April 2021 Hearsay

HearSay THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE CLARK COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION

April 2021

February 2020 2019 December

THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE CLARK COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION

HIGH DOSAGE LEGAL REMEDY

Available for consult, association, or referral for injury claims in Washington or Oregon. Sleep better.

JESSE JACOBS OTLA Guardian WSAJ Eagle

DON JACOBS Trial Lawyer of the Year, Clark County (2015) Past President, Oregon Trial Lawyers Assoc.

Portland 503-222-7757 Vancouver 360-695-1624 nwinjurylawcenter.com

The Clark County Bar Association is a professional organization that serves to support our local attorney community through providing education and networking opportunities designed to enhance and foster better relationships within the local legal community.

Margaret Madison Phelan Attorney at Law

Enjoying a limited virtual practice: Estate & trust planning, uncontested probate, special needs & long tem care pre-planning And, consulting with attorneys on practice development, problem solving estate and long term care plans for their clients and succession planning for their law offices

Calls returned on Thursdays 360 896-8243 Email anytime

margaret.phelan@comcast.net

margaretmadisonphelan.com

April Hearsay Contributors

Eli

James

Marchbanks

Smith

Navigate Law Group

Eli Marchbanks is of counsel at Navigate Law Group, practicing Criminal, Traffic and Consumer Law .

Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office

James Smith is the current Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for Clark County.

Commissioner Jill H.

Le Ann Shill

Sasser

Larson

Clark County Superior Court

Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Child Support Division

Commissioner Jill H. Sasser was hired to the Clark County Superior Court in January 2021.

Le Ann Larson is the Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney representing DSHS.

Marc Christianson

Janet George

Elizabeth Michelson

David Starks

Jamie R. Walker

Gordon W. Wilcox

Leadership in Family Law Six McKinley Irvin attorneys are distinguished as Fellows of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML).

Recognized as leaders in their field, our team is continuously committed to the AAML’s purpose to “provide leadership that promotes the highest degree of professionalism and excellence in the practice of family law.”

we protect what our clients value most.

360.448.2631

| vancouver | portland | seattle | kirkland | everett | tacoma | mckinleyirvin.com

Jolene Sell Retires: Celebrating a Trailblazer page 10

6

Judge Veljacic appointed to Division II Court of Appeals page 18

7

President’s Message by: Christie Emrich

Dear Members,

I am writing this from a sunny, warm place much farther south than our beloved PNW. My husband and I surprised our girls with a trip for Spring Break. We all needed a chance to get out of town and away from our day to day. And quite frankly I am a much better person after some serious Vitamin D exposure.

As our world slowly opens up and moves back to “normal” I hope you get a chance to start experiencing some more routine activities too! The ability to grab a drink with colleagues after work or meet up with friends for lunch are moments that have been a long time in coming. Most of my coworkers including myself have been able to access at least their first dose of a vaccine at this point. In the coming weeks, my office will be completely vaccinated. We are getting closer and closer to being able to be in the office more than just sporadically.

And if we keep heading in the right direction, maybe we will be able to finally hold our canceled Holiday Party with a little Christmas in July celebration outside.

Thanks to a sponsorship by the NW Injury Law Center, the CCBA will be hosting free drinks crafted by Pacific Perks Mobile Cafe on April 16th between 11am and

8

1pm. Stop by to check out our new location and enjoy a hot tea/coffee or a cold smoothie in our outdoor patio. We look forward to seeing your masked faces from 6ft away.

If you are interested in joining our Membership Committee, please email Erica Aquadro at eaquadro@ gevurtzmenashe.com. We will be having a meeting over Zoom on Tuesday, May 20th at noon. We will be planning our next diversity forum and would love your ideas and input.

Well, that’s it from me for this month. I am off to buy my girls some overpriced souvenirs, the Rose has her eyes on a bright green parasol.

I’m sure that will come in handy when we get home! ~Christie

9

Jolene Sell Retires: Celebrating a Trailblazer by: Le Ann Shill Larson and Commissioner Jill H. Sasser

Jolene Sell, the Senior Deputy Prosecutor of the Child Support Enforcement Division, retired on February 1st, 2021 after a long and successful legal career building and supervising that division. Jolene is well-known and beloved and she will be greatly missed. We appreciate the opportunity to honor Jolene for her expertise, her professionalism and her many years of service to our community.

Jolene started her career as a legal assistant for a solo practitioner in Spokane. When her boss hired an associate, she found herself training the associate. She realized she could do the job, so she made an appointment to speak with the dean of Gonzaga University’s law school. Even though she had not completed her Bachelor’s degree, she received permission from him to apply to the law school, if her LSAT scores were solid. Jolene did well on the LSAT and she had letters of recommendation, so she was accepted into law school. After graduating, 10

she practiced law for a few years at the same firm she had worked in prior to law school.

In 1984 she was hired at the Cowlitz County Prosecuting Attorneys’ Office in the Civil Unit. She was the first female Deputy Prosecutor ever to be hired in the office. At that time, her office staff wondered how things might change as they had never worked with a female attorney before. Jolene was a trailblazing attorney who demonstrated that women are very capable of being prosecuting attorneys.

Jolene was later hired by Art Curtis to run the Child Support Enforcement Division at the Clark County Prosecuting Attorneys’ Office in January 1991. In 1998 she was promoted to Senior Attorney, becoming the first female Senior Deputy Prosecutor in Clark County. She leaves after building and leading the child support unit for thirty years.

During Jolene’s career, she experienced many changes to family law and family courts. When Jolene started, there was no statewide uniform child support schedule. Each county had their own schedule that might or might not be followed.

In addition, Clark County did not have court dockets dedicated to family law and cases were spread among all the Superior Court judges on various dockets.

DNA testing had not been developed and HLA tests were used. The HLA test relied on blood type and other factors. Jolene recalls that the highest probability of paternity in HLA results was about 85% whereas DNA test results when positive are at 99.99% probability. Further, Paternity Acknowledgments, now known as Acknowledgments of Parentage, did not exist until 1996 in Washington State.

Before then, there was no route other than a court action for unmarried parents to get a parent on the birth certificate.

During her career, Jolene served on the boards of the Clark County Volunteer Lawyers Program and the Clark County Bar Association. She has also served on the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys Support Enforcement Project Judicial Case Processing Task Force since its inception in the early 1990s.

She presented annually at WAPA-SEP continuing education programs for many years and also served as a WAPA-SEP trainer, traveling the state to train deputy prosecuting attorneys new to child support. She also served on the AOC Pattern Forms Committee’s Domestic Relations Forms Subcommittee giving input and guidance for family law forms.

Thank you Jolene for your incredible service and contributions to our community— you will be missed and we wish you the best in your retirement! We also congratulate Le Ann Shill Larson who is taking over as the Senior Deputy Prosecutor for that division.

11

~A Tribute to the Child Support Goddess~

Scott Horenstein: From my perspective I find Jolene to be one of the most professional attorneys I have had the pleasure to work with. Always prepared, calm, congenial and exactly what a public officer should be – always advocating for the truth and always willing to provide advice and help. Since I often forgot that the state was in on my support cases I can hear Jolene saying to me in her sweet voice as I headed up to the bench: “Scott, I am sure it just slipped your mind but the State has an interest in the case, do you mind if I participate in this hearing?” No one deserves a happy and fulfilling retirement more than Jolene.

Elizabeth Christy: I don’t have a specific story to contribute but my main memory of Jolene is kindness. She is kind to everyone and she is genuine and earnest. Jolene is a leader and true expert in her field. I will miss her so much!

Nathan Peterson: Jolene has always been someone I could trust to be fair and straight forward. Even when she is stressed or dealing with a difficult case, she seems to keep a smile on her face. I have had many times where I have been butting heads with opposing counsel. Jolene’s presence on the case provided legal guidance, but also helped diffuse the conflict between the attorneys, often resulting in a quicker, more amicable resolution which I think is almost always better for the parties.

Chris Boyd: I can’t imagine someone more universally loved than Jolene! She is always willing to help no matter how “questionable” our math is as to party incomes or how many times we “forget” to include her in courtesy copies or support issues. Jolene is so calm and patient with everyone in the process – be it unrepresented party or experienced attorney.

And a great sense of humor! We will all miss seeing Jolene on our family law dockets.

Lisa Toth: Jolene is the epitome of professional, always willing to help, always returning emails and phone calls even on cases that did not involve her, I will miss her smiling face!”

Judge Suzan Clark: I worked with Jolene in Child Support in Cowlitz County from 19881990. Even back then, she was the authority on all matters involving child support. I moved to Clark County in 1990 and she moved to Clark County shortly thereafter. I always called her if I had questions about child support issues after I went in to private practice. I really appreciated that she was always willing to help. When I went on the bench, there were so many times she or someone from her office helped in a family law case that had child support issues. Jolene made serving the community and to the bar a number one priority for her office. She will be greatly missed!

12

Dear Juris Prudence

Dear Not Ready, This is a tough situation. We are in a time where we are all striving for normalcy, while still understanding that the virus is very much out there and won’t just disappear because we are tired of isolation and Zoom meetings. I would suggest you work with this attorney, and the other attorneys in the space, to come to a solution that can address your concerns and keep you protected, while still allowing the other attorney to conduct their business in a way they feel is safe and appropriate for them. This is going to involve compromise on all parts, but you should be able to do that without sacrificing your personal health.

Here are a few suggestions to help you achieve this: You should calmly and clearly discuss your discomfort about returning to business as normal: "Look, I understand that we all want life to go back to normal ASAP and seeing clients is part of that. But I'm just not comfortable having people regularly in the office until [ n a m e yo u r c o n d i t i o n s . summer? __% Vaccination for

Dear Juris, I work in a shared office space with a few other solo practitioners/small practice attorneys. We have our own individual offices, but share a conference room, reception area, restroom, and kitchen. Up to recently, our office policy has been that our door is locked and we are closed to outside visitors and clients. However, with vaccines being rolled out and things slowly opening back up, one of the attorneys in my office space would like to start resuming in-person client meetings regularly.

They would either use their own personal office space or the conference room, depending on the size of the client party. This still makes me feel uncomfortable as I don’t want people coming in and out of our building all hours of the day. What should I do? -Not Ready for Visitors Clark County? Until 2022, until (whatever your conditions for being comfortable again are)].”

You should offer reasonable, practical solutions.

"For this to work, we all need to agree to a set of rules for clients. And we all need to enforce the rules together. If we can do that, then I would feel comfortable with having clients back in the office. For example: 1. Clients must wear masks that cover their face and mouth at all times. If they can't do that, then you meet them in the parking lot or somewhere outside our office.

2. The front door needs to be locked at all times unless a client has a meeting.

3. Hand sanitizer and spare masks should be part of our office budget.

4. Clients must have an appointment and can't show up unannounced.

5. You must inform everyone at the office when you will have a client meeting, so they can have notice and leave the office.

6. Clients can come into the office on Monday and Friday. I will plan to be gone on those days. or Clients can come in from 3-5 p.m. I will plan to be gone by 3.

7. Anything the client touches, the support staff/lawyer sanitizes.

8. I need to switch offices with __, because they have a window that opens and I would feel comfortable in my office with the door shut and the window open when clients are in the building."

Hopefully you will be able to agree on terms that allows everyone in your space to feel comfortable. I would advise you to figure out what your boundaries and non-negotiables are before you have the meeting so you have a clear idea of what is really important to you. Good luck and stay safe!

13

Police Body-Worn Cameras – A Call to Action On February 22, 2021, Clark County Prosecutor Tony Golik and the Action and Reform Committee (ARC) of the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office released a letter calling for local law enforcement agencies to implement bodyworn cameras and for local government to fund these programs. This letter was the result of many months of work and discussion internally and with local partners. Encouragingly, the response from local elected officials has been largely positive and Vancouver Defenders, the largest local public defense firm, has also supported the proposal.

The recent deaths of two young Black men, Kevin Peterson Jr. and Jenoah Donald, have shown a deep and immediate need for transparency, accountability, and the restoration, or creation, of trust in law enforcement in our community. Many community members, and many criminal law attorneys, have felt for years that body-worn cameras are a local necessity. This included many employees of the prosecutor’s office and police agencies; both the Vancouver Police Department and the Clark County Sheriff’s Office were previously considering how to implement body-worn cameras. Recent events, and strong calls from community groups, including the NAACP and LULAC, for greater transparency and accountability, convinced us immediate action was needed.

It is, of course, naïve to think body-worn cameras will definitively resolve every claim of police misconduct or end excessive force and misconduct completely.

Additionally, body-worn cameras will lead to complex public records, privacy, and discovery issues. However, these realities cannot justify ignoring a reform that is urgently demanded, readily available, and that will yield critical evidence of what occurs during interactions between the people and their government. While there are significant financial costs associated with body-worn cameras, the interests of transparency, truth, and justice far outweigh them.

Presently, the call to fund and implement body-worn cameras appears to have strong support and momentum. Unfortunately, past-experience shows this may fade over time and lead to inaction, until another tragic incident brings the issue back to the fore. Given this, please consider contacting your local city council, the Clark County Council, or other legislators to continue to drive this issue forward.

Each voice added to the chorus for change is valuable, and the voices of local bar members may be particularly persuasive on this issue.

James Smith Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for Clark County Action and Reform Committee member

15

How a local nonprofit went viral and helped forgive over $1 million in medical bills in 3 weeks. by: Eli Marchbanks How a local nonprofit went viral and helped forgive over $1 million in medical bills in 3 weeks. A few years ago I met a guy named Jared Walker and joined the Board of Directors for his nonprofit, Dollar For. At the time, Dollar For was raising money $1 at a time through recurring monthly donations, and using 100% of that money to help a local family with medical bills and related expenses. I was familiar with hospital f inancial assistance policies from the debt collection defense portion of my practice. I told Jared that most of the people he helps are eligible to have their medical bills forgiven by the hospital and, after a few test cases, we created Dollar For’s Debt Forgiveness Program.

For the uninitiated, it has been law in Washington for the last thirty years that hospitals have a financial assistance policy, also called a “charity care” policy. The policy must set parameters for when and how the hospital will forgive medical bills. It’s something a hospital must do if it’s going to operate as a non-profit entity. All policies in Washington

will forgive all debt for medically necessary care for a person at or under 200% of the federal poverty line based on household income and size. Most will give some benefit to people up to 400500% of the federal poverty line. While Washington and some other states have required this for years, a rarely discussed provision of the Affordable Care Act mandated non-profit hospitals nationwide have a financial assistance policy. The requirement went into effect in 2016.

In late 2018 I built an online tool for Dollar For that vetted a person’s eligible for financial assistance.

They could input the hospital, household size, and household income, and learn if they were eligible under that hospital’s financial assistance policy. If so, Dollar For would help the person through the financial assistance application process, and if the hospital denied their application, Dollar For would refer them to my firm, Navigate Law Group, and we would appeal the hospital’s decision pro bono. The program was reasonably successful. In its first year, 2019, it got about $1 million in medical debt forgiven, and in 2020, it did a little over twice that….then Tik Tok found out.

Shortly after the new year, Jared’s teenage sister told him that Dollar For “needed” to be on Tik Tok if he wanted to take its social media presence seriously.

Willing to give it a try, Jared created a short video giving a walk-through of the Dollar For office and a brief introduction about what we do. The video got about 500 views, so an encouraged Jared made another video explaining, in about 60 seconds, what hospital financial assistance policies are and how they work. While Jared slept that night the usual noise that makes up the internet parted and made way for this one 60 second, low-quality video to ascend to the top of the cloud for its “15 minutes of fame.”

Jared posted the video on a Friday night, and when he woke up on Saturday it had 50,000 views, then 10 minutes later it had 100,000 views, by the end of the day the numbers were in the hundreds of thousands.

Today, between Tik Tok and Twitter over 10 million people have viewed the video, with presumably millions more on Instagram.

Throughout the next 7 days the video appeared on the front page of Reddit, was in a Buzzfeed article, and was shared on social media by celebrities and influential people in healthcare policy such as Hozier and Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding (who Barack Obama and Andrew Yang follow on Twitter). Then every Dollar For social media account and email started getting flooded with (literally) tens of thousands of messages. Most messages were from people who are struggling with medical bills and need help, some were from people who were able to get their own debt forgiven after watching Jared’s video, and some were just showing their support. For days it was all-hands-on-deck to manage the influx of messages. Myself and many other volunteers spent any free time logging into one of the various accounts to respond to messages. It’s impossible to know how many people were able to relieve their own medical debt after watching the video and learning of their rights. What we can quantify is, of the thousands of people that Dollar For has now onboarded, in the last three weeks alone we’ve wiped out over $1 million in medical bills. If you have family, friends, or clients struggling with medical bills please do not hesitate to send them todollarfor.org/ debt-forgiveness. The viral Tik Tok video is linked on the same page for those interested.

Dollar For is raising money to hire additional staff to handle the volume of applications, and grow the program to more states. Please consider donating at charity.gofundme.com/o/ en/campaign/crush-medical-debt.

Seeking Medical Malpractice Attorney Jane Clark Legal PC., a successful Plaintiff medical malpractice firm, seeks an associate attorney to assist with substantial Washington and Oregon caseload. Responsibilities may include legal research, medical record review, discovery, drafting motions, attending depositions and hearings, interviewing witnesses, mediating and negotiating, trial preparation and sitting second-chair at trial.

The successful candidate will be self motivated, accurate, efficient, able to work under pressure, and have good interpersonal skills.

Hours can be flexible and pay will be based on experience and productivity.

A minimum of 2+ years PI experience required.

Medical malpractice experience preferred. WA and OR bar membership preferred. Send cover letter & resume to jane@janeclarklegal.com. 𓇼𓇼

Judge Veljacic Appointed to Division II Court of Appeals

After nearly 20 years of serving Clark County as a prosecutor and Superior Court judge, Judge Bernard Veljacic was appointed to the Washington State Court of Appeals, Division II in December 2020. CCBA Trustee, Dan Gasperino, reached out to Pam Loh, his former colleague at the Domestic Violence Prosecution Center, to conduct an interview with Judge Veljacic. Dan, in his wisdom, knew the interview with Judge Veljacic could be conducted with strict adherence to COVID precautions because Pam and Judge Veljacic share the same COVID bubble. On a recently snowy afternoon, Judge Veljacic took a break from sledding down the neighborhood hill with his kids to answer a few questions about his career.

What initially drew you to a career in the law?

I was the first in my family to graduate from college, so I was not familiar with a career outside of blue-collar work. During college I realized that I didn’t want to pursue medicine after a semester that included Calculus, Biology and Physics - I didn’t enjoy it and performed poorly. I took a pre-law class and had some interest in the area but when I asked the professor about career advice, he told me “you wouldn’t make a good lawyer.” It turns out he was wrong, and the law was my calling.

18

What have you learned in your time as a judge?

The first thing I learned is that there is a weight one bears when hearing cases.

It really is a physical stress from the tension of being on the bench, preparing, endeavoring to truly understand the grievances that litigants bring to court. At the same time, I learned that this role is critical and meaningful. The resolution that judges provide through our work sometimes (not always) brings closure. This allows people to move on with life. I also learned that you cannot hide up on the bench. People look to you for guidance and wisdom. They also expect you to be the most prepared person in the room. You’d better be.

What is the most difficult thing you have encountered as a judge?

Trial judges in courts of original general jurisdiction deal with difficult and sometimes horrific subject matter involving real people. The stories are theirs to tell.

What advice would you give to new judges and lawyers?

I think any lawyer worth their salt can do legal work. There’s no secret to it. The law is free and available to all, but you must take the time to read it and reason through it. In other words, it takes effort. Beyond that, what separates good lawyers and judges from the rest is the ability to convey legal principles to your clients and others. So, you might have a brilliant lawyer, but if they can’t talk to their client, and then pivot and convey their case to the court, they might be good at golf, or woodworking, or Sudoku puzzles, but they’re not good for much in the legal arena.

How has Clark County changed since you started practicing?

When I first started practicing in Clark County, I had already practiced in King County. My first day was January 16, 2001. I remember parking in a gravel lot, where the Public Service Center now sits. My office (I was a prosecutor) was in the courthouse on the third floor. At one point, the particular office I occupied was right where my bench turned out to be when I sat in Superior Court as the Department 5 judge. Talk about coming full circle. The bar was a bit smaller then but not by much. The County has grown tremendously since 2001. Increased population has brought mixed outcomes.

What is one item from your bucket list?

Visit the village of Bribir, Croatia, where my paternal grandfather was born.

19

What was your first car?

1965 VW bug. It was white. My wife and I have a lot of memories from our road trips around California during college.

What was your first job?

Mowing lawns in my neighborhood when I was 10. I’d mow, edge, and sweep up for $10. Additional work like trimming hedges and pulling weeds was extra. I had a few regular clients.

What is the most unpleasant sounding legal word/phrase?

Disgorge.

If you had a warning label, what would yours say?

“Don’t start this person to talking. You won’t be able to get him to stop.”

Favorite pandemic hobby: Duck hunting.

What song best describes your time in Clark County?

My time in Clark County has yet to be concluded because I will continue to reside here while presiding over cases in the Court of Appeals. Also: boiling it down to one song is difficult in light of the two decades of practicing here. Right now, considering circumstances in our beloved country I’d have to select Mercy, Mercy, Mercy by the Cannonball Adderley Quintet off the album Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!

Live at ‘The Club.’ This live version, with Cannonball’s comments, and the stirring encouragement from the crowd, as with many blues songs, makes you laugh in troubled times. It’s really counter to what one might think, but sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying.

(Written by Judge Veljacic’s wife, Pamela Loh) 20

Volunteer of the Month: March 2021 Erica Aquadro This month we are honoring a true gem in the Clark County legal community, Erica Aquadro. She is a kind and compassionate litigator and is the shining example of what it looks like to try to leave the world a better place than you found it. We've always admired that no matter how busy her own practice may be, Erica always strives to give more to her community. We have been lucky enough to get to "see" Erica on a quarterly basis as a family law attorney volunteer. This has been a huge blessing to our clients who after meeting with Erica, feel like they have all they need to be successful in their family law case. For all that she's contributed to our program and the community, we celebrate her as our March 2021 Volunteer of the Month. Thank you, Erica!

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got your start in the Clark County legal community: I grew up on the east coast in rural Virginia. I met my husband in Portland and we have three kids. I moved here because I was drawn to the pacific northwest – it has a lot of the same features I love about northern Virginia. I love Clark County in particular because it’s such a tight-knit community. When Judge Clark swore me in, I told her I wanted to practice family law and she let me know about the section’s monthly meetings. I walked in to the next meeting without knowing a soul and Kalka Thangkhiew invited me to sit with her. Judge Veljacic introduced me and joked that I should do QDROs because of my last name. I felt immediately welcome and knew I’d stumbled across something special.

Did you always know you wanted to be a family law attorney/what do you love most about practicing family law?

I always knew I wanted to practice family law. More than a few people advised against it or told me I would change my mind, but I persisted. There are only a few areas of law, in my opinion, that don’t come down to a dollar amount. In family law, we can see the real-time impact of our efforts and that can be immensely rewarding.

What is your favorite part about volunteering with the Clark County Volunteer Lawyers Program?

The people who run the program are very passionate about it and it feels wonderful to contribute to an organization like that. Oftentimes, in our work, we see individuals struggle to navigate the process without representation. The VLP allows us to reach more people than we otherwise would and, hopefully, make a positively impact.

What are some of your interests/passions outside of the legal world?

I love to travel and spend time outside with my family. My husband and I take our kids camping and hiking as much as we can. We love visiting the National Parks and hope to see them all eventually! I also enjoy art – especially impressionism and post-impressionism. I just got tickets to Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience in Seattle later this year – very much looking forward to that!

March 2021 Attorney Volunteers: Solo Practioners/In-house counsel/ Emeritus: Megan Bynum Tsering Cornell Ed Dawson Nelli Doroshkin Marlene Nagel Hansen Philip Foster Moloy Good Eric Hoffman Juliet Laycoe Howard Marshack Jeff Peterson Nancy Retsinas Mercedes Riggs

Law firms: Caron, Colven, Robison, & Shafton: Gideon Caron, Tom Hojem, & Benjamin Moody Conway Law: Joshua Volvovic Etengoff Pak Law Group: Nicholas Alexander Gevurtz Menashe: James Lutes Henderson Taylor: Jordan Taylor McKean Smith: Laura Mancuso & Deanna Rusch Morse Busby Andrews & Terry: David Commisa Navigate Law Group: Chelsie Elliott, Brian Grambow, Tanya Green, Amber Rushbanks, Eli Rushbanks, & Anna Russo Northwest Justice Project: LeeAnn Friedman, Jeff Keddie, & Laurie Garber 21 The Petersen Law Firm: Ryan Rothermel Philbrook Law Office: Adin Johnson Stahancyk, Kent, & Hook: Anne Ajayi & James Wriston

23

HEADER (CHANGE ON MASTER B)

24

CC BA

HEADER (CHANGE ON MASTER B)

Clark County Bar Association

CCBA NUTS & BOLTS CLE AN INSIDER’S VIEW OF WASHINGTON’S APPELLATE COURTS

Presented by: Dan Lloyd

May 12, 2021 3:00pm - 5:00pm via Zoom 2 Law and Legal CLE Credits $30.00 for CCBA Members $40.00 for Non Members $5.00 for Non Attorneys

25

Law Library Strengthen Your Searches with Boolean Terms and Connectors You have free access to Westlaw during the library’s closure using the link on the Law Library homepage. (https://clark.wa.gov/law-library) At the time of this writing, they are allowing up to 20 hours over a 14 day period per email address.

Our subscription covers primary law from all states and federal, as well as many secondary sources and practice aids such as Washington Practice, Am Jur, sample pleadings, etc.

Westlaw uses Boolean Terms and Connectors to allow you to construct a tighter search than just natural language. When you use a plain language search, you are allowing Westlaw to construct a search and you have lost control over how that search is run.

With Terms and Connectors, you retain control over exactly how your search will work.

When you use Search within results to narrow your results list, you must use Terms and Connectors.

Here is a chart of basic terms and connectors from Westlaw, with explanations for how to use each of them.

AND (&) – use this to connect two terms that must both appear anywhere in the document. Your results will have both of your terms, but not necessarily in relation to each other. For example, incapacity & dementia will only return results with both of those words somewhere in the document.

OR (OR) – use this to search for alternative terms. Your results will include documents that have any of the words. For example, you can search dog or canine to find documents that have either term. This is the default connector in Westlaw.

PHRASES (“ ”) – use quotation marks to search for a phrase. A search for “search warrant” will get you different and more limited results than search warrant.

26

Since Westlaw defaults to the OR connector, using two words like search warrant alone will be treated as a search for either the word search or the word warrant.

The quotes tells Westlaw to provide only results with those exact words as an exact phrase.

EXACT SEARCH (#) – if you put this in front of your search term with no space, it will search for that word exactly. For example, #damage will search for the word damage, and not for damages. Westlaw will automatically search for the plurals and synonyms of words you type so this disables that feature.

Use the root expander make your search broader: ROOT EXPANDER (!) – Add the exclamation point to the end of a root to get all possible endings of that term. For example, object! will return object, objection, objecting, and objected.

Finally, use some proximity connectors to find cases where multiple terms are actually interacting rather than appearing anywhere in the document. /p – the terms are in the same paragraph. Searching for incapacity /p dementia is a more narrow search than incapacity & dementia. +p – this specifies the order of the terms that must be in the same paragraph.

The first word must appear in the same paragraph before the second word, such as exception +p non-liability. /s and +s work the same way, but within a sentence rather than within a paragraph.

Searching for design /s defect! allows you to find documents where the two words are not used as an exact phrase, such as “the design was clearly defective” as well. /number – the slash followed by a number allows you to limit the two terms to being within that many words of each other. You can use this for terms that are often used as a phrase but not always, such as design /5 defect which will find documents where design is no more than 5 words apart from defect.

Remember the algebra rule that functions within parentheses operate first?

Westlaw follows the same logic. If you want to make sure that one operation happens first, put it in parentheses. So (stop /3 frisk) /p liability will find documents that have stop within 3 words of frisk and also have the word liability in the same paragraph.

Are you getting results that you don’t want? You can exclude terms.

BUT NOT (%) – put this directly in front of a term that you do not want at the end of your search string. So trust %charitable will return documents that have the word trust but not the word charitable.

Does this all seem too complicated? Next month we will talk about Advanced Search, where you let Westlaw help you construct a Boolean search.

27

B o o k ke e p i n g

Tips

by: Emanuela Sandri | Attorney Bookkeeping Services, Inc. Export Reports as Excel Workbooks in QuickBooks Desktop QuickBooks Desktop from Intuit is business accounting software that provides the ability to create and view detailed reports. To further customize a QuickBooks report, such as add notes, export QuickBooks report to Excel. Here’s how to save QuickBooks reports to Excel. Changes to the report in Excel do not affect any report data in QuickBooks.

1. In QuickBooks, find and open report, such as go to the Reports menu and select Reports Center.

2. Select the Excel on the toolbar (select Print or Email to save the report as a PDF).

3. To create a new Excel workbook, select Create New Worksheet. To update an existing workbook with the data in the open report, select Update Existing Worksheet. Select Browse and then find the workbook on your computer (this overwrites the existing workbook).

4. To format the data a specific way, select Advanced. This is optional.

Note: The report must have less than 256 columns.

If you see a message that says your report has too many columns, select Advanced. Select and uncheck the Space between columns checkbox, then select OK.

You can also save your report as a CSV instead of an Excel workbook and have more columns.

28

5. To open the report in Excel, select Export.

CC BA

CLARK COUNTY PROSECUTING ATTORNEY ACTION AND REFORM COMMITTEE (ARC) MISSION STATEMENT

We are here to comprehensively reconsider the role of the prosecutor in the Clark County criminal justice system. We are creative, forward-thinking, and inclusive in our Bar Association approach to justice. We are action-oriented and will turn ideas into policies.

When we do this work, we are mindful of the power we hold in the criminal justice system. Our decisions within all levels of our office have enormous impact for the accused, victims, families, and society. We recognize that it is our responsibility to foster a diverse and inclusive work environment. We will actively educate ourselves regarding systemic injustice and existing disparities. We commit to growing current inter-agency partnerships and to building strategic new ones within the community.

CCBA NUTS & BOLTS CLE

PUTTING THE REIGNS ON We understand this is a long-term commitment and evolving process that requires daily hard work. We accept this challenge. We own the responsibility to do better, LITIGATION ABUSES: AN OVERVIEW always --- as people and as the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. We will ensure that the promise of equal justice under the law is zealously pursued in our community.

OF NEWLY ENACTED RCW 26.51

Presented by: Nancy Retsinas

June 9, 2021 3:00pm - 5:00pm via Zoom 2 Law and Legal CLE Credits $30.00 for CCBA Members $40.00 for Non Members $5.00 for Non Attorneys 29

Register on the CCBA Website!

Clark County Bar Association HEADER (CHANGE ON MASTER B)

CCBA BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING MINUTES CLARK COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION March 3, 2021

Minutes for the CCBA Board of Trustees Meeting March 3, 2021 Virtual Meeting Via Zoom Called to order 12:34 Emrich, Larson, Phelan, Aquadro, Melnick, Gasperino, Spratt, Jacobs (Darco present) February 2021 board meeting minutes: motion to approve (Spratt/Melnick) Approved Treasurer’s Report (Melnick): We have the expected downturn in revenue due to our dues cycle. We are also down significant income from social event income loss during COVID. Some of the revenue loss is offset by lower expenses, like having no Barrister’s Ball expense.

Ongoing Items 1. Trustee Assignments 2. Hearsay: articles on Judge Banfield and Judge Veljacic are in. Meeting this week.

3. Social Committee: Phalen said that another coffee cart event is being planned. The committee is working on spring and summer ideas.

4. Membership: Aquadro and Emrich will give an update in April.

Previous Action Items 1. Clark County Courts Processes Evaluation (Emrich)

a. Emrich, Aquadro, and Jacobs will work on this when the membership committee is moving forward.

2. Office Relocation (Emrich)

a. The CCBA office is moved. They really like the new space. If you want to visit,

the office is open on Wednesdays and Thursdays (remote work on the other weekdays).

3. Email Problems (Darco)

a. Need to consider moving email to a more secure site. Issues predate the office move. Jacobs will work with Darco on the issue.

Current Action Items 1. Membership Update (Darco)

a. 400 members as of 3/2/21 (last year was 377). 39 people remain non-renewed.

The most recent increase is due to new members and not renewals.

30

2. Dues Modification for Indigent Defense Contractors (Emrich)

a. Melnick’s financial summary is available. Issue tabled due to CCBA’s income loss. Will

research what other bar associations do and discuss the issue again at the July board meeting.

3. Insurance: Abuse Procedures Policy (Darco)

a. Our insurer wants an abuse policy. Spratt will follow up on this.

4. General Meeting (Emrich)

a. The General Meeting is March 24th. A Court Update CLE will start at noon followed by the general meeting at 12:30. The forum and bar poll dates for the candidates applying for Judge Stahnke’s position will be announced at the meeting.

5. Bar Poll/Forum

a. Judge Stahnke will be retiring June 30th. Applications are due to Governor Inslee by March 22nd.

6. Discussion regarding revisiting Hearsay ad rates, email blast rate, and conference room rental rate.

7. Board Gathering (Emrich)

a. Possible after hours socially distanced office warming to come.

Adjourned

Representing Injured Workers on Their Washington Claims

Law Office of Steven L. Busick

(360) 696-0228 1915 Washington Street Vancouver, WA 98660

31

Clark County Superior Court

BENCH/BAR COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES CLARK COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT March 9, 2021

BENCH/BAR COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES CLARK COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT March 9, 2021 Persons in attendance: Nicholas Alexander (nick@vancouverwillsandtrusts.com), James Smith (james.smith2@clark.wa.gov), Jeffery Keddie (jefferyk@nwjustive.org), Dan Lloyd (Dan.Lloyd@ cityofvancouver.us), Jessi Anderson (jessi@ccvlp.org ), Lindsey Shafar (lindsey.shafar@clark.wa.org), Rachel Brooks (rachel@guardianship-law.com), Curtis Welch (cwelch@sussmanshank.com). Taylor Hallvik (taylor.hallvik@clark.wa.gov) Jim LeBlanc (jim@ccvlp.org ) Le Ann Larson (Leann.larson@ clark.wa.gov) Judge Vanderwood (Derek.Vanderwood@clark.wa.gov), and Judge Sheldrick (Emily. sheldrick@clark.wa.gov)

If you have matters that you would like to bring to the attention of the Bench/Bar, you are welcome to contact the above-mentioned members of the committee.

I. OLD BUSINESS: No old business to report.

II. NEW BUSINESS:

a. Judge Vanderwood: From Family law side – no real changes since last meeting.

Transitioning from Family Law Docket, my time is up in April; Judge Banfield taking my

place. Judges Lewis, Collier, and Banfield will be the Family Law Judges. Criminal update

– Supreme Court decision on Blake creating issues, a lot of motions coming in under

CR 7.8 – working on path moving forward on how we handle other 7.8 motions.

Might be agreements with prosecutor’s office. For practitioners, workgroup that

is going to include criminal and civil judge’s department that handled sentencing

for dealing with those issues. Clerk’s office is in process of coordinating. We are

identifying which dept is responsible for handling those – hopefully sounds more

complicated than it will be. Mask update - bench reviewed – we are mindful in the

courtroom, mask required. Will be a responsibility of everyone to ensure everyone

is compliant. Looks like judge Sheldrick is taking over for Judge Veljacic on Bench/Bar Committee.

i. Dan: I commend the court for how smooth zoom hearings are going. How long motion dockets will be handled via zoom?

1. Judge Vanderwood: Not sure how long this may be available moving forward. This may be a component longer term. We will be having those

discussions. Not excluding personal appearances. May be something we keep long-term.

2. Judge Sheldrick: Maybe hear from practitioners to see what hearings work best, first appearances etc. feedback to the bench is appreciated.

ii. Jeff Keddie: from the public feedback is appropriate. Some find it easier to appear.

iii. Jim LeBlanc: Much easier for DV victims to appear - not in the same courtroom as alleged abuser. Also much less work to appear; It is an access to justice issue.

iv. James Smith: Sentencing hearings have been beneficial to appear remotely, given the passage of time, much less onerous to appear remotely if victim moved from the area. Also due to shackling issue, not marched through lobby and photographed. I know there was issues with ability to argue for less bail; there may be counterpoints to consider.

v. Lindsay Shaffer: Concern, but thankfulness from defense bar, to be in multiple hearings at once. Megan Payton has been contracted to appear on first appearance docket, may be expanded to different hearings depending on budget.

b. Lindsey: Update on remote connectivity – contracted position is hired and here, started a few weeks ago, handling zoom meetings with defense attorneys. Multi hundreds of thousands of dollars for complete connectivity.

c. James: on the 25th of Feb Blake was issued, that case effectively invalidated a drug possession statute. In response to that PO dismissed all cases with that element and jail released those in custody. Office is working with court to smooth out. Motion to Reconsider before the court. Large number of resentencing hearings will be need to be addressed. On the legislative front, two bills, one would decriminalize personal use drugs and route funds to treatment. No perspective how likely will pass. Jury trials resume on the 15th of March.

i. Jeff: if the NJP has an LFO, any specific way we contact PO? Or standard was to handle LFO?

1. James: Aaron Bartlett is the team leader for appellate team. If he is not the person then will point you in the right direction.

d. Rachel: Netflix “I care a lot” guardian rips people off and chaos ensued. Free CLE coming up Monday the 15th. Email to RSVP. Email to Rachel to RSVP.

e. Jeff: Will be handling training for minor UGA March 22nd noon – 3. Specifically, for attorneys for minor guardianship for minor and parents.

i. Local civil rule for courtesy copies. Emergency order in place. Each copy needs to designate judicial officer and time of hearing at the Header. But courtesy copies not requested because of COVID.

f. Judge Sheldrick: March 15th date for trials to resume; that is a date that the court is hopeful to be able to keep to, and with the stagnation of numbers looks like we will stick to that date.

i. Taylor Hallvik: Is there a set number of trials, capacity to handle, or what is the procedure?

ii. Vanderwood: Still using the fairground for jury selection, Shifts back to courthouse. Can handle at least two, maybe more. Good news we can move forward. We think we will have enough capacity for now.

g. Curt: Mock Trial went technically well. Amazing we were able to pull it off with teams and students. From my end, ran smoothly.

h. Dan: Mock Trial was incredibly impressive. Presented compelling cases digitally. The continuation of remote hearings, the city, especially at misdemeanor level, wresting with Blake. We are taking a look at pending cases and some that have sentencing aspects.

Not dealing with as much PO. Blake is a bigger deal than advertised. James mentioned Bill 5468 – will add “knowingly” to statute. Was introduced after cutoff for 2021, so will likely will not get passed this year.

i. Jessi: The Bill 5160, Landlord-tenant issue is sitting in House. One thing still remains is right to counsel for eviction if indigent clients. We have been approached by Office of Civil Legal Aid to see about setting up a program; lot of unknowns, and need direction from court - if there will be a docket limit, or if we are going to add a day, or how many courts will see so we can address the number of attorneys we will need – so we can talk to Office of Civil Legal Aid.

i. Judge Gregerson will be the contact person.

j. LeAnn Larson: I am replacing Jolene Sell, who retired, on this committee. Family law Pro Se Final Orders dockets will start again for stipulated and default final orders, submitted ex parte via the Clerk’s Office, that have flaws preventing entry. The State is monitoring the Emergency Minor Guardianship Petition dockets for State interest cases. Often an emergency petition and a regular minor guardianship petition are both filed for each child.

k. Jim LeBlanc: I am the new staff attorney at CCVLP for domestic abuse, with the temporary orders process we are in, for majority of ex parte its fine. The amount of time it’s taking not a big hit - But if an immediate restraining order is needed, I don’t think it should take Tuesday to Friday for that to happen. Wondering if there is a creative solution for IPOs to have court look at same day like they used to.

Submitted order for IPO on Tuesday and was not signed until Friday.

34

l. Jeff Keddie: We have a very respected VLP around the state.

i. Vanderwood: Current process for IRO is being reviewed by assigned family law judicial officer. If they are unavailable, if the JO is sick, out of the office etc., solution might be to go to the ex parte judicial officer. Would be helpful to know case # so we know if isolated number.

i. Chorus of agreement

m. Vanderwood: Transitions in early May – designated guardianship judge, for a short period of time, Judge Stahnke’s announced retirement - which has been posted. Single judge for guardianship and probate. Cascadia Tech won Mock Trial, honored with 1st place attorney and witness.

Respectfully Submitted, Nicholas Alexander

35