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Foster Care and Public Defense among Justice Chambers’ Legacies

Credit: Chambers Retirement Video 2012
Former Washington Supreme Court Justice Tom Chambers died of cancer at age 70.

In 12 years on the Washington Supreme Court, Justice Tom Chambers authored two groundbreaking opinions: one on foster care, the other on indigent defense. The former justice died late Wednesday at the age of 70.

In 2003, Chambers wrote the unanimous majority opinion in a case that put a spotlight on how often foster children in Washington bounce from home to home. 

In 2010, Chambers was again the lead author in a case that Bob Boruchowitz at Seattle University School of Law calls one of the most important rulings on indigent defense in the country in the last decade.

“It’s had a tremendous impact on everyone across the state understanding that to have effective representation, you’ve got to have limited caseload and you’ve got to do some work. You’ve got to establish a relationship with the client, and you’ve got to test the government’s case,” Boruchowitz said.

In fact ,following that decision, the Washington Supreme Court took the unusual step of issuing separate guidelines for public defenders, including caseload limits.

Chambers later said of that case: “We placed the first nails in the coffin of the meet'em-greet'em-and-plead'em system in Washington.”

Since January 2004, Austin Jenkins has been the Olympia-based political reporter for the Northwest News Network. In that position, Austin covers Northwest politics and public policy as well as the Washington State legislature. You can also see Austin on television as host of TVW's (the C–SPAN of Washington State) Emmy-nominated public affairs program "Inside Olympia." Prior to joining the Northwest News Network, Austin worked as a television reporter in Seattle, Portland and Boise. Austin is a graduate of Garfield High School in Seattle and Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. Austin’s reporting has been recognized with awards from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors, Public Radio News Directors Incorporated and the Society of Professional Journalists.