Recent News

Costco recently found out the hard way just how important every policy, every word, in your employee handbook is. This past week, in Marini v Costco Wholesale Corp., a long-term Costco employee with Tourette’s syndrome made this point against the warehouse superstore. Marini alleged that he was harassed by his co-workers for his disability, asked… Read More

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The “applicable exclusion amount” is the amount of a deceased person’s estate that passes free of estate tax.  This differs from the unlimited marital deduction that applies when one spouse dies and transfers all of his or her interest in property to the surviving spouse.  There is an applicable exclusion amount for federal estate tax… Read More

If you are in a marriage-like relationship with another adult, referred to as a “meretricious relationship” or a “committed intimate relationship,” but not legally married, Washington State courts can still determine the division of debts and assets you acquired during the relationship. In order to determine whether you and your former partner fall into the… Read More

Beresford Booth was a proud sponsor of Snohomish County nonprofit Clothes for Kids (www.clothesforkids.org/) and its 3rd annual Brew and Bluegrass fundraiser. The event featured local breweries and wineries, bluegrass music from several area bands, and community support for the work Clothes for Kids has been doing in Snohomish County for 30 years. Clothes for… Read More

In an interesting effort to accommodate non-Judeo-Christian public employees, a new Washington law, which took effect on June 12, 2014, gives public employees an additional two unpaid holidays per calendar year "for reasons of faith or conscience." The measure amends RCW 1.16.050, which had granted public employees one paid floating holiday per calendar year in addition… Read More

Condominiums created in the state of Washington after July 1, 1990 are governed by the Washington Condominium Act, RCW Chapter 64.34 (the “Act”). One requirement for the creation of a condominium is the recording of a declaration in the county in which the condominium will be located. Among the many things required to be included… Read More

An independent contractor truck driver named Larry Currier heard another driver “yell ... at a Latino driver ... ‘[h]ey, f**ing Mexican, you know why you have to go to Portland and I don’t? Because f**ing Mexicans are good at crossing borders.’” Currier also reports previously having heard other racially motivated slurs and comments directed at a… Read More

In August 2013, Division One of the Washington Court of Appeals held that a borrower whose loan was secured by a deed of trust on owner-occupied residential real property could, depending upon specific facts of the case, recover monetary damages against a trustee who, by acting without lawful authority or in material violation of the… Read More