Recent News

In civil lawsuits, each side normally pays its own legal bills. However, a contract, statute, or “recognized equitable doctrine” may force the loser to pay the winner’s fees and costs. A recent Washington Court of Appeals decision called Fid. Nat’l Title Ins. Co. v. Horton examined three arguments for awarding attorney fees. In June 2021,… Read More

While receiving a letter from an attorney can lead you to jump to worst-case scenarios, it does not always mean you’re being sued. Attorneys send letters for many reasons, whether it is formal communication or to resolve issues before they escalate into legal disputes. There is a broad scope of what type of letters exist.… Read More

Many Defendants seek to have default judgments entered against them modified or vacated pursuant to the provisions of CR 60. However, a Defendant or party seeking to have a default judgment modified or vacated must first show cause why the Court should even consider their motion to modify or vacate a previously entered default judgment.… Read More

About to clean out your inbox because “there’s no lawsuit yet”? Stop. Your duty to preserve evidence can begin before anyone files a case — and deleting emails at the wrong time can have serious legal consequences. A duty to preserve evidence means you must not delete, destroy, or alter information that could be relevant… Read More

In this webinar, Attorney Todd J. Cook discusses "Public Resources for Investigating Boundary Disputes." Read More

I am familiar with lawsuits, but what is “discovery”? Many people generally understand that litigation usually arises from an individual’s grievance with another person. These grievances may also arise between business entities. The substance of these types of grievances can range from personal injury, defamation, trademark infringement, property disputes and everything in between. The way… Read More

Joan Lanzner signed her Will in 2012. When she died in 2022, her original Will could not be located. The court admitted an authenticated copy of the Will to probate. That Will left her estate to her biological son and two of her stepsons, Edward and Robert. It excluded her other stepson, Richard, and her… Read More

For small and mid-sized businesses, contracts shape nearly every relationship that matters. They govern how companies buy, sell, hire, lease, partner, and grow. When those agreements break down, business owners are often surprised by how quickly a disagreement becomes a lawsuit—and by how Washington courts approach contract disputes. From the perspective of a Washington litigator,… Read More

Property ownership can involve serious and unforeseen risks. Such is the case with environmental contamination from underground storage tanks and conflicts among co-owners. A recent Washington Court of Appeals case, Johnston v. Peach, illustrates these perils vividly. In this decision, co-owners of a commercial building in Bellingham faced costly soil pollution from leaking oil tanks left… Read More