Recent News

On June 24, 2020, Washington Secretary of Health John Wiesman (the “Secretary”) issued an Order requiring “Face Coverings – Statewide” effective June 26, 2020. This blog entry discusses how we got to this point, the Secretary’s authority for the new Order, and an overview of the new facial covering requirements. How Did We Get Here?… Read More

Most property owners have a mortgage.  In the course of property ownership, the owner may end up paying off this mortgage (“deed of trust”), whether by sale of the property to a third party, refinance of the loan, or outright payment with personal finances.  Once the loan is paid in full, this should effectively end… Read More

Earlier today—June 17, 2020—the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) posted a new loan forgiveness application for recipients of a Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loan.  In May, the SBA released their first application, which I (very briefly) noted here. The SBA updated the new application so as to align with the recent changes to the PPP legislation. … Read More

June 11th, 2020: David Tingstad & Mark Duffy, CEO of Mountain Pacific Bank, discuss the latest on PPP loan forgiveness.Please note this webinar ended early due to technical difficulties. Read More

Recently, Congress passed, and the President signed into law, the Paycheck Protection Flexibility Act (the “Flexibility Act”), which modifies the Paycheck Protection Program (the “PPP”) as set out in the original CARES Act. The Flexibility Act replaces certain provisions of the PPP, while enhancing other PPP provisions.  Significantly, the Flexibility Act makes the following changes… Read More

We are now a little more than a week into June and Washington’s transition from “Stay Home” to “Safe Start” is well under way.  As of today, only 6 of Washington’s counties remain in Phase 1 while 25 counties have moved to Phase 2 and 8 counties have advanced to Phase 3.  While my blog… Read More

Over the last half-century or more, the public has grown accustomed to laws protecting consumers. We hear of large damage awards for perceived minor breaches of duties owed to a consumer. In such an environment, buyers of real estate may be lulled into a false sense of security, assuming incorrectly that they may rely mostly… Read More

On June 2, 2020, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee issued Proclamation 20-19.2, which extends the statewide moratorium on evictions until August 1, 2020.  My colleague Todd Cook previously posted about the original moratorium and April modification to it here:  https://beresfordlaw.com/governor-inslee-expands-scope-of-eviction-moratorium-and-extends-moratorium-until-june-4-2020/.  This latest extension continues most of the same prohibitions as existed previously.  The moratorium prohibits… Read More

On June 3, 2020, the Washington Department of Health announced the launch of an updated COVID-19 risk assessment dashboard.  The dashboard includes detailed data relating to six topics:  Phases & Risk Assessment, COVID-19 Disease Activity, Testing Capacity, Healthcare System Readiness, Case Investigations and Contact Tracing, and Populations at Higher Risk.  In addition to identifying the… Read More