Many of us read the morning papers over coffee, with a casual eye to what happened yesterday. For the lawyers in the Civil Division - the arm of the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office providing legal advice and representation to the county - the newspaper headlines are more like the alert at the start of the Indianapolis 500: "Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines."
The daily routine for the 60 lawyers in the Civil Division ranges from providing counsel on hot topics such as agricultural land preservation to zealously defending county clients in a work-related lawsuit. On a good day, the stories we read have already been the subject of discussion and are printed below the fold in the local section. On other days, we wake up to something like the following on the front page:
Eerie Silence Follows Crash
"There was a loud crash and then an eerie silence before passengers in the wreckage of Metro express bus Route 359 began calling for help. It wasn't a clamor, really; there were a few screams, but many of the injured people could do nothing but whisper a cry for help."
The day after Thanksgiving 1998 in the Fremont neighborhood, friends gathered outside their apartment building enjoying a rare sunny afternoon. Meanwhile, on the Aurora Bridge more than 30 feet above, a mentally ill passenger on a bus fatally shot the driver, then himself. The bus crossed oncoming traffic, crashed through a railing and plunged to the ground. The neighbors below scattered to avoid being struck.
A massive emergency response followed involving firefighters, paramedics, police officers and hospitals throughout the city. The bus carried 33 passengers, ages 13 to 76. They had all sustained significant injuries; one died.
From day one, attorneys in the Civil Division responded to the needs of their clients and provided legal advice and assistance. The clients included leaders in the Risk Management Office, the Transit Division and County Executive Ron Sims. The county's response was humanitarian first, fiscal second. We knew that eventually we would deal with the tort liability, self-insurance, re-insurance and workers' compensation issues. But first and foremost, people were hurt and needed help.
The county quickly established a program to assist passengers with medical expenses, referrals for free trauma counseling and claims for crime victims' compensation. As time passed, we turned to the legal issues where fair and reasonable settlements were negotiated with most of the injured passengers. Only two lawsuits were filed against King County, and both were dismissed on summary judgment. The Civil Division was responsive, smart and, most importantly, had a heart.
Then there was:
150 Missing Ballots Found
"King County election officials found 150 more absentee ballots today that were mistakenly not counted in two previous vote counts but which are now expected to be included in the ongoing manual recount in the governor's race."
On November 2, 2004, and in the weeks and months following the general election, attorneys in the Civil Division assisted various county officials and employees on issues relating to the governor's race. Civil Division attorneys advised Canvassing Board members about laws governing the count and recount of the ballots and answered Elections Division questions relating to the processing of ballots.
In the final days of the first count and the recount, the division represented King County in federal court and twice at the state Supreme Court against challenges to the county's canvassing procedures. Sitting next to county employees in depositions and as witnesses at the election contest trial in Wenatchee, Civil Division attorneys responded to dozens of records requests resulting in the production of thousands of documents to the parties, the media and interested members of the public.
Finally, as part of the follow-up to the 2004 election and in response to referrals that the Elections Division received from the media and political parties, attorneys in the Civil Division filed registration challenges that resulted in the removal from the rolls of approximately 600 felons whose voting rights had not been restored.
And if that wasn't enough:
State Allows Pollution That Could Endanger Salmon, Groups Say
"Washington State has repeatedly let cities and companies discharge toxic pollution into Puget Sound at levels that are probably harmful to protected salmon, a coalition of environmental groups said Wednesday."
Lawyers in the Civil Division's Natural Resources Section have long been advocates of protecting threatened salmon and balancing their needs with individual property and water rights. Imagine that you are a Chinook salmon-strong, silver, sleek and as sexy as a fish can be. (Work with me here.) You race upstream, hook up with another equally shiny Chinook and spawn till you drop. Literally. In your fishy quest to consummate, do you stop to consider that you must cross numerous city, county, state and national boundaries, or that up to six separate layers of government regulate your habitat? Of course not.
In 1999, Sims confronted this reality when Puget Sound Chinook salmon were listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. Wanting the county to lead regional salmon recovery efforts, he challenged the Civil Division to help find a way to manage fish habitat across jurisdictional lines.
Rising to his challenge, the Civil Division lawyers worked with the King County Department of Natural Resources and Sims to craft innovative inter-local agreements for collaborative, voluntary planning groups based on watershed boundaries, not political ones. Today, these same watershed groups underpin the draft 2005 recovery plan for Puget Sound salmon, hailed as "an historic accomplishment" by federal officials.
Next time you pick up the local paper and scan the headlines, know that the deputy prosecuting attorneys in the Civil Division are doing the same, with a slightly different slant. We are looking for words that forewarn about our next case.
But the news isn't half bad. Ask anyone in the office and you'll get the same answer: We are lucky here in the Civil Division. We work for a man of integrity and grit, Norm Maleng. The demands on the staff and lawyers in this office are substantial, and so are the rewards. Ultimately we get to seek justice and do what's right. We like happy endings.
Sally Bagshaw is the chief civil deputy in the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office. Bagshaw has been practicing law for the State of Washington, Metro and King County for 30 years. With thanks to Kevin Wright, Linda Gallagher, Tom Kuffel and Andrew Marcuse, senior deputies in the Civil Division, and to the Seattle Times for permission to reproduce the headlines and copy.
