Washington Business Fall 2016 | Judicial Review | Page 4

2016 judicial scorecard

Judicial Scorecard Selection Criteria
The Scorecard is compiled through a series of selection criteria for cases and a scoring methodology.
The compilation is meant to both involve the input of the AWB membership and arrive at a fair and
accurate picture of an individual justice’s decisions in important business cases.

cases were chosen through the
awb committee process
Input was provided by AWB’s Legal Affairs Council and
policy committees. These committees are composed of
attorneys and non-attorney representatives from nearly
8,000 businesses that make up AWB’s membership and
include leading experts on the issues most important to
Washington employers.

decisions have a significant impact
on washington businesses
To be included in the Scorecard, cases must have a
significant impact, either positive or negative, on the
business climate in Washington. Decisions are labeled
as “AWB agrees with this decision” if they are pro-business and “AWB disagrees with this decision” if they are
not considered pro-business. At times a case may have
a positive impact on one type of business at the expense
of other businesses. When this happened the cases were
generally excluded from the Scorecard.

cases span the last two years
The nine justices of the Washington Supreme Court
serve staggered six-year terms, with three positions
up for election every two years. Coinciding with this
year’s election cycle, our case review spans decisions
issued from 2013-2016. (AWB did not produce a Judicial
Scorecard in 2014. In an effort to have a more complete
picture of the Supreme Court decisions, we have included cases from 2013 and 2014 in the 2016 Judicial Scorecard)

Scoring Criteria
Justices were evaluated in comparison to the position
AWB agrees with in a given case.
Justices were not scored for a case if they did not
participate in a decision.
The participation rate for the justices is indicated in
a separate column.
Justices who “concurred in part and dissented in
part” are scored to the extent their view from the split
opinion is apparent on the issue of concern to the
business community.
Scores do NOT reflect the authorship of opinions.
However, in the case summaries, the authorship
of majority and dissenting opinions is noted where
applicable.
Justices receive an overall “pro-business” score based
upon AWB’s agreement with their decisions in the six
combined issue categories.

cases are divided into six categories
Each case is listed under one of the six categories. The categories are: employment law, environment
and land use, tax and fiscal policy, workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance, torts (which
includes insurance and general liability) and general business. While some cases may fit into several
categories, they have only been counted in the category in which they are listed.

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