KCLL Klues: Washington State Legal Research

The Media Guide to Washington State Courts has been updated for 2009.  From the Washington Courts website: “Information on tribal courts, the new media Shield Law, a new chart of Washington courts and other details have been added or updated in the 2009 “Media Guide to Washington State Courts.” The Guide includes a full glossary of terms and a Resources sections to help reporters and others understand the court system.”

For the United States federal courts, check out “A Journalist’s Guide to the Federal Courts” available on the uscourts.gov website.

Obtaining historical King County Superior Court records prior to 1984 can be confusing.  Many agency and court records are stored in the King County Archives.  However, the majority of the King County Superior Court records for 1853-1983 are stored with the Puget Sound Regional Archives (PSRA) located in Bellevue.  They have the Superior Court civil case files for 1853-1983.  Other types of Superior Court files are also stored there but for differing time periods.  For instance, criminal case files for 1889-1972 are included, but the criminal index only covers 1890-1977.

Other types of King County Superior Court files found at PSRA are probate cases; index of juvenile files; mental illness case files; Mother’s Pension case files; naturalization case files; and general indexes, by defendant and by plaintiff.

The website for the King County Archives does a particularly good job of describing the documents they archive.

In Episode 27 of KCLL’s SideBar Rick Stroup of our staff interviews retiring Superior Court Judge Charles Mertel. We learn about the judge’s diverse background and his plans for the future. In “At the Reference Desk”, the Seattle University Law School librarians discuss researching local ordinances.  How many chickens CAN you have in your Seattle city yard?

Links for Episode 27
Listen to Episode 27

Taxpayers can follow the money being spent as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) at a new website launched this week by the Obama administration – www.recovery.gov.  In time, the site will have graphs and charts showing ”to which states, to which congressional districts, even to which Federal contractors” the stimulus money is being spent.  Visitors can watch a video message from President Obama, sign up for email updates, and read the full text of the ARRA bill (grab a cup of coffee – it’s 400+ pages long).

The King County Law Library has a new research guide posted on our web site that provides resources for placing liens. “A lien is a legal right that a creditor has in a debtor’s real property.” The guide discusses three types of Washington liens, consensual, statutory and judicial liens. Check out the new guide.

The Seattle Times reports that the Supreme Court upheld King County’s policy of assigning jurors to jury duty at the court location nearest to their home address. This procedure was challenged on the basis that the resulting juries were not “of the county.” The decision is State v. Lanciloti, docket number 81219-5, opinion filed today, February 12, 2009.

Both locations of the King County Law Library will be open during the King County furlough days.  Most, but not all, county departments will be closed on the furlough days.  The King County Superior Court will be open. 

The Administrative Office for the United States Courts has produced a video to accompany its Bankruptcy Basics publication. The video is published on their web site in 8 parts. This is a great introduction to the process and includes the first thing we always tell our patrons, that is, “Bankruptcy is a federal process and must be done in federal court, not here in superior court.” I have added a link to the video from our research guide on bankruptcy.  

Joe Hodnicki at the Law Librarian Blog tells us about the Administrative Office of the United States Courts’ announcement: “A list of 56 new and restyled civil and criminal forms has been posted. A working group of judges, clerks, and staff members in the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has rewritten the forms in simple, modern English.” You can find the forms here. These are great sample forms for use in the federal court system!

The Olympian is reporting that Governor Chris Gregoire was called for jury duty in Thurston County Superior Court today. What should she expect during her jury duty? The state court web site has a terrific guide that explains the jury duty obligation and includes FAQs and links to much more information. So if you get called for jury duty check out this page for more information.