If you are a low-income tenant in Washington State, you may be eligible for legal assistance if you are facing eviction or looking for rent assistance. For details. follow these links:
Category: Featured
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King County Extends Suspension of In-Person Criminal Trials to 2/11/2022
King County Superior Court issued Emergency Order 35 on January 12, 2022, extending the suspension of all in-person criminal trials until February 11, 2022. The suspension is in response to concerns about the spread of the Omicron Variant of COVID-19 in King County. Emergency Order 33 regarding all civil trials being virtual, with discretion to the judicial officers, remains in effect and is not impacted by this new emergency order.
Help for Paying Back Rent — Apply by Dec. 31, 2021
Do you need help paying back rent? In partnership with the King County Eviction Prevention and Rental Assistance Program and Mary’s Place, the Boys & Girls Clubs of King County is distributing back-rent assistance funding to local families. Applications for assistance are due to the Boys and Girls Club via this portal by December 31, 2021.
Free Citizenship Classes at Seattle Public Library
SPL is offering free classes for people who are preparing for their citizenship exam. The virtual classes are available in Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese and English languages.
For more information and to register, visit Seattle Public Library’s event calendar HERE.
Search Law Firm Websites
Very often, lawyers write and post very informative articles to their websites or blogs that provide helpful summaries of legal topics. Running a general Google search will surely include some of these articles in their results – but they will be included with all of the other materials found across the internet. Rather than sifting through all of this unwanted “noise,” you can restrict your search just to law firm websites with a search engine built for this very purpose!
You can read more about the engine HERE.
Or you can go straight to the search engine here: Law Firm Search Engine
Legal Aid for Indigent Tenants Facing Evictions
The passage of SB 5160 charged the Office of Civil Legal Aid (OCLA) with developing a plan to implement Washington State’s first-in-the-Nation program to provide no-cost legal representation for indigent tenants facing evictions. OCLA has met the challenge and presented its plan to the Legislature ahead of its 90-day deadline. The plan will bring to life Washington State’s historic Right to Counsel law. It gives priority to those counties where evictions happen most frequently and will enable over 60 Right to Counsel (RTC) attorneys to provide full-time defense for qualified tenants. Read more about the presentation of the plan here. Tenants who are threatened with eviction should contact the Eviction Defense Screening Line at 855-657-8387 or apply on-line at https://nwjustice.org/apply-online.
Form Packet for Making a Motion in a Civil Case
If you have a civil case in King County Superior Court and need to ask your assigned judge to do something, this packet may be very helpful. It has instructions and forms for submitting a motion (the way you ask the court to do something) and a proposed order (the thing that you’re asking the court to do).
This is NOT meant for family law cases or for presentation to the Ex Parte Department.
You can order the packet from our website HERE.
The Library can be contacted at (206) 477-1305 or Services@KCLL.org
Learn More About Our Constitution
Thanks to the folks at WDET 101.9 FM, Detroit’s NPR station, you can learn more about the US Constitution and Bill of Rights through the WDET Book Club. Whether you prefer books, films or podcasts, WDET has assembled a great list of resources to help you better understand the documents that are the foundation for our democracy. Register to keep in touch with the Book Club’s activities and you can also receive a free pocket copy of the US Constitution. If you’d like to help your children learn more about the Constitution, follow this link to the resources the Book Club has assembled with young readers in mind.
GAO Reports Servicemembers Risk Losing Rights
The Government Accountability Office recently reported that servicemembers are at risk of losing valuable rights and protections granted to them by the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) Businesses may ask servicemembers to waive certain rights granted by the SCRA. Servicemembers are often unaware that they are doing so or have little understanding of the long-term effects. The rights servicemembers can inadvertently waive include the right to terminate motor vehicle leases early, the right to stay the enforcement of civil court proceedings, and protections against foreclosure.
See a summary of the GAO report here.
See the full GAO report here.
For more information about the report, contact GAO Director Tranchau (Kris) T. Nguyen at (202) 512-7215 or nguyentt@gao.gov