All proceedings in Superior Court are conducted according to the State Court Rules issued by the Washington State Supreme Court as well as local rules which are issued by the various county Superior Court Judges. In order to conduct a case in the Superior Court for Cowlitz County, you should be familiar with both as they may apply to your case.
The Statewide Court Rules can be found at the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) in Olympia which is: www.courts.wa.gov
The local rules for Cowlitz County Superior Court are also available on that site, but we maintain a more user-friendly version below.
Civil Trial Case Scheduling Rules
These rules are intended to help manage the caseloads in Superior Court and to efficiently move civil cases from filing to final decision in a consistent manner. Our courts carry a very large case load of both civil and criminal matters, and these rules help provide more definite trial dates by not scheduling matters for trial that are not actually ready for trial. It is a different test than simply having an "Answer" files, in legal terms, "At Issue". Local Rules 16 and 40 are the operative sections and must be followed in order to get a trial date set. Both of these rules can be viewed at the links above.
PROPOSED LOCAL COURT RULES FOR COWLITZ COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT FOR COMMENT PURSUANT TO GR 7:
Below please find the proposed local court rules for Cowlitz County Superior Court posted for comment. [ Note that some of these rules were already adopted by Emergency Order, with an effective date of January 1, 2023, but must be reposted for comment to become effective under the regular local court rules as of September 1, 2023.] Any comments should be emailed to Judge Marilyn Haan at haanm@cowlitzwa.gov, with a copy to her Judicial Assistant, Autumn Terry at terrya@cowlitzwa.gov. These proposed rules will be up for comment for 30 days from the date of posting on the Cowlitz County Superior Court website.
CCJulCR 3.12 - Timing of Filing Documents in Dependency Proceedings
CCJulCR 3.13 - Electronic Telephone Appearance
CCLAR 10 - Email Communication
CCLCAR 2.1 - Transfer to Arbitration
CCLCR 87 - Remote Hearing Procedures
CCLCR 4.1 - Repeal - Automatic Temporary Order
CCLCR 10 - Form of Pleadings and Other Papers
CCLCR 11 - Signing and Drafting of Pleadings Motion and Legal Memoranda..
CCLCR 16 - Repealed - Pretrial Procedure and Formulating Issues
CCLCR 40 w Chg - Assignment of Cases
CCLCR 59 - New Trial Reconsideration and Amendment of Judgment
CCLCR 77 - Superior Court and Judicial Officers
CCLCR 88 - Contested Domestic Hearings
CCLCR 91 w Chg - Mandatory Settlement Conferences in Domestic Relations Actions
CCLCR 92 - Finalizing Family Law Cases
CCLCR 93 - Mandatory Mediation
CCLCR 98 - Guardians ad Litem. Court Visitor
CCLCR XX - PROPOSED Restoration of Firearm Rights 4.28.23
CCLCrR 3.9 - Hearings Pursuant to CrR 3.6 and CrR 8.3 (c)
CCLCrR 4.11 w Chg - Miscellaneous
CCLGALR 8 - Guardian ad Litem Disciplinary Procedures
CCLGR 17 w Chg - Electronic Transmission
CCLSPR 93.07 - Assignment of Contested Adoption Termination Trials
COMMENTS:
Meredith Long, May 11, 2023:
Regarding CCLCR 40, I have the following comments:
New paragraph (8) is identical to new paragraph (5) and should be deleted.
New paragraph (9) is identical to new paragraph (6) and should be deleted.
New paragraph (10) is in conflict with new paragraph (7) and should be deleted.
Staci Myklebust, May 30, 2023:
CCLAR 12 (3)(IV) “A Superior Court Clerk shall advise the party of the decision made by the judicial officer.” When documents are left for ex parte presentation we are not contacting the parties when the documents come back. We advise parties they can check back in 24 – 48 hours, we are not staffed to accommodate notifying everyone that leaves documents to be signed.
CCLCR 10 (3)(i) “If a pleading or other item is rejected by the County Clerk’s office, then the County Clerk’s office shall file a document identifying the pleading or item that was rejected, the reason for rejection, and the name of the person that submitted it for filing.” This is contradictory to (3)(h) that gives us the ability to reject documents. It is not practical or feasible for us to document all rejected pleadings. The parties are well aware of what is being rejected and why when they bring it to our office. Mailed documents are followed up with a phone call or return mail.
