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United States — Washington
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Reviewed 15 September 2013 E-mail: Administrator@LawSource.com

Washington Court Decisions

A diagram of the state court system (called a “Court Structure Chart” and including a summary of each court’s jurisdiction) is available on the web site of the National Center for State Courts.

    “Cookies” must be enabled for some of these links to work properly.


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Washington Constitution and Legislation

  1. Constitution (Wash. Const.)

    Amendments: 

    Additional Resources
    Washington Constitution … [Washington Legislature] — This is an ASCII text version.

  2. Bills

  3. Laws of Washington (Wash. Laws)

  4. Initiative Statutes Adopted
    See also a database of statewide ballot measures maintained by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

    See also the secretary of state’s information about initiative measures
  5. Revised Code of Washington (Wash. Rev. Code)
    See also uniform laws and interstate compacts.
  6. Tribal Codes
  7. Nisqually Tribal Code
  8. Skokomish Tribal Code
  9. Additional Resources
    Revised Code … [Municipal Research & Services Center (Wash.)] — Alternative source, in a framed view. See also an unframed view.
    Legislative History and Intent … [State Law Library] — A brief explanation of how to research legislative history and intent.


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Washington Rules of Procedure and Practice

See also links to additional rules on the web site maintained by the Washington Administrative Office of the Courts.
  1. Rules of Procedure
  2. Appellate Court Rules
    See also links to general orders.
  3. Local Court Rules
    For additional courts, see links to superior court rules, district court rules, and municipal court rules on the web site maintained by the Washington Administrative Office of the Courts.
    Superior Courts 
    District Courts 
    Municipal Courts   An asterisk (*) indicates a municipal court that uses its district court’s local rules.
    U.S. Courts 

  4. Rules of Practice
    See additional rules of general application at the site maintained by the Washington Administrative Office of the Courts.


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Washington Administrative Law Sources

See also a page of links to sources of rules, maintained by the Administrative Codes and Registers Section of the National Association of Secretaries of State.
  1. Regulations
    See a brief explanation of the administrative code and the state register, from the State Law Library.
    1. Washington Administrative Code (Wash. Admin. Code)
    2. Washington State Register (Wash. St. Reg.)

    Additional Resources
    Administrative Code … [Municipal Research & Services Center (Wash.)] — Alternative source, in a framed view. See also an unframed view.

  2. Opinions • Decisions • Orders • Rulings
  3. Attorney General Opinions (Ops. Wash. Att’y Gen.)


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Washington Ordinances and Home-Rule Charters

Ordinances are local laws, commonly organized into codes, that have been enacted by municipalities — cities, towns, etc. — and counties. Charters are organic laws (similar in function to a constitution) of those local government entities for which “home rule” is authorized by state law. For local laws not found through the links given here, try the county web sites and municipality web sites at “State and Local Government on the Net” by Piper Resources, or a publisher’s web site:
  • Code Publishing Co.
  • Municipal Code Corp.
  • Sterling Codifiers
    1. Charters
       
      Note that a charter could be included in a collection of ordinances (see below) instead of being separately accessible.
    2. County Ordinances
         
      Click on the button keyed to the name of the county. NOTE: On some web sites, selecting the state is necessary for access to the ordinances link.
    3. Municipal Ordinances
          
      Click on the button keyed to the name of the municipality. NOTE: On some web sites, selecting the state is necessary for access to the ordinances link.
    4. Additional Resources
      Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington … Comprehensive information on existing local codes, specific model ordinances, and related matters.


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    Washington Law-Related Periodicals

    Periodicals providing on-line articles are linked here. See also links to all Washington law-review web sites as well as links to web sites of all U.S.-published law reviews and periodicals.

    1. Gonzaga Journal of International Law (Gonzaga J. Int'l L.) … Formerly titled Across Borders.
    2. Seattle University Law Review (Seattle U. L. Rev.)
    3. Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts (Wash. J. L. Tech. & Arts)


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    Other Washington Commentary

    1. A Lawyer’s Guide to Doing Business in Washington State. Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. … [Lex Mundi]


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    Washington Law-Related Topical Web Sites



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    Washington Court Information

    See also links to state court web sites, maintained by the National Center for State Courts. Additionally, the Ballotpedia.org web site presents information about courts and judges in the state, covering both state courts and federal courts, in a Wikipedia-style format.
    1. Web Sites
      See also a state courts directory.

      1. Superior Courts
         
      2. Juvenile Courts
         
      3. District Courts
         
      4. County Clerks (Superior Court Clerks)
         
      5. Municipal Courts
             By County:  
      6. Tribal Courts
         
        See also (1) a directory of tribal courts providing contact information and (2) the web site for the Northwest Intertribal Court System.
      7. U.S. Courts
         


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    Washington Forms

    1. Revenue Department: Forms

    2. Business Entity Forms …[Paracorp, Inc. (Cal.)] — Convenient interface to view and print in-blank official state forms (in PDF files) for filing by business entities. A JavaScript-enabled browser is required.

    3. State Court Forms … [Washington State Judiciary] — Also available is a zipped file of domestic relations forms. See also format and style rules for mandatory forms.

    4. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Forms — Eastern DistrictWestern District


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    Other Washington Resources

    1. Government-Related Web Sites

      See also the Piper Resources list of sites.
    2. Additional Resources
      ¶ Vital Records — Contact Information … [Elizabeth Orsay (Ind.)]
      ¶ Workers’ Compensation — Agency Contact Information … [Robert W. McDowell / N.C. Indus. Comm’n]

    3. Bar Associations • Law-Related Organizations

      See the National Federation of Paralegal Associations for links to websites of member organizations.
    4. Law Schools • Admission to Practice • Continuing Legal Education
    5. Consulate General of Canada in Seattle

    6. Consulate General of Mexico in Seattle • Consulado General de México en Seattle


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    Legal Research and Assistance

    1. Law Libraries
      See also a directory of county law libraries in Washington.

      See also links to web sites of public law libraries and catalogs of academic law libraries, maintained by the library at Washburn University School of Law; and the LibrarySites.Info database of library web sites (“Libcat”).
    2. Attorney General: Consumer Brochures and Consumer Issues A–Z

    3. Washington State Bar Association Consumer Information Pamphlets

    4. Bankruptcy Law and Procedures for Washington Residents … [Calicchia & Kinast LLP (Ohio)] — This web site, presented by a Cleveland bankruptcy law firm, covers basic information about the bankruptcy process, describes debt consolidation and credit counseling as alternatives to bankruptcy, lists the property that an individual is allowed to keep (with citations to governing provisions of Washington law), and gives information about the bankruptcy courts and how to contact bankruptcy attorneys in Washington.

    5. Low-Cost Legal Aid … See also the web site for LawHelp.org and the web site for SelfHelpSupport.org.
      1. Washington Legal Help for the Poor … [Am. Bar Ass’n] — Contact information for statewide and local legal-aid programs, from the ABA’s Directory of Pro Bono Programs. The ABA also provides a page of links to pro bono programs’ web sites.
      2. WomensLaw.org — Sources of Legal Help … [WomensLaw.org (N.Y.)] — Sources of legal help (not limited to legal help for women) include statewide domestic-violence resources, local domestic-violence resources listed by city or town, free or low-cost legal services, and lawyer referral services.

     

     


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