Harger: WA lawsuit payouts now twice the size of state’s budget deficit

Washington’s lawsuit payouts are seven times what they were seven years ago. Seven times.

We paid out $72 million in 2018. This year? More than half a billion, and now the state wants a $570 million bailout to keep the settlement fund afloat.

Before we go further, let’s be clear. A lot of these cases involve abuse of vulnerable kids and state caseworkers looking the other way. When the state fails a child in foster care, that child deserves compensation. When someone suffers because a state agency messed up, we owe them. No question.

Can we keep writing these checks without going broke?

Washington has some of the most generous liability laws in America. No caps on damages. Statutes of limitations that keep getting longer, or disappearing entirely. Courts keep expanding what the state’s responsible for.

The result? We’re staring at $2.5 billion in pending claims.

The Department of Children, Youth and Families alone has paid out $370 million in two years. Many cases date back to the 50s, 60s, and 70s. How do you defend against something that happened when Kennedy was president? The records are gone, and the witnesses are dead.

Meanwhile, we’re facing a budget deficit of about $240 million a year for the next four years. That’s roughly a billion dollars total. Let me say it another way: we’re paying out over $500 million a year in lawsuits. The lawsuit payouts are twice as big as the budget hole we’re trying to fill.

We’re collecting more taxes than ever, spending more than ever, and the math still doesn’t add up.

Here’s what other states do. They have damage caps, reasonable time limits for filing claims, and they compensate victims fairly without letting the costs destroy everything else.

I realize how this sounds. These are children who were abused. People whose lives were shattered by state negligence. They deserve justice. Absolutely.

But every dollar that goes to a lawsuit is a dollar that doesn’t go to protecting kids, schools, or mental health programs today. The very services meant to prevent future tragedies.

We’re paying so much for past failures, we can’t afford to prevent future ones.

That’s not justice, that’s a spiral

Washington needs reasonable reform. And let me be really clear here. I’m not saying don’t pay victims, I’m saying let’s find a reasonable cap. Something substantial enough that victims get what they deserve, but not so excessive that it bankrupts our ability to help people going forward.

Maybe that’s $1 million, $5 million, or even $10 million. Other states have figured out numbers that work. Numbers that say to victims, “We recognize the harm, we’re making it right,” without saying “the sky’s the limit.”

Some will say any limit on lawsuits hurts victims. I understand that view, but when the lawsuits bankrupt the programs that protect people, who does that help?

Let’s be reasonable. Pay what is right, not what is limitless. That is how we protect both justice and the budget.

Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here. 

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