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Judge Laura
Gene Middaugh
 Judge
Middaugh has served the past eight years on the King County Superior
Court, following 17 years experience in private law practice and 10
years of previous experience as a nurse.
Judge Middaugh worked her way through Seattle University Law School
as an intensive care nurse. She volunteered for the Swedish Hospice
program and has been a mentor with the King County Family Law
Program.
Following law school, Judge Middaugh worked as an associate and then
as a partner at the Seattle firm of Cromwell, Mendoza and Belur. Her
practice included corporate litigation, regulatory matters, and
family law. As a Court Commissioner, she learned the importance of
careful listening to the judicial decision-making process.
2000 Election
 Judge Middaugh was first elected to the King County Superior Court
in 2000. Judge Middaugh ran to stand up for fairness, competence and
impartiality in our courts.
She ran against Judge Jeannette Burrage who infamously required
women to in her court and was consistently rated
by the King County Bar Association.
The people of King County decided they wanted a court that was both
fair and competent and elected Judge Middaugh.
Judicial Experience
Judge Middaugh has served on both criminal and civil law calendars,
and on the Unified Family Court.
In her first term on the Superior Court bench, Judge Middaugh was
elected by her fellow Judges to the Board of Trustees of the
Superior Court Judges Association, and was appointed by the King
County Presiding Judge to the Strategic Planning Committee.
She also served on the committees on Juries, Family Law, Local
Rules, Mediation, and Courts and Communities. Currently, she chairs
the Committee on Courts and Communities, and serves on the Strategic
Planning Committee, the Pattern Forms Committee, as well as on the
Committee on Commissioner Evaluation.
Judge Middaugh has become known and respected by her colleagues as
the “go to” judge when questions of family law arise. Because these
cases account for 40% of those that appear in Superior Court, and
because so many individuals appear without lawyers, she has served
on the committees that affect these litigants’ access to justice.
For example, the Pattern Forms Committee makes the forms that these
unrepresented people have to fill out; her interest is in drafting
the forms in a way that people can use them easily, and in a way
that helps them get needed information to the court. She thinks of
it as “access to justice in practice.”
Beyond the Bench
Judge Middaugh’s outside activities include caring for two dogs,
practicing T’ai chi, and singing with Choral Sounds Northwest, a
community choir in Burien. Her husband, Adam Kline, is a State
Senator representing Southeast Seattle, Renton, and unincorporated
King County.
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