The court shall order all or any of the issues in a civil action, whether of fact or law, or both, referred to a referee upon the written consent of the parties which is filed with the clerk. Any party shall have the right in an action at law, upon an issue of fact, to demand a trial by jury. No referee appointed under this chapter may preside over a jury trial. The written consent of the parties constitutes a waiver of the right of trial by jury by any party having the right.
RCW 4.48.010
Reference by consent—Right to jury trial—Referee may not preside—Parties' written consent constitutes waiver of right.
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case 119 Wash. 2d 151 - Barnett v. Hicks (1992)
Most recently applied in 183 Wash. 2d 84 - Maziar v. Department of Corrections (April 2015)
1984 c 258 s 512; Code 1881 s 248; 1854 p 168 s 206; RRS s 369
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.