Washington · statute · Wash. Rev. Code ch. 4.44 · 42 active provisions
At any time after the issues of fact are completed in any case by the service of complaint and answer or reply when necessary, as herein provided, either party may cause the issues of fact to be brought on for trial, by serving upon the opposite party a notice of trial at least three days before any day provided by rul…
When setting civil cases for trial, unless otherwise provided by statute, upon motion of a party, the court may give priority to cases in which a party is frail and over seventy years of age, a party is afflicted with a terminal illness, or other good cause is shown for an expedited trial date.
The order of proceedings on a trial by the court shall be the same as provided in trials by jury. The finding of the court upon the facts shall be deemed a verdict, and may be set aside in the same manner and for the same reason as far as applicable, and a new trial granted.
In any case tried upon the facts without a jury or with an advisory jury, any party may, when the evidence is closed, submit distinct and concise proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law. They may be written and handed to the court, or at the option of the court, oral, and entered in the record.
All questions of law including the admissibility of testimony, the facts preliminary to such admission, and the construction of statutes and other writings, and other rules of evidence, are to be decided by the court, and all discussions of law addressed to it.
All questions of fact other than those mentioned in RCW 4.44.080, shall be decided by the jury, and all evidence thereon addressed to them.
The jury fee paid by the party demanding a trial by jury shall be a part of the taxable costs in such action.
When the action is called for trial, a panel of potential jurors shall be selected at random from the citizens summoned for jury service who have appeared and have not been excused. A voir dire examination of the panel shall be conducted for the purpose of discovering any basis for challenge for cause and to permit the…
Either party may challenge the jurors. The challenge shall be to individual jurors, and be peremptory or for cause. Each party shall be entitled to three peremptory challenges. When there is more than one party on either side, the parties need not join in a challenge for cause; but, they shall join in a peremptory chal…
A peremptory challenge is an objection to a juror for which no reason need be given, but upon which the court shall exclude the juror.
A challenge for cause is an objection to a juror, and may be either:(1) General; that the juror is disqualified from serving in any action; or(2) Particular; that the juror is disqualified from serving in the action on trial.
General causes of challenge are:(1) A want of any of the qualifications prescribed for a juror, as set out in RCW 2.36.070.(2) Unsoundness of mind, or such defect in the faculties of the mind, or organs of the body, as renders him or her incapable of performing the duties of a juror in any action.
Particular causes of challenge are of three kinds:(1) For such a bias as when the existence of the facts is ascertained, in judgment of law disqualifies the juror, and which is known in this code as implied bias.(2) For the existence of a state of mind on the part of the juror in reference to the action, or to either p…
A challenge for implied bias may be taken for any or all of the following causes, and not otherwise:(1) Consanguinity or affinity within the fourth degree to either party.(2) Standing in the relation of guardian and ward, attorney and client, master and servant or landlord and tenant, to a party; or being a member of t…
A challenge for actual bias may be taken for the cause mentioned in RCW 4.44.170(2). But on the trial of such challenge, although it should appear that the juror challenged has formed or expressed an opinion upon what he or she may have heard or read, such opinion shall not of itself be sufficient to sustain the challe…
The jurors having been examined as to their qualifications, first by the plaintiff and then by the defendant, and passed for cause, the peremptory challenges shall be conducted as follows, to wit:The plaintiff may challenge one, and then the defendant may challenge one, and so alternately until the peremptory challenge…
The challenges of either party shall be taken separately in the following order, including in each challenge all the causes of challenge belonging to the same class:(1) Challenges for cause.(2) Peremptory challenges.
The challenge may be excepted to by the adverse party for insufficiency, and if so, the court shall determine the sufficiency thereof, assuming the facts alleged therein to be true. The challenge may be denied by the adverse party, and if so, the court shall determine the facts and decide the issue.
When facts are determined under RCW 4.44.230, the rules of evidence applicable to testimony offered upon the trial of an ordinary issue of fact shall govern. The juror challenged, or any other person otherwise competent may be examined as a witness by either party. If the challenge is sustained, the juror shall be dism…
The challenge, the exception, and the denial may be made orally. The judge shall enter the same upon the record, along with the substance of the testimony on either side.
When the jury has been selected, an oath or affirmation shall be administered to the jurors, in substance that they and each of them, will well, and truly try, the matter in issue between the plaintiff and defendant, and a true verdict give, according to the law and evidence as given them on the trial.
Whenever in the opinion of the court it is proper that the jury should have a view of real property which is the subject of litigation, or of the place in which any material fact occurred, it may order the jury to be conducted in a body, in the custody of a proper officer, to the place which shall be shown to them by t…
The court may admonish the jurors that they must not discuss among themselves any subject connected with the trial until they begin their deliberations. The court may also admonish the jurors that they must not discuss with nonjurors any subject connected with the trial until the jurors have been dismissed from the cas…
If after the formation of the jury, and before verdict, a juror becomes unable to perform his or her duty, the court may discharge the juror. In that case, unless the parties agree to proceed with the other jurors: (1) An alternate juror may replace the discharged juror and the jury instructed to start their deliberati…
During deliberations, the jury may be allowed to separate unless good cause is shown, on the record, for sequestration of the jury. Unless the members of a deliberating jury are allowed to separate, they must be kept together in a room provided for them, or some other convenient place under the charge of one or more of…