Significant Delay for Processing Pierce County Writs

Due to a shortage of personnel in the Pierce County Sheriff's Office, writs of restitution in Pierce County are facing a significant delay in being processed and posted. As of Friday, February 16th, the Pierce County Sheriff's Office has unprocessed writs that go back to January 24th. This delay has occurred as a result of understaffing in the Sheriff's Office, as two support staff have left their positions at the beginning of the year and only one Legal Assistant continues to process writs at the office. The Sheriff's Office anticipates bringing on new support staff team members in March.

As of February 16th, the Legal Assistant at the Pierce County Sheriff's Office has informed LandlordSolutions that she "can't even guess" when the Sheriff's Office will be able to address the backlog of writs. The recently passed Tacoma Landlord Fairness Code allows for a cold weather defense to evictions that protects most residents of rental housing from eviction between the dates of November 1st and April 1st. The Sheriff's Office is expected to receive hundreds of new writs once the cold weather eviction protections end on April 1st. When asked if the Sheriff's Office had a plan to deal with the influx of writs coming down the pipeline, the Legal Assistant admitted that the office did not have a plan to address all the new writs.

LandlordSolutions is putting clients on notice to expect significant delays in processing of new and pending writs in the coming months.