District Court South Division

daniel wells

This was the location of a prolonged case that I had endure against my ex-girlfriend in 2017. I, unfortunately, had Judge Fraser - who allowed this case to happen in the first place. Judge Fraser accepted a complaint against me without evidence, about acts that didn't happen, and allowed a case to go on for 6 long hearings before finally doing the right thing and allowing the case to be dropped - but even then, did so reluctantly. The lack of professionalism and ability to think objectively that I observed was mind boggling. I would seriously consider directing your cases to other courts unless you are guaranteed to have a judge other than Fraser.

Easy Breezy

will never forget Judge Beth Fraser took the time to help my wife and I get married here a year ago with less than two weeks notice days before I had to fly down to deploy out of San Diego, CA - she's one of the great ones!

Britton Kavanaugh

I decided to try a Contested Hearing by mail but I've been worrying that I'm going to do it incorrectly or that it isn't going to arrive on time and have now called twice with questions. Both times I've received the help I needed, but today I was so impressed and frankly surprised and even moved by the care I received over the phone. Not only were my questions answered regarding the timing of when it needs to be received by, etc but the young lady I spoke with looked up my infraction and asked me questions to make sure I had done everything correctly, she let me know it had not yet been received and advised that I call to follow up and make sure it was in today's mail. I don't know who I spoke with but I would love to thank her again - She has really put my mind at ease.

Dino Martinez

This court is Ex A in a broken judicial system that rewards incompetence. You get pro-tem judges who are nothing more than inexperienced attorneys dressed up as judges for a day. These attorneys posing as temporary judges generally have no experience in your type of case, and will naturally botch the job as a result. I had the misfortune of drawing pro-tem judge Jessica Ness (a criminal defense atty) in my small claims medical malpractice case. She had absolutely NO CLUE what I was talking about, refused to look at a book of 30+ exhibits (the court lost the exhibits even though I filed them on time), and complained throughout each case she heard how long the cases were taking as if she had somewhere else she preferred to be. (Three cases on the docket--min. 50 mins each=3 hours total, duh. It’s not hard to see why she didn’t get the Edmonds Municipal Court judgeship she applied for a couple years ago--lucky for Edmonds!) Ness had to keep taking recesses after testimony to go into chambers and look up the laws she was totally unfamiliar with (e.g., landlord-tenant). She took a week to wrangle a verdict for my case (I won.). The this court's judges have been sanctioned by the CJC in the past for prior problems. The CJC deemed that Ness exercised “poor judgment” but didn’t punish her. In a normal profession, if you are terrible at your job, you get fired. In the professional classes (law, medicine), you get enabled, protected and promoted. The system protects itself, and you get forced through time-consuming, expensive appeals processes in Superior Court (while each court keeps collecting fees) because of their incompetence. Move your case to a different jurisdiction if you can. Don’t waste your time or money here.