How to Become a Washington State Court Judge
Like many states, the state of Washington uses a Superior Court system. Washington also has an appeals court and a Supreme Court, but the Superior Courts are the general jurisdiction courts. Washington has 30 Superior Court districts, each representing a county; three rural districts are composed of two or three counties each. Superior court judges are elected to four-year terms, and vacancies are appointed by the governor to complete the ongoing term. You must be an attorney admitted to practice law in the state of Washington in order to become a Superior Court judge.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Become admitted to practice law in Washington. All Superior Court judges must be attorneys and members of the Bar Association of Washington, so you must take and pass the Washington state bar exam before you can declare your candidacy for a Superior Court judgeship.
-
2
Form a campaign committee and appoint a campaign manager. This step is really a months- to years-long process of networking and convincing your family, friends, neighbors and colleagues that you would be a good judge, and most importantly from the perspective of your campaign, convincing them to support your campaign with both time and money. There are no firm rules for this process. More established candidates might work with experienced political operatives from the major parties, but many grassroots campaigns run by friends and business associates have been successful on the district judge level.
-
-
3
File to run in the election for a superior court judge in your home district. You will be required to list your full name and address, profession, qualifications for the position, political affiliation and other information when you fill out the nomination forms.
-
4
Set up a website for your campaign, begin soliciting donations and start scheduling campaign activities. Many campaigns ramp up slowly as contributions come in, but well-funded campaigns typically start off with a big media and advertising push and then reassess how to spend campaign funds based on voter research and polling results.
-
5
Run an election campaign based on your financial resources, your personal philosophy and the circumstances. In larger metropolitan areas, Superior Court judge races are likely to be competitive and you will probably need to run an aggressive, well-funded campaign to be successful, but in some rural Superior Court districts, there might be few candidates or different expectations among the electorate, and a lower-key campaign might be more appropriate.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Unless you have been an active member of the legal profession in your community for several years, consider getting some local political experience running for the school board or town council or county commissioner. That kind of public exposure will serve you in good stead when running for a Superior Court judgeship.
