Stevens County Court Backlog Finally Addressed Additional ‘Law-And-Motion’ Day Approved After Years Of Silence

The first agreement in years between Pend Oreille County’s two Superior Court judges is causing a stir among the county’s lawyers.

The county bar association was preparing a letter last week to protest a reduction in the number of days in which defendants are arraigned and lawyers may present motions in criminal and civil cases.

Judge Larry Kristianson and newly elected Judge Rebecca Baker say the reduction is an experiment aimed at relieving crowded dockets in Stevens County, which they also serve. Stevens County will get a fifth “law-and-motion” day each month, while Pend Oreille drops from four to three.

The judges serve Ferry County in addition, but there is no change in that county’s three monthly law-and-motion days.

“I think it is pretty well undisputed that there has been a complete overload of the Stevens County law-and-motion dockets,” Baker said. “They run really, really late.”

She said she and Kristianson talked about the problem last fall after she was elected and came up with the plan they now are implementing. Noting her former practice was based in Ferry County, Baker said she is convinced Pend Oreille County can adapt.

Kristianson said he and Baker are prepared to work longer days in Pend Oreille County if necessary.

The judges plan to streamline the process by eliminating automatic settlement conferences in divorces and other family law cases.

Many of the conferences are predictably ineffective and simply delay trials, Kristianson said. He said he and Baker plan to schedule settlement conferences only when attorneys “tell us they think it’s going to do some good.”

That prompted Newport attorney Brian Geissler to suggest seeking a court order to enforce local bar rules requiring settlement conferences. But he and other attorneys conceded Kristianson and Baker control the rules.

No change was possible until retiring Judge Fred Stewart left office Jan. 10.

“Fred Stewart and I couldn’t talk about any administrative ideas,” Kristianson said. “We couldn’t talk about anything, but it’s not like that with Rebecca.”

The tri-county judicial district was so paralyzed by the bitterness between Stewart and Kristianson that the state Supreme Court had to appoint an outside judge to settle some of the larger conflicts.

Attorney Doug Lambarth, Geissler’s partner, was the most vocal critic of the new law-and-motion schedule at the meeting earlier this month in which 12 members of the Pend Oreille County Bar Association unanimously decided to register a protest.

“Let’s face it, Kristianson is trying to penalize us here for what happened in the election,” Lambarth said, referring to Baker’s triumph last fall over Kristianson’s friend Andrew Braff.

Braff lost to Baker by a greater margin, about 900 votes, in Pend Oreille County than elsewhere in the judicial district, Lambarth said.

“That sounds like paranoia,” Kristianson said.

Lambarth also said he thinks Kristianson is taking advantage of Baker’s desire to “minimize the historical conflict” between the district’s judges.

“This is the first test of whether she is going to be an independent judge,” Lambarth said.

Baker said she is “mindful that people are watching me in that regard,” and she believes it is important for the judges to be independent. But, she added, “I certainly don’t intend to make wrong or uncooperative decisions just to make an appearance.”

Besides, she added, it is Kristianson more than her who the public will expect to demonstrate cooperation. She said he has been “very conciliatory” about accepting some changes she wants.

One of those is introduction of a seminar on “children of divorce” for divorcing couples, Baker said, noting that the seminar is taught by Lambarth’s wife, Janet Kiser.

Both Baker and Stewart said an overload in Stevens County was the only reason for their decision to adjust the law-and-motion schedule.

Stevens County completed 1,113 cases of all types in 1995, the most recent year for which official statistics are available from the Washington Court Administrator’s Office. That was 2.4 times Pend Oreille County’s 467 cases, and 4.4 times Ferry County’s 254.

Stevens County pays half of the local costs of the judicial district, while Pend Oreille County pays 30 percent and Ferry County pays 20 percent. The formula is a political agreement based on numerous factors.

Geissler suggested lobbying the Legislature for a third judge, but that might be a hard sell. Studies by the state Court Administrator’s Office indicate the district has exactly the number of judges it needs.

While some Pend Oreille County attorneys seem to share Lambarth’s anti-Kristianson suspicions, many - including all three deputy prosecutors - are simply concerned about the loss of court time.

“Drastic reductions in the amount of available law-and-motion days will result in huge backlogs,” said Linda Mathis, president of the Pend Oreille County Bar Association.

Prosecutor Tom Metzger, who was out of town when the bar discussed the issue, said he thinks the new arrangement may not be so bad.

“If you can work smarter and get down to business, I think it’s not going to hurt to give it a try,” Metzger said. “If we’re having problems, we’ll sure as heck sing out.”

, DataTimes