About Charlie Wiggins

• Charlie and his wife Nancy have lived on Bainbridge Island for over twenty years, where they raised their two children, Amy and Sam.
• As a former Court of Appeals Judge with over thirty years of experience as an attorney in Washington, Charlie has worked with the law in many capacities. As a result of his fairness and impartiality, Charlie is frequently asked to sit as Pro Tem Judge in Jefferson County. 
• Charlie is constantly searching for creative ways to share his legal knowledge. In addition to his work on votingforjudges.org, Charlie has traveled to Albania to help judges shift to democracy and was named Volunteer of the Year in 2004 by the Union Gospel Mission in Seattle for his pro bono work.

As the son of a career warrant officer, Charlie grew up in the army. By the time he graduated from high school, he had attended school in Alabama, New York, France, and Venezuela. He earned money delivering newspapers from the time he was eleven years old and advanced through Boy Scouts, eventually acquiring the Eagle Scout Award. With the help of a ROTC scholarship Charlie was able to attend Princeton University, where he graduated Magna cum Laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy. During college he earned money doing many different jobs, including parking cars at football games and selling class rings. He spent the next four years in the Army Military Intelligence Corps, leaving as a Captain. No stranger to hard work, in his spare time he attended night school. He earned a Masters Degree in Business Administration, which developed his interest in the law. The G.I. Bill allowed Charlie to attend Duke Law School, where he graduated in 1976. (Click here to see Charlie at his Army Commissioning and graduation from Princeton)

Upon graduation Charlie began working at a firm of five lawyers in Seattle, where he focused on appeals, both civil and criminal. He became active on the Washington State Bar Rules Committee, which proposes rules to the Supreme Court, and served on the Disciplinary Board, making initial decisions on lawyer discipline. These experiences provided Charlie with an enriched understanding of judicial procedure and prepared him for deciding issues of lawyer discipline on the Supreme Court. 

In 1984 Charlie met his wife, Nancy, on a commuter ferry boat from Bainbridge Island to Seattle. They were married in 1985 and in 1987 had their first child, Amy. Three years later they welcomed their son Sam. In 2009 Sam graduated from Bainbridge High School and Amy from Wheaton College. 

In 1995 Charlie was appointed to Division II of the Court of Appeals, where his talents were put to use, identifying and applying applicable law to reach a just result. After leaving the court, Charlie opened his own office on Bainbridge Island, where he has practiced for fourteen years and worked almost exclusively on civil appeals. He also sits as a pro tem superior court judge in Jefferson County, hearing many kinds of cases.

Charlie has always been passionate about volunteering. He has served as the leader of the YMCA Indian Guides, on the Civil Service Commission of Bainbridge Island, on the Editorial Board of the Kitsap Sun, and on the Board of the Central Puget Sound Campfire Boys and Girls. He has traveled to Tijuana, Mexico with his church’s high school youth group five times to build houses for families. In 2001, he partnered with Habitat for Humanity to organize and lead the lawyers of Bainbridge Island in building a home for a single mother and her children, which earned him the 2010 Humanitarian Award from the Kitsap Bar Association. (Click here to see Charlie working for Habitat for Humanity)

Charlie has used his legal expertise to help others throughout his career. In the early nineties Charlie traveled to Albania three times to participate in judicial conferences for judges, helping them to understand their new role as the country transitioned from communism to democracy. In 2004 he was named Volunteer of the Year by the Union Gospel Mission in Seattle for his pro bono work at the mission’s Open Door Legal Clinic, where he counseled and represented many residents.

Recognizing that citizens find it difficult to vote intelligently in judicial elections, Charlie worked with a coalition of lawyers, bar associations and government groups to establish the nonpartisan award-winning website votingforjudges.org. For the past six years Charlie has regularly visited high school classes to teach students how to evaluate judicial candidates and be informed voters. (Click here to see Charlie speaking to students at Bainbridge High School)

Charlie is committed to preserving judicial independence. He testified before the legislature in favor of imposing campaign contribution limits in Washington judicial elections, which was signed into law in 2006. He has worked more recently to preserve impartial judges through a rule that judges must not sit on a case involving any party who has spent large amounts of money supporting the judge’s election. (Click here to see Charlie with Governor Gregoire signing Bill 1226)

In their spare time, Charlie and Nancy enjoy hiking in the Grand Forest, boating in the San Juans, and in 2008 rode in the Seattle to Portland classic bike ride on their tandem bike.

Above all, Charlie believes that the most important quality in a judge is a heart for justice, a burning desire to make the right decision and restore wholeness. Throughout his life, Charlie has demonstrated a passion for the law and justice, both professionally and personally. His extensive experience and familiarity with the judiciary and thirty year career as an attorney provide an excellent framework for a Supreme Court Justice.