by Jake Goldstein-Street, Washington State Standard
February 24, 2026
Democrats’ main attempt to reduce skyrocketing lawsuit payouts by the state and local governments isn’t moving forward in the Washington Legislature this year.
Lawmakers were looking to provide some relief as the state spent roughly $500 million last year in settlements and jury verdicts in cases involving government misconduct. Attorney fees have also piled up. The now-derailed proposal aimed to cut down expenses by resolving more cases before they reached the court system.
State and local officials say that dealing with the issue is urgent, as the budget pressure grows.
From July 1 to Jan. 31, the state paid out nearly $282 million, according to the Department of Enterprise Services. Democrats in the House and Senate are each proposing at least $1 billion in their budget plans to help the state pay for these claims.
Derek Young, executive director of the Washington State Association of Counties, warned that, without changes, counties could be driven into bankruptcy by the mounting payouts.
But the bill attempting to rein in the runaway costs likely won’t become law this year, legislative leadership said Tuesday.
Senate Bill 6239 passed the Senate with some bipartisan support last week, despite fierce opposition from trial lawyers and advocates for survivors of sexual abuse and other misconduct.
Opponents said the legislation would be an obstacle to justice.
It was set for a hearing in a House committee Tuesday ahead of a key deadline to move bills out of committee, but was taken off the agenda.
House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, said she spoke with House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee Chair Jamila Taylor, D-Federal Way, and the measure is “just really not in a position to move forward this year.”
Jinkins said the bill will help kick off discussions after the legislative session ends next month about proposals to pursue in 2027.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, declined to comment, other than to say “I think everyone acknowledges and understands that this is a huge problem for the state that we have to address.”
Jinkins told reporters that, “Our shared goals are to make sure that anybody who is a victim of childhood sexual abuse or other kinds of misconduct have access to justice.
“But we have also seen skyrocketing tort claims,” she added. “So how we find the balance there is something that we’ll continue to work with Senator Dhingra on.”
Legislative leaders left open the possibility that there could be some effort to curb the state’s legal costs embedded in budget legislation they are working on. How that could look is not clear.
The bill
Initially, Dhingra’s bill would’ve made all these civil claims subject to arbitration, meaning a neutral third-party could make a decision outside of court on how much plaintiffs win for their cases. It didn’t mean cases couldn’t still go to a traditional jury trial.
The legislation was reworked to set up a commission to hear claims from conduct alleged to have occurred at least 10 years prior. It would’ve required the claimants pay a $5,000 filing fee for non-expedited hearings before the new commission.
The idea was this process would resolve cases earlier and save governments money. Many claims center on decades-old allegations.
Even with the legislation scaled down, counties saw this as a “step in the right direction” to address their own liability for historical claims that are crippling their budgets, said Young, with the Washington State Association of Counties.
Pierce County, for example, faces claims totaling hundreds of millions of dollars related to alleged abuse decades ago in the county’s juvenile detention center.
“This issue can’t be dropped,” Young said Tuesday afternoon. “It’s not something we can allow the Legislature to let go of.”
Opponents believe the bill would retraumatize plaintiffs and move their claims away from public court trials. Ryan Dreveskracht, a lawyer with the Galanda Broadman firm in Seattle, said he is “elated” the bill isn’t moving forward. He believed the commission would’ve meant some of his potential clients not pursuing their claims.
“It’s just an additional step that’s unnecessary, costs the state a ton of resources and further victimizes people who have already been victimized and want nothing more than access to justice,” Dreveskracht said Tuesday. “If that’s how the state wants to save money, then I don’t think that’s in line with the standards we hold us to in this state.”
It was unknown how much money the proposal would save state and local governments, but without more significant change, like capping monetary damages, it likely wouldn’t have been major. Budget writers didn’t explicitly take the legislation into account when budgeting for the states’ liability costs.
“We absolutely want to and need to bend the curve on those verdicts,” said House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon, D-Seattle. “Senator Dhingra’s work sort of provides the sort of roadmap for what that work will look like going forward. We need to do that. We need to try to get alternative processes for resolving these claims.”
The bill also would’ve required legislative hearings in cases that cost the state over $5 million as a form of oversight.
The budget
Last year, the state Department of Enterprise Services warned that without a more permanent fix to funding the state’s self-insurance fund, its deficit could grow to more than $1.3 billion by mid-2027. By mid-2029, the gap could be anywhere from $2 billion to $3.2 billion.
In response, budget writers this year put their biggest pot of new proposed spending toward this issue.
The Senate plan includes roughly $1 billion to pay for this. Senate Democrats’ budget lead June Robinson, D-Everett, called this a “significant down payment,” but added she expects to need to revisit the issue for more funding in future budgets. The House has $1.3 billion through mid-2029 planned for this issue.
Gov. Bob Ferguson had pitched $955 million in his budget plan in December. He said at the time that on any shortlist of budget challenges the state is facing, tort liability would be there.
Lawmakers will reach a final spending figure before the session adjourns for the year March 12.
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