The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s full approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in August, coupled with the ongoing spread of the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus, has prompted a growing number of companies – including giants such as Google, United Airlines, McDonald’s, and Goldman Sachs – to mandate that some or all…

Washington recently passed a new law limiting when landlords can terminate their tenants’ tenancies without cause. Previously, in most cities and counties in Washington (but not all, including Bellingham), a month-to-month tenancy could be terminated by either party with 20 days’ notice for any reason, and a tenancy with a lease for a specific time…

Governor Inslee has declared August 10, 2021, Washington Women Lawyers Day honoring the over 10,000 women lawyers now licensed to practice in the State. 120 years ago, the first women graduated from the University Washington School of Law in Seattle – Othilia G. Carroll Beals and Bella Weretnikove Rosembaum – and in 1913 the first…

When parties are involved in a legal dispute, oftentimes they will be better served resolving their dispute in ways other than in a trial. Litigating cases in court, with a jury or a judge deciding who wins and loses, has many downsides: Litigation is time-consuming. It can often take a year or more to get…

A key step in perfecting a lawsuit is serving the defendants. Failing to serve timely or serving the wrong documents or the wrong person could lead to dismissal of a case. One of the most basic, and often confusing, aspects of service is understanding the difference between form of process and service of process. Form…

As described in my November 2020 blog, in September 2020, the Washington State Department of Ecology submitted a report to the Washington State legislature requesting funding for an adjudication of the water rights in two watersheds, the Nooksack River Basin (WRIA 1) and the Lake Roosevelt and Middle Tributaries (WRIA 58). The state legislature passed…

The Washington Department of Health has announced that all Washingtonians 16 and older will be eligible to receive Covid-19 vaccinations starting April 15, 2021. As remote workers transition back to the office in larger numbers, many employers want to know if they can legally require employees to be vaccinated for Covid-19 before they return. The…

Executor. Trustee. Power of Attorney. Most of my clients have encountered these common estate planning terms before, but often they aren’t quite clear on the differences between them. It’s helpful to think of each term as a job title. Each “job” is similar in that all involve acting as a fiduciary (that is, being legally…

Have you ever wanted to be a friend of the court? Well, you can. All it takes is filing an amicus curiae (Latin for “friend of the court”) brief in an appellate court case. Appeals can often be high stakes. When a party appeals a trial court’s decision, it is often because the party thinks…

On December 21, 2020 Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021, signed into law December 27, 2020. This Act continued, and in some ways expanded, the unemployment benefits available to individuals. It removed the mandates for employer provided sick leave and family medical leave, but extended the employer tax credits through March 31, 2021. UNEMPLOYMENT…