Trial Court Staffing and Judicial Needs Estimates

Superior Courts

Judicial Needs Estimates by Full-Time Equivalents, 2020 Projected Filings1

Court
Judges
Authorized but
Unfilled Judge
Positions2
Full-Time
Commissioners
Part-Time
Commissioners
(Equivalent FTE)
Total Estimated
Judge Need3
Adams
1.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.90
Asotin, Garfield and Columbia
1.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
2.02
Benton & Franklin
7.00
0.00
3.00
0.00
12.02
Chelan
3.00
1.00
1.00
0.03
4.29
Clallam
3.00
0.00
1.00
0.00
4.51
Clark
10.00
0.00
3.00
0.40
15.82
Cowlitz
5.00
0.00
0.00
0.79
6.91
Douglas
1.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.50
Ferry/Stevens/Pend Oreille
2.00
0.00
1.00
0.00
3.87
Grant
3.00
0.00
1.00
0.00
4.70
Grays Harbor
3.00
0.00
0.00
0.25
4.54
Island
2.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
2.98
Jefferson
1.00
0.00
0.00
1.50
1.63
King
53.00
0.00
9.00
0.00
76.40
Kitsap
8.00
0.00
1.00
0.00
10.29
Kittitas
2.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
2.12
Klickitat/Skamania
1.00
0.00
0.00
0.16
1.57
Lewis
3.00
0.00
1.00
0.28
6.20
Lincoln 4
1.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.13
Mason
3.00
0.00
0.00
0.88
3.24
Okanogan
2.00
0.00
0.00
0.40
2.43
Pacific/Wahkiakum 5
1.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.53
Pend Oreille (See Ferry)
 
 
 
 
 
Pierce
22.00
2.00
9.00
0.00
30.22
San Juan
1.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.79
Skagit
4.00
0.00
1.00
0.35
6.78
Skamania (See Klickitat)
 
 
 
 
Snohomish
15.00
0.00
5.00
0.00
21.51
Spokane
12.00
1.00
8.00
0.00
23.93
Stevens (See Ferry)
 
 
 
 
 
Thurston
8.00
0.00
3.00
0.00
14.06
Wahkiakum (See Pacific)
 
 
 
 
Walla Walla
2.00
0.00
0.00
0.50
2.97
Whatcom
4.00
0.00
3.00
0.80
8.46
Whitman
1.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.45
Yakima
8.00
0.00
2.00
0.50
11.89
Statewide Total
193.00
4.00
52.00
6.84
292.66

Staffing levels measured are those in effect on 12/31/2019.

1 Year 2020 projected filings are based on the previous five-year filing trends of the various case types in a given court. Needs estimates are based on the previous five years of data for the number of total judicial officers and case resolutions.

2 Superior court judge positions authorized by state statute yet unfunded at the county level.

3 This column represents the estimated number of judge positions needed, as required by RCW 2.56.030(11). Individual counties or judicial districts may choose to establish and fund court commissioner positions instead of superior court judge positions. Identical indicators are used to measure the workload of both judges and commissioners.

4 The estimation process eliminates Lincoln County due to caseload anomalies which strongly influence the overall results. In order to obtain a true statewide total, the estimated judge need for Lincoln County is imputed to be identical to the current judicial officer FTE count in that county.

5 Wahkiakum County Superior Court is processing uncontested dissolution case filings, similar to Lincoln County Superior Court. Starting JNE 2018, for Wahkiakum County, filings for dissolution w/ and w/o children were excluded.

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