It’s important to note that the suggested amendment before the Court would in no way nullify last year’s referendum vote that reduced license fees, nor would it change the current authority of the Bar to set license fees and of the Court to determine whether the license fees are sufficient to carry out the WSBA’s functions.
The suggested court rule amendment states that the “amount of any license fee is subject to review by the Supreme Court for reasonableness and may be modified by order of the Court if the Court determines that it is not reasonable”; it does not address in any way the member referendum provisions, which are contained in the WSBA bylaws.
License fees are currently set at $325 through 2014. As the Board of Governors (BOG) moves into budget discussions in the summer it will require a vote from them on 2015 license fees. There currently are no proposals before the BOG to increase license fees for 2015.
We encourage members to reach out to BOG members if you have questions or input you’d like to provide as they move closer to budget deliberations for 2014 and setting the 2015 license fees. And, if you’re interested in reviewing the BOG budget as well as additional financial information, you can find it all on the WSBA website.
