Since COVID, Thurston County Superior Court’s only option for important and urgent civil matters—like fee waivers or stopping illegal evictions—was a limited phone line open just 30 minutes a day. Starting in 2021, Olympia field office and Olympia Eviction Prevention Unit (EPU) staff flagged the issue, and began pushing for change, such as rule changes, proposed along with our partner Sound Legal Aid, in both 2025 and 2026. EPU’s on-the-ground experience working to prevent evictions was crucial to that advocacy.
The results are in: while judges couldn’t bring back in-person calendars due to funding and space constraints, they’ve now expanded ways to reach the court. These include in-person access to judicial officers for the first time since the pandemic. These changes are the result of almost 5 years of patient, persistent advocacy, across NJP and with our partners.