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                                           ENGROSSED HOUSE BILL NO. 2338

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State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1990 Regular Session

By Representatives Appelwick, R. Meyers, Crane and May

Read first time 1/10/90 and referred to Committee on Judiciary.

AN ACT Relating to mandatory arbitration; and reenacting and amending RCW 7.06.020.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

        Sec. 1.  Section 2, chapter 103, Laws of 1979 as last amended by section 127, chapter 202, Laws of 1987 and by section 101, chapter 212, Laws of 1987 and RCW 7.06.020 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:

          (1) All civil actions, except for appeals from municipal or district courts, which are at issue in the superior court in counties which have authorized arbitration, where the sole relief sought is a money judgment, and where no party asserts a claim in excess of fifteen thousand dollars, or if approved by the superior court of a county by two-thirds or greater vote of the judges thereof, up to seventy thousand dollars in tort cases and in other cases thirty-five thousand dollars, exclusive of interest and costs, are subject to mandatory arbitration.

          (2) If approved by majority vote of the superior court judges of a county which has authorized arbitration, all civil actions which are at issue in the superior court in which the sole relief sought is the establishment, termination or modification of maintenance or child support payments are subject to mandatory arbitration.  The arbitrability of any such action shall not be affected by the amount or number of payments involved.