Thursday, December 6, 2007

Suing DSHS

The Olympian profiled Seattle attorney David P. Moody, who has made a specialty of suing the Department of Social and Health Services. Olympia grad targets DSHS with legal crusade: Lawyer wins $40 million from state in 7 years, Olympian, Nov. 26, 2007.

In addition to profiling Moody, the article discusses the policy question of how much the state should be vulnerable to suit. Attorney General Rob McKenna says that Washington's waiver of sovereign immunity was much greater than other states' and he favors legislation limiting the state's liability in certain circumstances. The bill discussed was 2006 SB 6215; McKenna's background sheet is here. SB 5997 in 2007 would have shielded the Department of Corrections and DSHS from liability when employees exercised reasonable care, even if errors in judgment resulted in bad outcomes.

David Moody is a former UW Trial Ad instructor.

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