Replacement announced for David Thorn
Spokane County Superior Court judges announced Thursday that they have appointed local attorney James M. Triplet to replace retiring court Commissioner David Thorn.
Triplet, who turns 41 next month, was chosen from 37 applicants and six finalists in a process that began on June 1.
Presiding Judge Linda Tompkins said Thorn “is very well-respected by our bar, so we wanted to make sure that his replacement was of very high caliber.” She said the choice was difficult, but Triplet’s “competence and his qualifications just emerged.”
Triplet has served as a fill-in commissioner pro tem about once or twice a month for the past seven years, and his practice is in the family law and juvenile issues handled by the county’s six court commissioners.
He is a guardian ad litem, representing the interests of children in various court proceedings, and serves on the Spokane County Superior Court Guardian Ad Litem Committee.
“It’s an exciting opportunity,” Triplet said. “I have had some experience as a part-time pro tem commissioner, and I’m looking forward to the challenge of doing it full time.”
A private practitioner, Triplet plans to close his law office in the coming month.
He earned a business degree from Eastern Washington University in 1984 and a law degree from Gonzaga University in 1988. Before opening his own law firm in 1993, Triplet worked for Mary E. Schultz & Associates.
Other finalists for the commissioner position, whose names were obtained through a public disclosure request, were: Julie McKay, Lisett Carter, James Woodard and Arthur Hayashi, all of Spokane, and Tri-Cities attorney Sharon M. Brown.
Tompkins declined to discuss how much support each candidate had among the county’s 12 elected judges, but said the judges are now “all solidly behind Mr. Triplet.”
Thorn retires today, on his 55th birthday, after 25 years as a commissioner.
He and the other commissioners assist judges with pretrial work in divorce, paternity, dependency, guardianship, anti-harassment, domestic violence and juvenile offender cases. Thorn’s particular duties, focusing on school truancies, will be assumed by Triplet.
The job pays $103,676 a year, compared with $121,972 for Superior Court judges. The judges’ salaries are set to go up to $124,411 on Oct. 4, but they and county commissioners haven’t yet decided whether the court commissioners will get a raise.