Yousoufian v. Office of King County Executive

Armen Yousoufian successfully sued King County for violating the public disclosure act (PDA), but claims the trial court awarded him an insufficient amount of statutory penalties and attorney fees. We affirm the attorney fee award, but we reverse the trial court’s award of the minimum statutory penalty. The trial court’s unchallenged findings of egregious mishandling of Yousoufian’s record request and a lack of good faith by the county do not support a minimum penalty. Further, the trial court improperly relied on the amount of the attorney fee award in determining the appropriate statutory…