Brian Carr
11301 NE 7th St, Apt J5
Vancouver, WA 98684
brian@brian.carr.name
503-545-8357

Mary Williams, Solicitor General
Erika Hadlock, #91297
1162 Court Street
Salem, OR 97301

I would like for you to consider submitting an Amicus Curiae brief in Washington Supreme Court case 78768-9 which is under consideration for review. This case is closely related to Oregon Court of Appeals Case A132012.

To avoid the restrictions of RCW 26.50.020 (5), the Clark County Superior Court had appointed all the District Court judges as Superior Court Commissioners. That would be fine except that Washington State Constitution, Article IV, Section 23 limits the appointment of such Commissioners in any given county to 'not exceeding three in number' and Clark County Superior Court appointed nine. Sadly, the likely effects of correcting this error are highly disruptive.

I submitted an appeal to the Court of Appeals (Case 32671-0-II) with a question of:

Can the Superior Court in any given county make more than three valid simultaneous appointments of Commissioners who aren't Family Court Commissioners? The trial court answered in the affirmative.

and submitted as evidence copies of Orders appointing four Commissioners who weren't Family Court / Law Commissioners. The response of the Court of Appeals was:

Carr argues that his due process rights and his right to have a judge adjudicate his case were violated because Clark County allegedly appointed more than three court commissioners. However, a family law commissioner is not a "commissioner" within the meaning of the constitutional provision limiting the number of court commissioners in counties.

The Court of Appeals simply ignored the question before it and answered a well understood question which is not relevant to the case at hand.

This is relevant in Oregon as the same question is posed in Oregon Court of Appeals Case A132012 where the Orders appointing four Superior Court Commissioners in Clark County who are not Family Court / Law Commissioners are in the record and that same question was posed before the Multnomah Circuit Court. If you conclude that it would be better for the Washington courts to interpret the requirements of the Washington State Constitution so that Oregon courts can enforce Washington orders without that burden, you are encouraged to submit an Amicus Curiae brief to the Washington Supreme Court asking that the original question submitted to the Washington Court of Appeals be answered. I can assist you with the formatting requirements for the Brief if that would be of assistance to you. The content would be quite straight forward (just a portion of this letter) and extremely non-controversial. Your attention to this matter is appreciated.

Sincerely,


Brian Carr