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SENATE
BILL 6292
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Passed
Legislature - 2002 Regular Session
State of Washington 57th Legislature 2002
Regular Session
By
Read first time 01/14/2002.
Referred to Committee on Judiciary.
Authorizing
lay judicial officers.
AN
ACT Relating to authorizing lay judicial officers; and amending RCW 3.34.060
and 3.50.040.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE
LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec.
1. RCW
3.34.060 and 1991 c 361 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
To
be eligible to file a declaration of candidacy for and to serve as a district
court judge, a person must:
(1)
Be a registered voter of the district court district and electoral district, if
any; and
(2)
Be either:
(a)
A lawyer admitted to practice law in the state of Washington; or
(b)
((A person who has been elected and has served as a justice of the peace,
district judge, municipal judge, or police judge in Washington; or
(c))) In
those districts having a population of less than five thousand persons, a
person who has taken and passed by January 1, 2003, the qualifying
examination for ((the office of district judge)) a lay candidate for
judicial officer as ((shall be)) provided by rule of the supreme
court.
Sec.
2. RCW
3.50.040 and 1984 c 258 s 106 are each amended to read as follows:
Within
thirty days after the effective date of the ordinance creating the municipal
court, the mayor of each city or town shall appoint a municipal judge or judges
of the municipal court for a term of four years. The terms of judges serving
on July 1, 1984, and municipal judges who are appointed to terms commencing
before January 1, 1986, shall expire January 1, 1986. The terms of their
successors shall commence on January 1, 1986, and on January 1 of each fourth
year thereafter, pursuant to appointment or election as provided in this
chapter. Appointments shall be made on or before December 1 of the year next
preceding the year in which the terms commence.
The
legislative authority of a city or town that has the general power of
confirmation over mayoral appointments shall have the power to confirm the
appointment of a municipal judge.
A person appointed as a full-time or part-time municipal judge
shall be a citizen of the United States of America and of the state of
Washington; and an attorney admitted to practice law before the courts of
record of the state of Washington: PROVIDED, That in a municipality having a
population less than five thousand persons, a person ((other than an
attorney)) who has taken and passed by January 1, 2003, the qualifying
examination for a lay candidate for judicial officer as provided by rule of the
supreme court may be the judge. Any city or town shall have authority to
appoint a district judge as its municipal judge when the municipal judge is not
required to serve full time. In the event of the appointment of a district
judge, the city or town shall pay a pro rata share of the salary.
