Washington State Supreme and Appellate Court Decisions

Supreme Court
1939 to July 2010 - Advance Sheets
July 2010 to Present - Slip Opinions

Court of Appeals
1969 to July 2010 - Advance Sheets
July 2010 - Present - Slip Opinions

Washington Reports
1854 to 1889 - Territory Reports
1889 to 1939 - Washington Reports

SUPPORT THIS SERVICE

Please consider helping to support the MRSC municipal code and court decision legal research service, and receive acknowledgement on the MRSC Web site. Even though MRSC's funding level only supports our mission of serving city and county officials in the state of Washington, we have provided public access to our Web site since 1995. While we would like to continue to provide the public with access to laws and court decisions, this adds to the cost of maintaining our systems. If your law, engineering, architectural, planning or real estate firm or other business finds value in having full text access to these codes and court decisions on the Internet, we encourage you to help support the system. We will list your firm, along with a link to your Web site, as a supporter of the system

ABOUT OUR DATA

The sources of the data for the Washington State Supreme and Appellate Court Decisions are the bound volumes of decisions for those issued before 1994, the advance sheets for those through July 2009, and slip opinions thereafter.

In May 2004, MRSC added the capability to search Washington State Supreme Court decisions from 1889 to 1939, as well as Washington Territorial Supreme Court decisions from 1854 to 1889. These are provided for historical reference purposes.

Although we strive for accuracy, the data does not absolutely mirror the report of the opinions in the official reports of the opinions of the Washington Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. All data on this site should be checked against the official reports, which can be found at all county law libraries in the state of Washington.

The website includes Court of Appeals unpublished opinions filed since July 2009. The unpublished opinions are preceded by the warning "DO NOT CITE." Unpublished opinions should not be relied on as precedent in any materials provided to courts.

The Washington official reports are the sole authoritative source of Washington judicial opinions. For the Supreme Court, the official report is Washington Reports 2d Series (Wn.2d); for the Court of Appeals, the official report is Washington Appellate Reports (Wn. App.). To ensure accuracy, all data on this website should be checked against the report of the opinion in the official reports. Judicial opinions proceed through several stages before assuming a final form. The appellate court first issues a "slip opinion," which is posted on the Washington courts website at http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/. Each slip opinion is superseded by the report of the opinion in the official reports "advance sheets," which in turn is superseded by the report of the opinion in the official reports "bound volume."

Reporting opinions involves a continuing process of editing and refining that doesn't stop until the opinion is published in the bound volume. Multiple changes are made to each opinion between each stage. The most common type of change corrects technical matters such as citation, style, and grammar. Substantive changes that affect the opinion's meaning and opinion withdrawals result in formal court orders that are circulated to the parties and all legal publishers. Depending on when they are issued, such orders are incorporated into the report of the opinion in the advance sheets or the bound volume.

On this website, pre-1994 opinions are from bound volumes. Opinions from 1994 to July 2009 are from advance sheets. The most recent information, from July 2009 forward, comes from slip opinions on the Washington courts website. We plan to refine this information as better data become available.

Approximately 70 percent of Court of Appeals opinions are designated "unpublished," meaning that they lack precedential value and may not be cited as authority to a court. See RAP 10.4(h). This database contains unpublished opinions starting in July 2009. Unpublished opinions are labeled "UNPUBLISHED OPINION" in the case captions and are preceded by the warning "DO NOT CITE. SEE RAP 10.4(h)."

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Headnotes, case summary paragraphs, and other editorial matter: Copyright 1975-1995 State of Washington; Copyright 1995-2000 Thomson West; Copyright 2000-2002 Matthew Bender & Company, Inc. No copyright in the text of opinions.