Washington Courts: News and Information

Washington Supreme Court to learn about civil legal problems and lack of access to needed legal help experienced by low-income Washingtonians

OLYMPIA -- Washington Supreme Court Justices will learn about the severity of unmet civil legal problems for low-income Washington residents and hear from people who have experienced these problems in a special presentation February 10 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Temple of Justice in Olympia. The event is open to the public and will be televised live on TVW, and available for viewing as a TVW webcast at http://www.tvw.org/watch/?eventID=2016021167.

The presentation will examine the findings of the 2015 Civil Legal Needs Study Update, which documents that more than 70 percent of low-income Washington households continue to experience profound civil legal problems each year and that, of these, more than three quarters do not get any legal help at all. 

The study — conducted by the Washington State University Social and Economic Sciences Research Center — updates research from the ground-breaking 2003 Civil Legal Needs Study, which first documented the alarming number of civil legal problems faced by Washington’s low-income residents with little or no legal help.

The 2015 update finds that:

·         The average number of legal problems per low-income household has tripled since 2003;

·         The substance of the most prevalent problems has changed;

·         Victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, racial and ethnic minorities, persons with disabilities and young people disproportionately experience civil legal problems that affect their family safety, employment, ability to live in safe and affordable housing, and access to necessary health care.

“We can no longer ignore that our system of justice fails to provide a large portion of our population the ability to effectively seek protection of the law,” said Supreme Court Justice Charles K. Wiggins, chair of the Civil Legal Needs Study Update Committee. “We cannot call ourselves a just society if we do not address this critical lack of access to civil legal help for so many people and families.”

Justice Wiggins will introduce the presentation which will be facilitated by John McKay, Visiting Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law, former United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington and former President of the federal Legal Services Corporation.  The presentation will include a review of the methodology and core findings from the study, presentations from low-income Washingtonians who have faced many of the problems documented in the study — such as domestic violence, foreclosure and other finance issues — and a discussion of the implications of the study for the state’s civil legal aid system and those involved in providing legal aid and pro bono services. 

CONTACT: Jim Bamberger, Director, Washington State Office of Civil Legal Aid, (360) 704-4135; Justice Charles K. Wiggins, (360) 357-2025.