It’s been a decade since an additional judge was approved for Superior Court in Whatcom County. Raquel Montoya-Lewis, now a Washington Supreme Court judge, joined Whatcom County Superior Court in 2015. Before that, three judges had made up the Superior Court since 1972.
Now Whatcom County has a fifth judge thanks to efforts made during the 2024 legislative session. Jennifer E. Slattery took the bench in August and started hearing cases immediately.
Whatcom County has historically lacked judicial officers. With four judges and four judicial commissioners handling more than 6,300 civil and criminal cases for a population of 230,000 in 2023, even the state court administration sees a need.
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According to the state judicial needs assessment, in 2019, Whatcom County needed an estimated eight judges to handle the number of cases in the county.
The Yakima County Superior Court has eight judges for a population of 257,000. Yakima judges oversaw 9,100 cases in 2023.
Rep. Joe Timmons, D-Bellingham, helped sponsor legislation last session for the funding to add a fifth judge. He pointed to the upcoming water rights adjudication as part of the reason why Whatcom needed another judge.
As a result of the legislation, Slattery, who served as a pro tem commissioner for the Whatcom County Superior Court, was appointed to the position by Gov. Jay Inslee in July. She began work on Aug. 26.
Her new chambers are on the third floor of the courthouse, the former IT department.
With Slattery’s appointment, there’s cautious hope that she along with the four other judges will be able to further reduce the backload of cases.
But complicating matters is the upcoming water rights adjudication case. The civil lawsuit will determine who has access to and can use water in the Water Resource Inventory Area 1 — which includes the entire Nooksack Basin, Lake Whatcom, TenMile Creek, Sumas, Point Roberts, Lummi Island and other watersheds like Dakota Creek and Lake Whatcom.
Around 30,000 people could be impacted by the process, including water rights held by farmers, local governments, private well owners, tribes, and federal and state agencies.
Judge David Freeman will be presiding over the water adjudications and in his spare time, will hear criminal and civil cases.
Ahead of Slattery’s appointment, presiding Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Lee Grochmal said she felt that a fifth judge would allow the court to stay afloat.
“With the water adjudication, that’s going to take an entire judge, so I don’t feel like we’re really gaining a lot with the fifth judge,” Grochmal said in May. “In the long term, we’ll still have four judges doing what our four judges are doing now.”
Starck Follis, the Whatcom County Public Defender, and Eric Richey, the Whatcom County Prosecutor, see Slattery’s role as being able to get more hearings on the calendar, from special sets to guilty pleas, and pushing more cases to trial.
But Slattery will also be able to help with the civil docket. More civil cases are filed in Whatcom County than criminal cases, according to state court data.
“Civil litigants have a right to have their cases heard and moved along,” Follis said. “If you were in a world where criminal cases have priority over civil cases, you’d never get your divorce because you’d be constantly bumped by criminal trials.”
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Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice/enterprise reporter; reach her at annietodd@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.
