Have a knotty evidence or civil procedure question under Washington law? To whom do you turn? Probably to Karl Tegland, author of the Rules Practice, Evidence and Civil Procedure volumes of West Publishing Company's Washington Practice treatise and the related Courtroom Handbook on Washington Evidence and (with co-author Douglas Ende) the Washington Handbook on Civil Procedure.
Washington courts do. Since 1980, more than 880 Washington appellate opinions have cited Tegland's work as authoritative - more than any other legal commentator during that time.
Writing and updating 16 volumes of Washington Practice is immensely time intensive. When Tegland isn't writing or editing material for an annual update or a new hardbound volume, he is poring over advance sheets and session laws. Every weekday is a full work day.
"Thank goodness for the computer," says Tegland, who types everything himself and then submits it electronically to West - a much different process than when he began working on Washington Practice in 1979. Back then, West required Tegland to type on 5x8 cards, different colored cards for text, footnotes and headings, and no more than one paragraph per card. Tegland's first Evidence book used about 3,000 cards, some containing only two or three words; he express shipped them to West's headquarters in Minnesota, praying that the plane would not crash, scattering his work across the Great Plains.
Tegland's publications go beyond his work for West. In the 1980s, he was a contributing editor and author for two editions of the WSBA's Appellate Practice Handbook, and the principal author of several editions of the Washington State Judge's Bench Book on Juvenile Procedure and one edition of the Washington State Judge's Bench Book on Criminal Procedure. Since 1987, Tegland has written and published Tegland's Litigation Today, a monthly newsletter on evidence, civil procedure and appellate procedure.
Through Litigation Today, Tegland informs his subscribers about new cases and laws before the annual updates to Washington Practice come out. Although to some degree in competition with Washington Practice, Litigation Today is written with West's blessing, if not its technical and administrative support. Tegland does everything but the printing - typing and layout, cite-checking, bookkeeping, marketing, billing, etc. He is justifiably proud that many of his original subscribers remain with him.
Beyond the Mundane Practice of Law
A Minnesota native who majored in economics at Macalester College in St. Paul, Tegland heeded Horace Greeley's advice to head west, enrolling in the University of Washington School of Law and reveling in winters where snow shovels were not constant companions. He graduated in 1972, having served as case notes editor for the Washington Law Review.
Tegland's interest in court rules was sparked when, as a student, he took a part-time job with the Washington Judicial Council. There, he helped draft Washington's current Rules of Appellate Procedure. Tegland became the principal researcher and drafter for this project after graduation, then the reporter to Washington's Advisory Task Force on Appellate Procedure. Under the guidance of mentors such as Professor Vern Rieke of the University of Washington School of Law (the Judicial Council's executive director) and Seattle practitioners Dan Reaugh and Malcolm Edwards, Tegland's passion for drafting and analyzing court rules was set for life.
When the rules drafting project ended in 1973, Tegland joined Kessler, Tegland & Urmston, working mostly in estate planning and family law. But Tegland could not shake the bug planted by his work at the Judicial Council. Where other new lawyers would focus full time on building their practices, Tegland traveled around the state on behalf of the Judicial Council, explaining the new appellate rules to local bar associations and seeking their approval.
In 1974, Tegland returned to the Judicial Council as a staff attorney, a position he held until the Legislature ceased funding the Judicial Council in 1982. In this capacity, Tegland was the principal author of the official comments to Washington's Rules of Appellate Procedure, Mandatory Arbitration Rules and Evidence Rules. He also lobbied the Legislature on bills proposed by the Judicial Council, including the law that established mandatory arbitration.
It was through his collaboration at the Judicial Council with longtime Washington Practice authors Robert Meisenholder and Lewis Orland that Tegland obtained his entrŽe to West. Meisenholder helped develop Tegland's interest in evidence law and invited Tegland to work with him on his Evidence volumes. When Washington revamped its evidence rules in 1979 to parallel the recently adopted Federal Rules of Evidence, Meisenholder realized that his Evidence treatise had been rendered obsolete.
Nearing retirement, he had no desire to completely rewrite his treatise, so he offered Tegland the opportunity to do so. Tegland's initial volume sold well, and West liked what it saw. Not long afterward, Orland - who earlier had written a Gonzaga Law Review article with Tegland - took Tegland on as co-author of his Court Rules and Civil Procedure volumes. When Orland retired, Tegland took over those volumes as well. The rest, as they say, is history.
Beyond Legal Commentary
After leaving the Judicial Council, Tegland continued to play a role in developing court rules and procedures, as well as reporting and commenting on them. From 1975Ð88, he served on the WSBA's Committee on Court Rules and Procedures, chairing that committee from 1985Ð87. From 1979Ð82, he was a member of the Washington Supreme Court's Pattern Forms Committee. Since 1988, Tegland has served on the Supreme Court's Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions.
Given his background, it was a natural progression for Tegland to enter the classroom as well. From 1983Ð85, he imparted "practical and philosophical" advice on legal research, writing and moot court practice to first-year law students at the University of Washington. Tegland returned again to his alma mater a few years later, teaching Evidence as an adjunct professor in 1991 and 1995 and as the Shefelman Distinguished Lecturer in 1994. Although the commitment to his publications precluded Tegland from seeking a permanent faculty position, for the past 10 years bar review students have profited from his evidence and civil procedure classes for Rigos Professional Education.
Law students are not the only beneficiaries of Tegland's expertise and comfortable teaching style. Since 1989, he has participated in training programs for courtroom bailiffs serving at all levels of court. For the last several years, he also has been a featured speaker on evidence at the annual conference of Superior Court judges.
In addition, during each of the past 25 years Tegland has taught six to eight CLE courses, turning down many more invitations due to lack of time. He has even taught law-related courses to paralegals and other nonlawyers at City University in Seattle and through the University of Washington Extension Program.
Tegland particularly enjoys his evidence CLEs. Case fact patterns often are intriguing and technological advances can lead to interesting evidentiary issues. Tegland notes, for example, that the application of the "best evidence rule" to computer images has given new life to a once-moribund doctrine.
Tegland also finds fascinating the shifting burden for admitting into evidence information derived from new technologies, as those technologies become accepted as reliable. Tegland cites DNA evidence as a recent example of this phenomenon, emphasizing that the same maturing process applied to documents produced by word-processing programs and photocopy machines, the admissibility of which for years depended upon elaborate proof that they rendered accurate images.
Tegland's contributions to the legal profession and the development of Washington's procedural and evidentiary rules have not gone unnoticed. In 1993, the Washington Law Review honored him with its Outstanding Achievement Award.
Beyond the Law
As humble as he is accomplished, Tegland considers raising his sons, Tom (20) and Bob (19), to be his most rewarding achievement. Tegland fondly recalls car trips that he and his wife, Susan, took with the boys to Wyoming to visit his parents and explore Yellowstone Park.
Tegland is especially proud that Tom is following in his footsteps - as a musician! For about 10 years, beginning in the mid-1990s, Tegland was a fixture on Washington's live music scene, playing lead guitar for the Eagle Creek Band, a country group that he formed with fellow attorney Jim Varnell and four others. Around 2001, the Eagle Creek Band reinvented itself as the Raucous Band, shifting to 1970s and 1980s rock-and-roll dance music. Tegland hung up his electric guitar in 2004, weary of weekends on the road and desiring more time with his family.
Beyond Today
Tegland can't imagine a better life than publishing and commenting on the law, with a little teaching on the side. As he approaches 60, Tegland hopes to continue doing the same thing for perhaps another 10 years, "if West will have me." And why not? After more than a quarter century with Washington Practice, Tegland still experiences no greater thrill than the arrival of a new hardbound volume of one of his books. As he says, "It's still the law books that get me out of bed in the morning." n
Joe Bringman is of counsel with Perkins Coie LLP, where his practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, especially cases involving securities and corporate governance issues. Bringman recently completed a three-year term as a KCBA trustee, including one year as KCBA secretary. He knows Karl Tegland from when they taught Basic Legal Skills at the University of Washington School of Law.
