Columbia Legal Services (CLS) is engaged in multiple cases, at various stages of litigation, at all times. Our advocacy teams consist of lawyers, paralegals, legal assistants, and community engagement specialists working alongside communities impacted by the unjust systems of incarceration and immigration. Together, we seek a Washington in which everyone has equitable rights and opportunities.
Updated: 04/09/2026
CASE HIGHLIGHTS
A Season of Big Wins!
Bell et al. v. Washington Department of Corrections (DOC)
Our clients and more than 1000 people incarcerated by the Washington Department of Corrections have been subjected to unreliable drug testing of their papers, mail, and belongings. These drug tests have a high false positive rate. After Thurston County Superior Court dismissed our clients’ claims, we appealed. On March 24, the Court of Appeals – Division Two held that our clients’ claims for violations of their rights could proceed over DOC’s objections. This outstanding result means that, unless DOC appeals further, our clients can return to the trial court and hold DOC accountable for its mistreatment of incarcerated people.
After Yakima County Superior Court sent our clients’ claims for discrimination, harassment, and retaliatory termination to individual arbitrations, we appealed this decision directly to the Washington Supreme Court. The company ambushed our clients with an arbitration provision during the agricultural offseason, under threat of unemployment, effectively giving our clients no choice but to sign. In December 2025, the Washington Supreme Court agreed to hear our appeal, with oral arguments anticipated later this year. Stay tuned!
Wage Justice for Farmworkers
Our clients reached a pre-lawsuit settlement with a large agricultural employer in Central Washington, where we collaborated with the Washington State Attorney General’s Office – Civil Rights Division to challenge the employer’s discrimination based on immigration status and sex, after the company fired two crews comprised of mostly women and replaced them with male H2A workers. Our clients bravely pursued justice and actively participated in the Civil Rights Unit investigation, finally achieving damages for the unfair treatment they endured.
ACTIVE CASES
Protecting Workers’ Rights to Organize and Work Safely
United Farm Workers v. Windmill Farms
Workers at a Sunnyside mushroom plant have faced discrimination, harassment, and retaliatory terminations for attempting to unionize. We’re representing workers alongside co-counsel Martinez Aguilasocho to challenge these unjust practices.
Current Status: After sending some of our clients’ claims to be resolved in private arbitration, requesting additional briefing, and holding multiple additional hearings, Yakima County Superior Court ordered that none of our individual clients’ claims could be heard in open court and must be arbitrated instead. And the court ruled that the United Farm Workers’ claims, brought by the UFW on behalf of the entire workforce on issues distinct from the claims being sent to arbitration, could not be heard until all six of our individual clients’ claims completed arbitration. Our clients – who were pressured to either sign new employment contracts with mandatory arbitration provisions or face unemployment in the middle of winter – deserve to have their stories heard in open court, as is their right. Being forced to arbitrate pushes their claims into private, virtually unappealable proceedings that will take far longer and cost far more than public court proceedings, while also protecting Greenwood from community accountability. The Washington State Supreme Court accepted discretionary review of the lower court’s decision, and oral arguments are anticipated later this year.
Ensuring Fair Compensation for Agricultural Workers
Familias Unidas por la Justicia v. U.S. Department of Labor & Torres v. U.S. Department of Labor
We’re challenging the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) wage-setting process that allows agricultural employers to underpay workers. In the Torres case, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recognized DOL’s decade-long violation of its own regulations. In the Familias Unidas por la Justicia case, we secured an injunction blocking new regulations that would have eliminated prevailing wages standards, enabling agricultural employers to continue paying workers poverty-level wages. We are now requesting a final order from the federal court in Seattle to make changes to the Department of Labor’s prevailing wage regulations and the methodologies they use that negatively impact farmworkers.
Case Updates: While our work in Torres is complete, our litigation in Familias Unidas por la Justicia v. DOL remains very active after a lengthy stay this fall due to the government shutdown. After the release of new wage data, the United States Department of Labor continues to rubber-stamp survey results that lower wages for agricultural workers harvesting fruit under H-2A contracts. We have filed a Motion for Summary Judgment, hoping to reinstate higher wages and end require DOL to comply with the law in the future. Advocates are polishing up their final brief that will be filed on or before April 10th. We hope the court will schedule oral argument sometime in the coming weeks and issue a final ruling shortly thereafter.
Fighting Unjust Punishment Based on Faulty Drug Tests
Bell v. Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC)
We filed a class action lawsuit against the DOC for using unreliable drug tests to justify cruel punishments, including solitary confinement and extended prison time. After the court granted DOC’s motion to dismiss the case in August 2024, CLS appealed.
Current Status: In March 2026, the Court of Appeals ruled in our clients’ favor, allowing their claims to return to the lower court for trial. Unless DOC continues to appeal, the Court of Appeals decision ensures that our clients and others impacted by these harmful DOC practices will have the opportunity to tell their stories in the trial court. CLS continues to gather data and advocate for those who have been subjected to faulty, unreliable drug testing and lost access to hard-earned privileges, good behavior time credits, or those who have been placed into solitary confinement despite the lack of any credible evidence against them.
Ongoing Investigations and Advocacy
As communities across Washington face escalating threats—from immigration raids and detention to state rollbacks on racial justice—CLS is taking strategic, coordinated action. Our teams are not only responding in real time, but also launching deeper investigations into systemic harms affecting the people we serve.
This includes examining serious safety concerns at our local federal detention center, including failures in health standards and conditions. We’re also investigating the medical neglect and abuse experienced by incarcerated individuals in state facilities, and the systemic exploitation of female farmworkers—especially around issues of coercion and sexual violence. These cases are deeply disturbing, but they are not isolated. They reveal ongoing failures in our systems of accountability, protection, and dignity.
We are working closely with impacted communities, legal partners, and organizers across the state to collect evidence, uplift stories, and pursue both legal and legislative strategies to create lasting change. Our goal is not just to respond—but to dismantle the structures that allow these harms to happen in the first place.
CLS has seen moments like this before—and our advocates carry hard-won lessons from the last era of mass detention and systemic rollbacks. As we face what may be another chapter of widespread injustice, we are prepared, we are united, and we are clear on our purpose.
We are grateful to stand in this work with you.
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