Judge Patrick Moriarty was appointed to position 17 on the Snohomish County Superior Court bench in June 2022. He currently presides over Juvenile Court matters at the Denney Juvenile Justice Center.
Judge Moriarty grew up in Massachusetts in a family of eleven children and graduated from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Judge Moriarty earned his law degree at Western New England University. He and his wife, Evelyn moved to Washington in 1990. Their daughter, Emily, is a graduate of the University of Washington with a degree in Public Health and Spanish.
For 27 years, Judge Moriarty gained broad legal expertise as a Public Defender, Assistant City Attorney in Seattle, and private attorney. He handled matters of criminal defense, juvenile representation, dependencies, drug court, personal injury and many of the other legal issues that now come before him as a Superior Court judge. This deep experience now serves him well as a valued member of the Court.
For 17 years, Pat served as a Judge Pro Tem in Snohomish County courts. In 2018 he was appointed a Superior Court Commissioner where he presided over thousands of complex and important matters involving families and children, including Domestic Violence Protection Orders, Anti-harassment Orders, dissolutions and many other civil cases.
Judge Moriarty hopes to use his judicial career to play a role in expanding access to justice for those community members of limited means and to strengthen the therapeutic courts to keep families together.