Has Momentum Been Lost? The System Still Must Be Changed!

Several months ago there was some momentum to change the administrative hearing process. There was a suggestion that the judges appointed by the very Departments that they were to provide impartial hearings for were to be done away with. Instead, the Office of Administrative Hearings would oversee all administrative hearings and the Departments would no longer hire their own employees to preside over their hearings. While that proposal was fraught with problems, it was a half step in the right direction. But the momentum for reform appears to be waning. The King County Bar Association has not taken up the cause, despite some hopeful signs that they would. The legislature also promised action, but has not delivered. Those developments are a tremendous disappointment, as they represent a step backwards for the civil rights of working people. Of course, what is needed are Article lll judges to preside over hearings that deprive people of their livelihoods and property, as the constitution demands. Any step in that direction is a step towards justice for the working people of Washington. Contact your legislator and demand that they represent your interest in Olympia by creating a fair system of administrative review.