West Division

Judge Barbara Linde

Judge Linde was elected to the position of King County District Court Judge, and began serving in January 1995. She was re-elected in 1998, 2002 and 2006. She presided over civil and criminal cases in the West Division, at the King County Courthouse in downtown Seattle for 12 years. In the fall of 2006, Judge Linde was elected by the King County District Court Judges to serve as the Chief Presiding Judge. She will hold this position for 2 years.

Judge Linde has committed her time and energy to improving the court and making it more accessible and accountable to the community it serves. She served on King County Executive Ron Sims’s Mental Health Court Task Force, which worked to create the District Court’s highly regarded Mental Health Court. She was elected to, and served a three year term on the Board of Governors of the District and Municipal Court Judges Association. She also served on the Core Mission of the Courts subcommittee for the Commission on Justice, Efficiency and Accountability. Judge Linde was appointed and served on the Washington Commission for Jury Reform, an effort that resulted in many sweeping changes to the jury experience. Among these changes were rights for jurors to take notes during all trials, and to submit written questions to witnesses in civil trials.

Judge Linde serves on the Trial Court Coordinating Council, a group comprised of judges and court professionals from Superior, District and Municipal courts in King County. In 2006 and 2077, she served as Chair of this council. The mission of this council is to explore and implement new ways to coordinate court services to better serve the community and better utilize limited resources. Judge Linde also serves on the Regional Law, Safety and Justice Committee (RLSJ), a group with a similar mission, that includes members of law enforcement, city and county government leaders, health and human services providers, prosecutors and defense attorneys, in addition to judges and court professionals. She is currently the Vice-Chair of the RLSJ committee and will be the Chair for 2009.

Judge Linde cares deeply about the public’s perception of, and confidence in, its justice system. As one of the judicial members of the Bench-Bar-Press Committee, she works with representatives of the media and the bar, to ensure that the right to a free press is protected, along with a defendant’s right to a fair trial. Judge Linde was appointed by Chief Justice Gerry Alexander to serve as the Bench-Bar-Press Committee liaison to the Washington Coalition for Open Government.

Judge Linde is a Seattle native, a 1977 graduate of the University of Washington and a 1980 graduate of the Seattle University School of Law. She lives in West Seattle with her husband and their two teenagers.