despite the fact that Clallam County makes up less than 1% of the statewide population, the county is responsible for 11.5% of all statewide domestic relation cases that are still pending resolution after 18 months.

At the time of the report there were 1,120 domestic relations cases pending resolution for over 18 months in Clallam County. By comparison, the entire state of Washington has 9,680 cases pending over that same timeline.

To fully grasp the magnitude of this inefficiency, one only needs to look at the “Ratio of Active Cases Pending to Cases Resolved,” where lower numbers suggest proportionately smaller backlogs.

• The statewide average ratio sits at a manageable 1.18.

• Clallam County’s ratio is an astronomical 11.23.

• While the county managed to resolve only 127 total cases over the reported period, a crushing 1,426 active cases remain pending resolution.

Failing to Meet Judicial Standards

The state expects far better from its judicial officers. Standards adopted by the Board for Judicial Administration recommend that 90 percent of all domestic relations cases should be adjudicated within 10 months of the date of filing, 98 percent within 14 months, and 100 percent within 18 months.

Under Judge Basden’s oversight, Clallam County failed to hit these benchmarks across the board. The figures from the 2026 Annual Report reflect the actual percentages of these cases resolved within those mandated timeframes.

In Clallam, only 65.35% of cases are resolved within 10 months, 73.23% within 14 months, and barely 80.31% within 18 months. This means nearly one in five families in the county’s domestic court system is left in legal limbo for over a year and a half.

The Human Cost of Judicial Negligence

Behind every number in this sluggish bureaucracy is a family in crisis. Domestic relations cases—which handle everything from protection orders to vital parentage and custody matters—often involve highly sensitive, time-critical disputes.

When a court delays these proceedings, it forces vulnerable individuals to remain in unstable, and sometimes dangerous, situations.

As previous reporting has shown, Judge Basden has a tragic history of mishandling cases involving vulnerable families. His questionable rulings and ignored warning signs in domestic and custody cases preceded horrific outcomes, including a kidnapping and death.

Now, state data proves that Basden’s court is not just prone to making devastating singular errors, but is systemically broken, failing thousands of citizens who rely on the justice system for protection and closure.

A copy of the 2026 State of the Judiciary Report is available here.