Martin v. State of Washington

The case involves representation of a putative class of former and current Washington State Patrol employees in a USERRA and 42 U.S.C. 1983 lawsuit against the State of Washington regarding the Washington State Patrol’s repeated and decade’s long failure to give its qualified veteran employees initial entry and promotion preference as required under state law, RCW 41.04.010. The State of Washington attempted to dismiss plaintiff’s complaint in early 2014. The Court denied the State of Washington’s motion to dismiss. KOMO 4 News’ coverage of the lawsuit is available here: http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Lawsuit-WSP-breaks-law-hiring-veterans.html?tab=video&c=y

On September 18, 2015, the trial court granted the parties’ motion to make plaintiffs’ counsel provisional class counsel and approve mailing of pre-class certification notices.  A copy of the motion, court’s order, and pre-class certification notices to current WSP employees and WSP applicant non-hires is available here.  The Court’s order allowed for honorably discharged veterans who applied for work as WSP Troopers, but were not hired with the WSP, to make a claim for compensation.  The Court’s order also allowed current and former WSP Troopers, Sergeants, and Lieutenants, whose hiring and/or promotion was delayed because of the WSP’s failure to apply veteran preference to make a claim for compensation. In order to make a claim for compensation click here.  A link to the Washington State Patrol press release on the case is available here. Links to National Public Radio and Spokesman Review coverage of the lawsuit are available here and here.

On May 5, 2017, the State of Washington agreed to settle the case for $13,000,000.00. The settlement will also add approximately an additional $2,000,000.00 to select class members’ pension accounts. A copy of the Settlement Agreement is available here. Copies of the Memorandum for Preliminary Approval of the Settlement Agreement and Memorandum for Class Action certification are available here and here.

On June 9, 2017, the Spokane County Superior Court preliminarily approved the Settlement Agreement and certified the case as a class action.

A copy of the Court’s Preliminary Approval Order is available here..

A copy of the Court approved class member notice form is available here..