The defendant, or party resisting relief, shall be deemed the prevailing party within the meaning of RCW 4.84.250, if the plaintiff, or party seeking relief in an action for damages where the amount pleaded, exclusive of costs, is equal to or less than the maximum allowed under RCW 4.84.250, recovers nothing, or if the recovery, exclusive of costs, is the same or less than the amount offered in settlement by the defendant, or the party resisting relief, as set forth in RCW 4.84.280.
RCW 4.84.270
Attorneys' fees as costs in damage actions of ten thousand dollars or less—When defendant deemed prevailing party.
Applied in 48 court decisions — leading case Reynolds v. Hicks (1998)
Most recently applied in 2 Wash. 3d 528 - Crossroads Mgmt., LLC v. Ridgway (December 2023)
1980 c 94 s 2; 1973 c 84 s 3.
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.