December 2017 Bar Bulletin
By Dominique Scalia
On Halloween, Division II of the Washington Court of Appeals published an unusual opinion in a landlord-tenant case that it acknowledged was moot, yet took the opportunity to instruct the Superior Court (and us onlookers) on the limits of ex parte communications, the breadth of the CR 5(a) notice requirements, and even the Code of Judicial Conduct rules against ex parte communications.
It is a cautionary tale for those of us who often find ourselves filing ex parte motions. Even where those motions are expressly permitted, the opinion reminds us of the limitations on what we should be including in our...