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The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically upended the legal system five years ago, and in many respects, continues to do so. In March 2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which among many things provided economic relief to struggling tenants. The CARES A...

Under Oregon law, a sex offender must register in Oregon if the person lives, works, or attends school in Oregon. If you don't have any contact with Oregon, however, you have no obligation to register. So what happens when you initially had to register in Oregon because you were convicted of a c...

Before an Oregon court can terminate a parent's rights, the court must make written findings. This is not surprising, given the legal ramifications of removing a child from his or her birth parents. Not only must the court make written findings about why termination is appropriate, the court mus...

As most people know, a criminal defendant has a right to a fair trial.  This means the right to be adequately prepared to defend himself against the State's charges. What happens when the government charges the defendant with new crimes less than a week before his scheduled trial?  One would thi...

Family law cases can be incredibly litigious, so courts usually encourage the parties to agree rather than litigate, in the best interests of the children. But there is a limit to what extent Oregon courts will enforce a parental agreement, as the Oregon Court of Appeals made clear in last week'...

The government must prove you guilty of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt.  That's a high burden, and the government can't always meet its burden, even if had enough evidence to charge you to begin with.  But does a dismissal equal actual innocence? That question is at the heart of the Wrongful...

In Washington—as in all other states—the police usually need a search warrant to go into your home or rifle through your car for weapons, drugs, or other contraband.  This is the heart of the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable search and seizures.  But not always.  Under the Terry in...

The Washington Supreme Court clarified the rules for spousal maintenance.

Firearms laws in Washington are undergoing big changes in 2023 and even bigger changes in 2024.

Been thinking about cleaning up your Oregon criminal record? Restoring your firearm rights? 2022 may just be your year.  

If you're successful in getting your court record sealed, the public cannot access anything about your case. No one can stop by the courthouse and dig through your records and no one can go online and browse the court's electronic files. Even better, your records will not show up on a state or federal background check. You may think that restoring your firearm rights would be a lot easier after getting your court records sealed, but you would be wrong. Why?

Before you can restore you firearm rights in Washington, you first need to figure out in which Court you have to file your motion. The answer depends on where you live and what courts took away your gun rights to begin with. But the answer is not always easy.

Once a juvenile, always a juvenile.  I don't mean maturity wise, but for the purposes of restoring your firearms rights in Washington, it's accurate. A juvenile court has jurisdiction over—you guessed it—juveniles.  But once you turn 18, you're an adult—at least in the eyes of the law, if not i...

Children are different than adults.  No surprise there. That's why we forgive children for their crimes far more easily than we forgive adults.  Again, no surprise there.  That's also why the process for sealing your juvenile court records in Washington is much easier than sealing your adult re...

The right to a jury trial obviously means you have the right to have a fair and impartial jury hear your case. Otherwise, the right to a jury trial is harmful, and hollow.

Under the Washington Constitution, a criminal defendant has a right to be notified of the nature of the charge so the defendant can prepare and present an adequate defense. This makes constitutional, practical, and intuitive sense. You can’t really defend yourself against a moving target. But in certain cases, the Washington Supreme Court ruled today, you can—at least to a degree.

State v. Pierce is in large part about the death penalty. For that reason, you may think that today's case is irrelevant, because in 2018, the Washington Supreme Court struck down the state’s death penalty law. But State v. Pierce is also in large part about race, which makes the case entirely relevant today in Washington.

You walk into a courthouse and pass through security. You remove your coat, take off your backpack or purse, and take everything out of your pockets. You walk through a metal detector and the items you've removed (i.e. wallets, cell phones, etc.) are individually screened.  This happens thousand...

The Court’s holding is pretty simple: to prove a “prior offense” under RCW 46.61.5055(14)(a)(xii), prosecutors have to establish that a defendant has a prior conviction for DUI, or that a defendant has a prior conviction for reckless driving or negligent driving in the first degree if the State had originally charged the defendant with DUI in these two cases. “That is all the felony DUI statute requires,” the Court held.

Prosecutors and judges treat sexual offenders but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be going to prison for a long time if you’ve been convicted of a sex offense in Washington. Under Washington law (RCW 9.94A.670), some sexual offenders may be eligible for Washington’s Special Sexual Offender Sentencing Alternative (SSOSA).

If you're turning left from a left-turn only lane, do you really need to activate your turn signal, even if there are no drivers or pedestrians in the area. Yes, said the Washington Supreme Court in a unanimous opinion today.

Losing your personal injury case can be a devastating experience. Losing your personal case because your own attorney made a mistake is even worse.

“We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final.” A legal purist would call Justice Robert Jackson’s famous remark about the U.S. Supreme Court a jaded opinion, but it’s legally accurate. Supreme Court justices are smart—very smart, in fact—but they’re not necessarily smarter or better writers than state supreme court judges or other appellate judges. But unlike every other judge, they get the final say.

To say that cell phones are an integral part of our personal and professional life might be the biggest understatement of the 21st century. Today’s smartphones can do virtually almost anything— browse the web, take pictures, play music, watch videos, send messages.

We don’t just expect officers to investigate crimes and arrest people. We also expect them to protect the community and keep the peace, even when there’s no evidence of criminal activity.