Recent News

The adage “nothing is forever” applies readily to all manner of relationships, and business partnerships are no exception. The term “business divorce” fits particularly well when referring to a breakup of business partners because the emotions one may experience during such an event are often similar to those felt during a marital dissolution, including disappointment,… Read More

While litigation can provide individuals and entities with the necessary mechanism to pursue valid and well-founded claims, some parties, unfortunately, use litigation to intimidate and frustrate others. Sometimes, litigants or their attorneys will use the court system towards these less honorable ends despite lacking a sound basis for their lawsuits. In these cases, the opposing… Read More

Last month, I discussed how the discovery rule can give a plaintiff extra time to file a claim within the applicable statute of limitations.  In this blog post, I discuss a related topic known as “equitable tolling”. Statutes of limitations bar plaintiffs from bringing claims after too much time has elapsed since the cause of… Read More

The purpose of our state's domestic violence laws is to provide enhanced protection to victims of this type of offense while sending a strong message to abusers that this behavior is not tolerated. Domestic violence relationships are between "intimate partners" (i.e. boyfriend/girlfriend, partners with children in common, etc.) or even "family or household members" (i.e.… Read More

Most people have heard of something called a statute of limitations.  Generally speaking, a statute of limitations is a law which specifies a period of time within which a claim may be brought, before it becomes time barred.  There is no one statute of limitations for all possible claims.  Rather, each specific claim is governed… Read More

When I am defending a client in a civil lawsuit, I often hear a variation of this question: “Can I sue them for suing me?”  This is a typical reaction to being sued, because you may feel angry and offended and want to lash out and punish the other side just for filing a lawsuit… Read More

July 28th, 2022 Attorney Todd Cook presents: Comparing Forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution: Arbitration vs. Mediation. Read More

Welcome to part three of the ongoing series on common contract terms, with articles previously written here and here about indemnification and integration clauses, respectively. The topic for this post shifts to a discussion of severability clauses. Severability clauses, like integration clauses, often reside within the “boilerplate” provisions found regularly in contracts ranging across multiple industries and subjects. In other… Read More

Washington State’s Receivership Act (RCW 7.60 et seq.) can be a powerful tool in a business dispute. However, there is a noticeable dearth of caselaw interpreting the Receivership statute. Therefore, parties are often left to making arguments based on principles of statutory interpretation, the legislative policies underlying the Act, or analogizing to federal bankruptcy law.… Read More