Judge Sally F. Olsen
Department No. 8

Judge Olsen graduated from Utah State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree.  She earned her J.D. from McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific in Sacramento, California and was admitted to the Washington State Bar in 1986.

Judge Olsen practiced law for 18 years prior to her appointment to the Superior Court Bench in 2004 and successfully ran for re-election in the fall of 2005. 

Judge Olsen worked both in the public and private sectors in criminal and civil law before taking the bench.  She was a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s office for seven years before becoming a partner with her husband in the law firm of Olsen, Olsen & McFadden.  She also served as a judge pro-tem in District, Municipal and Tribal Courts in Kitsap and Jefferson Counties.

Judge Olsen has worked extensively in the community.  She is a past president of the Kitsap Humane Society, a founding member and former chair of the Kitsap County Domestic Violence Task Force, former chair of the Kitsap County Council for Human Rights, and former intern mediator with the Kitsap County Dispute Resolution Service.  She is a search and rescue volunteer with the Kitsap County K-9 ABCSAR unit.  In recognition of her volunteer services, she received an award for her work in Domestic Violence by the Kitsap County YWCA in 1996, and more recently, the Kitsap County Bar Association’s Humanitarian Award in 2006.

Judge Olsen is a member of the National Council for Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the Washington Superior Court Judges' Association and Juvenile Law Committee, and was recently appointed to the Children’s Justice Interdisciplinary Task Force whose mission is to improve and promote the safety and protection of children.

Judge Olsen and her husband, Steve, have a son and live on Bainbridge Island.