[WSBAPT] Note about King County Ex Parte - Regular vs Expedited service

[Laura Latta]

Brent,
Thank you for this insight. The explanation of the "single pile" helps
explain (to some extent) why I recently received TWO orders on the ONE ex
parte application from two different commissioners. It was all sorted in a
reasonable amount of time, but I did wonder how it ended up in front of two
different judges. Despite this one occurrence, I agree that the regular ex
parte service in King County is very efficient and usually works quite
well.
Warmly,
Laura


*Laura LattaLaw Office of Laura Latta PLLC*

she/her

Phone (206) 841-2344

www.LauraLatta.com

4010 Lake Washington Blvd. NE Ste. 202

Kirkland, WA 98033



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On Thu, Oct 24, 2024 at 10:40 AM Brent Williams-Ruth <
brent at williams-ruthlaw.com> wrote:

> Greetings List Members -
>
> Just wanted to share a recent experience I had and talk about Ex Parte Via
> the Clerk in King County.
>
> I filed an Ex Parte request opening probate on Monday the 21st (the Will
> previously delivered and showed up in KC Script). I just got the email back
> from the Clerk's office.  A judge signed the order on Tuesday the 22nd, it
> was received and stamped filed by the Clerk on the 23rd, and I got the
> Letters Testamentary stamped filed today, the 24th.
>
> I am not complaining, just showing the timeline.
>
> Now, this was sent REGULAR service, not expedited.
>
> For those who do not know, Expedited is NOT WORTH THE MONEY and can
> sometimes lead to actual delays.  Allow me to give a very simplified
> explanation as to how it works (as told to me by a Clerk's office
> employee).
>
> When you submit regular Ex parte, all of the documents, files, etc. go
> into a single pile....Judges, Commissioners, anyone who has time to help
> bring that pile down (in addition to those scheduled to work it) can simply
> log into the system and run through as many orders as they have time for.
> This recent case of mine was signed by Judge Kristin Ballinger who is in
> Kent on the "General Trials" docket. My guess is she had time on Tuesday
> afternoon and so she just went to work to help clear out some Ex Parte
> things.
>
> Now, what happens with Expedited is that the PROMISE FOR SERVICE is only
> that the Clerk will deliver it to a Judge within 15 minutes of being
> received. That is it. There is no guarantee that the judicial officer will
> get to it.  Real story of mine (and why I called to learn about this) is
> that I had a year-end probate and a client wanted to get it going before
> they left for the start of new years. So I paid the fee for expediting. It
> was taken to a Judicial officer that didn't get to it and then went on
> vacation.
>
> Why is this a problem? Because my case was NO LONGER PART OF THE GENERAL
> STACK available for anyone who may have time - and my request SAT on that
> desk until said judicial officer returned from their time off.
>
> All this to say - I have never used expedited since that time and I
> actually did a calculation of total days from submission to return of
> Letters since January and the average was 3.7 days.
>
> I wanted to share this just in case anyone out there had a misconception
> (like I did) about what expedited service meant and the potential
> drawbacks.
>
> *Brent Williams-Ruth* (pronouns: he/him)
> *Attorney-At-Law*
>
> *Law Offices of Brent Williams-Ruth, **a division of BWR Consulting, PLLC*
>
> *Physical Address: 500 S 336th Street, Suite 214; Federal Way, WA 98003*
>
> *Mailing Address: **PO BOX 3319; Federal Way, WA 98063 *
>
> Office/Scheduling Phone: (253) 285-7751
>
> For All Meetings & Scheduling: info at williams-ruthlaw.com
>
> e-mail <Brent at Williams-RuthLaw.com> / website
> <http://www.williams-ruthlaw.com/> / facebook
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