Clallam County Superior Court Judge Brent Basden served on an LDS church council that discussed a family while he presided over its custody case, according to a fellow council member who said participants excluded him from those conversations “knowing it would be a conflict of interest.” Brittney Hales described the

Washington’s Court of Appeals ruled October 12 that wage liens against two apartment properties were invalid because the filings did not identify the security guards whose work supported the claims. The published ruling also held that class-action representatives may record wage liens for class members with valid lien

Governor Bob Ferguson has appointed Haley Wolcott Sebens to a newly created Skagit County Superior Court judgeship, the court’s first additional seat since 2006. The appointment takes effect January 1, 2027. Legislation enacted this year expanded the court from four judges to five. Sebens has served as a Skagit

The Washington Supreme Court on Thursday upheld dismissal of a privacy-act claim brought by parents who alleged Seattle Children’s Hospital shared their website searches with Meta without their consent. The parents said they used the hospital’s website to research their children’s health and find care, and

The Washington Court of Appeals on Thursday reversed Chelan County Superior Court Judge Kristin Ferrera’s dismissal of a civil conspiracy claim arising from a mosquito control dispute, also overturning attorney fees and sanctions imposed against the woman who brought the lawsuit. The unanimous October 1 decision allows Andrea Walheim

The Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Virginia Mason Medical Center violated patient protections by privately communicating with three of its former physicians who had participated in a patient’s surgery. The court ordered a trial judge to reconsider the remedy for those contacts, which occurred without the patient’s

The Washington Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a Chelan County judge’s decision denying resentencing for Lisa Ann Dugan, ruling that four later felony convictions would leave her sentencing range unchanged even after four invalidated drug-possession convictions were removed. The unanimous decision rejected Dugan’s argument that she

A federal judge has ruled for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and two related church corporations in a sexual abuse survivor’s negligence lawsuit, concluding that her allegations did not establish a legal duty to protect her from her adoptive father’s abuse outside church activities

The Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Initiative 2066, the voter-approved measure restricting state and local efforts to discourage natural gas use, is unconstitutional because it violates Washington’s single-subject rule. The 6-3 decision in Climate Solutions v. State affirms a King County Superior Court ruling that

The Washington State Commission on Judicial Conduct has censured former Okanogan County Superior Court Commissioner Robert Colbert after he admitted exchanging inappropriate sexual communications with a court employee and failing to rule on a parenting plan matter within the required time. The commission announced the stipulation earlier today. Under the

The Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the mother of a woman killed by Tacoma police in 2016 can sue the city for keeping an officer on the force after, she alleges, it learned of domestic violence allegations against him, even though the city concedes the officer was acting within

The Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that when parents share a phased-in parenting plan, courts deciding a child relocation dispute must measure each parent's residential time based on the phase in effect when the relocating parent serves notice of the intended move, not on the plan as

A state appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a Sequim man who alleged that Washington State Ferries and the Washington State Department of Transportation discriminated against him on the basis of disability and age when they terminated his probationary employment in 2023. In an unpublished

A state appeals court has thrown out a Kitsap County housing authority's eviction case, ruling that the smoking policy behind it contradicted itself so thoroughly the tenant gets the benefit of the doubt. In an unpublished opinion filed July 28, 2026, Division II of the Washington State Court

Spokane County Superior Court, Spokane County District Court and the City of Spokane Municipal Court have continued nearly all civil and criminal matters set for Monday and Tuesday and called off summoned jurors, under an emergency order signed Sunday as the Spokane Complex fire burned into neighborhoods of Washington'

The Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Washington State University owed a legal duty of care to Sam Martinez, the 19-year-old Bellevue freshman who died of acute alcohol intoxication during a 2019 fraternity hazing ritual, sending his parents' wrongful death case back to King County Superior Court.

On Monday I filed two public records requests seeking the paper trail behind last week's silencing of the public on the "Judge Ferguson-Brown" Facebook page: who runs it, what was deleted, and who said what, to whom, as the comments disappeared. One request went to

The Clallam County Superior Court has refused to release its own search warrant logs. In a two-page memorandum opinion dated July 13, Judge Simon Barnhart denied my formal Petition for Internal Review, upholding the court administration's blanket refusal to produce the search warrant logs of former Court

On Thursday evening, comments left by members of the public on the “Judge Ferguson-Brown” Facebook page began to disappear. By Friday morning, the public could no longer comment at all. Post after post on the page now carries the same quiet notice from Facebook: “Judge Ferguson-Brown limited who

Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Cadine Ferguson-Brown, a familiar presence in the Clallam County courthouse through her regular assignments as a visiting judge, drew campaign finance complaints in each of her last two judicial campaigns, according to Washington State Public Disclosure Commission records reviewed by The Olympic Herald. The

Division Two rules that title insurance and escrow services sold to Washington property owners are taxable here — even when the work is performed at out-of-state offices.