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This advanced trial seminar examines the strategy behind a landmark $18.25 million jury verdict against the State of Washington (DSHS/DCYF) for the catastrophic childhood sexual abuse of two former foster children. Tried over two weeks and decided on May 28, 2026, this is among the oldest known childhood sexual abuse cases ever tried to a jury, involving abuse that occurred roughly 50 years ago. Presenters Karen Koehler and Mo Hamoudi will walk attendees through the litigation roadmap: overcoming statute of limitations defenses under Washington's delayed-discovery framework, proving State negligence in the licensing and supervision of a foster parent with a known history of abuse, confronting destroyed agency records, and defeating the State's misplaced-responsibility and contributory-fault arguments. Attendees will learn how to investigate decades-old claims, develop survivor testimony with sensitivity, manage intentional-act apportionment, and present damages for lifelong trauma. The session offers concrete, transferable techniques for any attorney handling foster-care negligence and institutional abuse litigation against governmental defendants.

This presentation uses a recent King County Superior Court discovery enforcement sequence—an order compelling “full and complete” responses, a subsequent contempt finding, a monetary sanction payable to the Foundation for Washington State Courts, and a lodestar fee award—as a practical case study in how Washington’s discovery rules and sanctions framework operate in real litigation.¹ It is written as a practitioner’s roadmap: how to build a record, how to frame the legal standards, what remedies to request, and how to support a fee petition once the court grants sanctions.