About Judge Price

Judge Michael Price was appointed as a Judge of the Superior Court for Spokane County by Governor Gary Locke and served for 20 years before his retirement in 2023.

Re-elected five times, Judge Price has worked in virtually every area of Superior Court to include Presiding Judge, Chief Criminal Judge, Juvenile Court Judge, Drug Court Judge, Family Law Judge, and Civil/Criminal Trial Judge.

Actively involved in ongoing Judicial Education and training, Judge Price served on the faculty of the Washington State Judicial College, where he taught Family Law to new Judges and Commissioners.

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Judge Price has received advanced Judicial training at Northwestern University School of Law, the University of Chicago School of Law, Antonin Scalia School of Law, the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada, and Pepperdine University School of Law.

Elected as District Six Trustee of the Superior Court Judges Association, Judge Price has served on numerous state-wide and local committees, including the Judicial Ethics Committee, Judicial Education Committee, and the Court Rules Committee.

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Consistently affirmed by the Washington State Court of Appeals and the Washington State Supreme Court, Judge Price has presided over some of the most important civil and criminal cases in Washington state history, to include:

• Kallestad v. Collins (largest oral surgery malpractice verdict in United States history),

• Estate of Billy Tipton (a famous jazz musician who disguised her gender identity to further her career),

• Swank v. Valley Christian School (the first judicial application of RCW 28A.600.190 Zackery Lystedt Law after the death of a high school athlete in a football game),

• State v. David Pettis (a husband convicted of murdering his wife with poisoned ice cream),

• State v. Robert Yates (resentencing of Washington State's most prolific serial killer),

• State v. Jonathan and Adriana Lytle (parents convicted of torturing their four-year-old daughter to death),

• State v. Caleb Sharpe (the first Washington state school shooting to proceed from initial juvenile court charges to adult sentencing),

• Marriage of Magnuson (a professional couple where the husband was undergoing gender reassignment surgery during contested child custody litigation),

• Marriage of Payne (an entrepreneurial couple where the husband systematically concealed and transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars in real property, precious gems, cash, and stock to third parties to avoid detection by the Court), and

• State v. Douglas Perry/Donna Perry (a serial killer who underwent gender reassignment surgery in the midst of a murder spree). 

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Judge Price previously served as President, Vice President, and Secretary of the Spokane County Bar Association and has been the recipient of multiple honors and awards during his judicial career, to include 2022 Washington State Trial Judge of the Year from the American Board of Trial Advocates and 2014 Washington State Judge of the Year nomination by the Spokane County Bar Association. 

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Judge Price has been rated Exceptionally Well-Qualified to Serve as a Justice on the Washington State Supreme Court by the Washington Women Lawyers, the Joint Asian Bar Association of Washington, the Latino Bar Association of Washington, and Q-Law.

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Judge Price has been a frequent speaker at Continuing Legal and Judicial Education seminars throughout Washington state on multiple topics, including voir dire and jury selection, civil motion practice, Guardian ad Litem training, and Family Law trial preparation.

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Judge Price is a graduate of Gonzaga University, Gonzaga University School of Law, and most recently, Pepperdine University School of Law Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution.

A professional musician for most of his adult life, Judge Price studied violin performance at the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts.

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A licensed private pilot and aviation enthusiast, Judge Price obtained his Private Pilot certificate on his 18th birthday. In his spare time he enjoys flying, maintaining his own aircraft, studying German, scuba diving, world travel, and playing and listening to music.

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To read more about Judge Price's career as a professional musician, click here.