LCMR 1. Department Number and Seniority

(a) Departments. The Superior Court for King County shall be divided into as many individual numbered departments as there are judges authorized by law. When a judge leaves office, the department number shall be assigned to his or her successor. Each judge in order of seniority may select an unassigned courtroom at such time as the Presiding Judge establishes for assignment of unassigned courtrooms.

(b) Seniority. For matters decided by seniority, such as courtroom assignments, seniority will be determined by length of service on the King County Superior Court. If a judge has a break in service, the prior period of service on this bench will count for seniority purposes. If more than one judge is sworn in on the same day, seniority will be decided by birth date, with the older judge being more senior.

(c) Assignments. The assignment of department numbers and courtrooms whenever necessary, shall be incorporated into an order signed by the Presiding Judge and filed with the Clerk.

(d) Report to County Election Department. Before the time for filing a declaration of candidacy for superior court judge, the Presiding Judge will report to the County Election Department the departmental numbers of the positions to be filled. The position numbers on the ballot shall be the assigned departmental numbers.

[Adopted effective September 1, 2016.]