Late in the winter of 1999, the World Trade Organization held a conference in downtown Seattle. Thousands of protesters showed up at Westlake Park to peacefully express their anti-WTO viewpoint. As can happen in these settings, a few people in the crowd showed up not to protest but rather to cause trouble. After windows were smashed and buildings were spray painted, the police moved in and made hundreds of arrests trying to keep things orderly.

The people arrested were put in jail and given permanent arrest records. The arrested protestors banded together and took their case to court saying that they were arrested without probable cause and that their constitutional rights to free speech had been violated. In January of 2007, a federal jury determined that the city of Seattle was liable for arresting protesters without probable cause. Interestingly, the jury also determined that the arrests did not violate the protesters’ free-speech rights because they were not made in an effort to quiet the protesters’ anti-WTO viewpoint.

As a result of the findings of the federal jury, the city of Seattle has agreed to clear the legal records of the 175 people arrested during the protest and to seal those records. The 175 people arrested were also given a $1,000,000 dollar settlement, not by the city of Seattle but by it’s insurer which chose to settle now before costs continued to escalate. Since the $1,000,000 settlement comes from the insurance company, it does not come from the city’s tax pool. The $1,000,000 will cover the plaintiffs’ legal fees and the Seattle Times is reporting that this will leave enough left over to distribute $3,000 to each of the plaintiffs. The actual amount distributed will be determined by how many file claims.

The World Trade Organization has been protested vigorously all over the world. The protests in Seattle centered around trade policies being drawn up in undemocratic ways that then impacted the global community in a negative manner. The fact that the jury found that the protesters were arrested unfairly and without probable cause is a sad chapter in the history of the city of Seattle . Hopefully, the settlement brings some closure to this event. The sealing of arrest records allows the plaintiffs to move on with their lives unhindered by their legal records and hopefully, the city of Seattle’s police department has also learned valuable lessons in how to better respond to these types of situations in the future as well.