Contact:
E-mail
Olympia
PO Box 40110
Olympia, WA 98504-0110
Seattle
800 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2000
Seattle, WA 98104
The Licensing and Administrative Law Division is comprised of 16 attorneys and 14 professional staff in Olympia and Seattle. The division provides full legal services to the Department of Licensing and the Employment Security Department. It also provides legal advisors for a number of the state’s boards and commissions, including the Board of Accountancy, Public Disclosure Commission, the Liquor Control Board, Salmon Recovery Funding Board, Columbia River Gorge Commission, Growth Management Planning Boards, Environmental Hearings Office, Executive Ethics Board, and many others.
The division handled more than 2,500 cases in calendar year 2005 in a variety of administrative, state and federal forums, with just under a half coming to closure. The division has expertise in the areas of administrative and appellate procedure, public records and open public meeting issues and professional and driver and vehicle licensing issues. Most recently, the division has also handled numerous tribal/state issues regarding fuel tax.
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The division provides legal services that include advice and counseling on rule-making, contracts, policy writing and proposed legislation, as well as representation in actions filed against client agencies and their employees and officers. In addition, attorneys represent the state in regulatory prosecutions before administrative tribunals, appeals to superior court of administrative hearing decisions and in other actions against the state in federal courts or the Washington state appellate courts.
Steady litigation handled by the division includes:
- Employment Security Department: Appeals in Washington State courts seeking review of decisions granting or denying unemployment benefits and tax warrant cases, usually at the appeal level, in which the department seeks payment of unemployment insurance taxes from employers.
- Department of Licensing: Appeals in superior court where drivers challenge their breath test results or their refusal to take breath tests when suspected of drinking and driving.
- License suspension appeals in superior court for uninsured drivers involved in vehicle accidents where there is personal injury or property damage.
- Disciplinary cases brought before administrative law judges against professional licensees, such as real estate licensees and vehicle dealers, and tax assessment matters against motor vehicle fuel distributors.
- State Board of Accountancy: Disciplinary cases initiated by the board against certified professional accountants who violate the licensing law.
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Department of Licensing
Tribal Fuel Tax Litigation: Since late 2003, several tribes have sought to prevent the collection of the state fuel tax on sales of fuel from tribally owned retail stations on their reservations. The department has the authority to enter into agreements with tribes relating to the collection of tax on sales to tribal members and nonmembers, but the tribes seek a broader exemption. Consent decrees have been reached with two tribes, and other agreements with two other tribes.
Traffic Stops: Lewis et al. v. DOL. The State Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision on four consolidated cases (three criminal convictions for DUI and one judicial review of a driver’s license revocation), held conversations between traffic stop detainees and police officers are not private conversations under the state privacy act, RCW 9.73.
Motor Vehicle Excise Tax: Larson v. Seattle Popular Monorail Authority (SPMA), DOL. In this case arguing there was an impermissible delegation of taxing authority and raising other claims, the State Supreme Court upheld the authority of the SPMA to levy a motor vehicle excise tax (MVET), a tax collected by DOL and remitted to the SPMA.
Driving Schools: DOL v. Gary Probst. The department settled the administrative charges it filed against the owner of several driving schools, which ended his ability to operate the schools and teach in the schools for many years. The action was based upon the licensee’s failure to disclose a prior military conviction, and other reasons.
Employment Security Department
Unemployment Compensation Benefits: Starr v. ESD. The department prevailed in this case, which was a statutory interpretation challenge to the exclusivity of the list of ten good-cause reasons for quitting a job and receiving unemployment benefits under a 2003 unemployment insurance reform statute.
Foreign Farmworkers and the Federal H2-A Program: ESD and L & I v. Global Horizons. The federal H-2A program provides visas for foreign farm workers when employers can demonstrate that insufficient domestic workers are available. The employer submits an H-2A application to the U.S. Department of Labor and to ESD, the state agency administering the job service system. ESD discontinued providing job service system services to Global Horizons, a California company specializing in foreign farm labor, based on Global’s misrepresentations of the terms/conditions of employment and its failure to comply fully with assurances made on job orders. The Department of Labor and Industries also revoked Global’s state farm labor contractor license. The two agencies and Global negotiated a settlement that imposed additional conditions and oversight. When Global failed to comply with the settlement, Global’s licenses were revoked.
Liquor Control Board
Liquor Price Posting: Costco vs. LCB et al. Costco filed an antitrust lawsuit in U.S. District Court, arguing that the laws the LCB enforces relating to beer and wine in particular, its price posting system for liquor, the 10 percent minimum markup requirement for distributors, and the ban on quantity discounts violates antitrust laws and that the LCB is not exempted from antitrust prohibitions. Following trial in 2006, the district court ruled for Costco on several claims and the case has been appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Public Disclosure Commission
Campaign Finance and Disclosures. The PDC, which oversees the state’s campaign finance and disclosure laws, is a high profile client for the division. Created by an initiative in 1972, the PDC is an agency that provides division attorneys opportunities to provide advice in First Amendment/free speech and campaign finance law. The PDC has won several national awards for its disclosure laws and systems and Washington state is considered a national leader in this area.
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