Seismic Retrofit
By Richard Eadie
It doesn’t seem like such a long time ago that we began to tear the courthouse apart for the seismic retrofit, and yet we are fast approaching completion--expected sometime later this month. Our judges will begin moving back to their usual courtrooms, and we should have signs in place so that you will be able to find them. Courtrooms will probably look relatively unchanged to you, though fresh paint and new carpet where needed is a welcome improvement. The retrofit changes are more often in the offices of the judges and bailiffs, where you may find steel braces and beams, nicely encased in wallboard, and painted to match, but taking up a fair amount of space and creating some really odd corners and angles--but in the interest of making the building safer for all who use it.
The braces and beams added weight to the building, but that likely was offset by the recycling of materials in nearly every office. Judges and staff found incredible amounts of paperwork that did not need to be saved as they packed and unpacked during temporary moves. The recycling barrels bulged to their lids after many realized that computer records make it unnecessary to keep so much paper. It resulted in the biggest spring cleaning in the history of the Courthouse--one that continued through several seasons.
While we will have our judges back in their courtrooms by the end of this month you will still see construction activity on the first and second floors. This construction is not seismically related--it is a project to improve the appearance of the entrances to the courthouse--and it will continue until later in the year.
The area just around the Third Avenue entrance and leading into the Rotunda is scheduled to be finished by mid-December, and the Rotunda area by the end of January 2005. The most difficult time will be when the flooring in the Rotunda on the first floor is being replaced. There will be several weeks when first one half of the rotunda, and then when that is finished the other will be out of service--but only on the first floor. The Fourth Avenue entrance should be finished by the end of November. I think that you will find the improvements worth the wait.
Judicial Transfers
Because of the retrofit we have had to transfer judges from one assignment to another as needed, and not necessarily following our formerly customary February transfers. A number of transfers have been made, effective September 13, 2004 and more will be made effective January 2005, when we hope to return to the more predictable transfer schedule. The impact of transfers on your cases should be materially reduced as there is no change in the assigned judge for civil cases unless the transfer includes a judge moving to Juvenile Court or Unified Family Court. There are no juvenile court transfers for Sep-tember, but there are transfers to Unified Family Court.
Judge Joan Dubuque will return to the courthouse downtown, but will remain as Chief Judge, Unified
Family Court. Judge Catherine Shaffer will transfer from the criminal department at the RJC to Unified Family Court at the RJC.
Judge Douglas McBroom will transfer from the Civil Department at the King County Courthouse to the Criminal Department at the RJC and will assume the civil cases previously assigned to Judge Shaffer.
Judge Michael Trickey will transfer from Unified Family Court to the Civil Department at the King County Courthouse. Judge Cheryl Carey will transfer to Unified Family Court taking Judge Trickey’s caseload and Judge Trickey will assume Judge Carey’s civil cases. Judge Helen Halpert will transfer from Unified Family Court to the Crimi-nal Department at the King County Courthouse, and will assume responsibility for Judge McBroom’s civil cases.
Judge Trickey also serves as Assistant Presiding Judge, and has been elected as President-elect of the Superior Court Judges’ Association of Washington. Congratulations to Judge Trickey, who is going to be a very busy person.
We are very much looking forward to returning to some sense of normality at the courthouse. There have been many changes, some very much for the better, some not. However, though there have been, and continue to be difficult situations to confront, the overall construction has not been as disruptive as we feared it might be. The Judges and staff of King County Superior Court have demonstrated patience and flexibility during this lengthy construction process, and we very much appreciate the understanding and accommodations made by lawyers, witnesses and your clients.
Richard Eadie is the Presiding Judge of the King County Superior Court.
