User:Edwin S. Budge

Seattle Police Brutality and Civil Rights Attorney

Edwin Budge has been representing clients in civil rights and high-end injury and death cases for more than 20 years. Ed is a 1991 summa cum laude graduate of the University of Oregon. He graduated magna cum laude from Willamette University College of Law in 1994, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Willamette Law Review.

After law school, Ed became a member of the Washington bar and began working as a litigation associate attorney with a prominent Seattle law firm where he gained experience litigating a variety of complex civil cases. Ed started his own law practice in 1997. The following year Ed asked law school classmate Erik Heipt to join him, and the two of them formed the law firm of Budge & Heipt, dedicating their practice to the representation of victims of police brutality and excessive force, as well as victims of jail abuse, neglect, or misconduct that causes serious injury or death.

Over the past twenty years, Ed has litigated multiple cases in state and federal courts around the country. He has won many favorable jury verdicts on behalf of plaintiffs in civil rights cases, including verdicts and settlements totaling more than $45 million. Ed has been selected as a Washington ‘Super Lawyer’ in the area of civil rights litigation–an honor reserved for top lawyers in the state.

Ed is keenly interested in in-custody wrongful death cases against jails and prisons resulting from alcohol and drug withdrawal, as well as other forms of in-custody wrongful death and serious injury cases resulting from the deliberate indifference of jail officers. He routinely works with corrections specialists, medical experts, and other professionals. Ed has taken over one thousand depositions in his career, including depositions of police officers, sheriff’s deputies, jail and prison personnel, opposing parties, experts, and others, throughout the United States.

Ed Budge lives in Seattle with his wife, Averil, who is also an attorney, and their two children. Ed also enjoys natural (steroid-free) bodybuilding, having won top prizes in recent contests in Washington, Northern California and Arizona.