Practice Areas

Tenant rights is the core of Rivercrest Law's practice. The firm represents renters across Washington in disputes worth taking seriously: lease interpretation, enforcement, and negotiated exits; move-out charges and security deposit claims, especially against corporate landlords; unlawful rent increases; entry and privacy violations; illegal fees and early termination penalties; and defective conditions and repair failures with real damages — under the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act and the Manufactured/Mobile Home Landlord-Tenant Act.

In 2026, Rivercrest Law resolved a wrongful eviction case for $725,000, reported by The Seattle Times and The Columbian as a record for a wrongful eviction settlement in Washington. Other recent matters have reversed unlawful rent increases community-wide, voided illegal lease terms imposed by a national landlord, and recovered damages for tenants without ever filing suit.

Before founding the firm, Sebastian Miller enforced tenant rights as an Assistant Attorney General, leading landlord investigations that produced millions of dollars in relief for tenants statewide. That work included the enforcement action at the Beacon RV mobile home park in Ilwaco, where residents received nearly $1.1 million in total relief, and the investigation of a large corporate landlord that led to $5.5 million in refunds for mobile home park tenants, the largest reimbursement in program history. Those results were achieved in service with the Washington Attorney General's Office and are the State's, not Rivercrest Law's.

Washington law has strong protections for civil rights, reasonable accommodation, and disability discrimination claims. The Washington Law Against Discrimination and the federal Fair Housing Act provide remedies for people whose rights have been violated, whether the discrimination comes from a landlord, a housing provider, or a business.

The Washington Law Against Discrimination protects people in their housing, in the marketplace, and in places of public accommodation. As a civil rights attorney, Sebastian Miller brings claims when those protections are violated: discrimination based on disability or other protected status, retaliation against people who assert their rights, and fair housing violations.

Rivercrest Law represented two tenants with disabilities, a mother and daughter who had lived in their Vancouver home for many years before they were evicted. The firm sued for damages stemming from violations including the Fair Housing Act and the Washington Law Against Discrimination, and litigated the case through discovery and mediation to the eve of jury trial, ending in a record settlement.

These claims rarely arrive alone. In that resolution, civil rights claims under state and federal law ran alongside landlord-tenant and consumer protection claims, each one adding leverage, and together telling the full story of what KOIN 6 called "a major injustice."

Rivercrest Law is prepared to take disability discrimination and civil rights cases across Washington.

Washington's Consumer Protection Act prohibits unfair and deceptive business practices, and it lets private plaintiffs, not just the Attorney General, enforce it. Rivercrest Law brings Consumer Protection Act claims and business litigation for consumers, tenants, and small business owners harmed by deception, bad faith dealing, and corporate misconduct.

That includes consumer protection violations of every kind: bad faith business practices, deceptive business practices, false advertising, misrepresentation, and breach of contract. Many of these cases pair traditional contract claims with the Consumer Protection Act, which can provide enhanced remedies when the conduct is unfair or deceptive.

Sebastian Miller learned this law from the enforcement side. As an Assistant Attorney General in the Consumer Protection Division, he was on the team that filed lawsuits against two companies for deceiving small business owners: more than 230,000 deceptive, government-lookalike notices mailed to Washington small businesses. The litigation ended with a court ordering the companies to pay $24.8 million, including restitution paid back to the thousands of small business owners who had been deceived into paying. That result was achieved in service with the Washington Attorney General's Office and is the State's, not Rivercrest Law's.

Today the firm puts that enforcement experience to work in private business litigation: recovering damages for small business owners and consumers, documenting the pattern, and holding the offending business accountable.

Commercial litigation should not be reserved for large corporations paying big law fees. Small businesses and small business owners run into the same disputes: partnership agreements a partner stops honoring, contract interpretation and enforcement, ownership and control fights, and co-owners who breach their fiduciary duties. Rivercrest Law represents small business owners individually and on behalf of the business itself.

The firm's small business litigation practice covers breach of fiduciary duty claims, enforcement of partnership and operating agreements, ownership and control disputes, and guidance on regulatory compliance. The firm currently represents small business owners in active Superior Court litigation enforcing exactly these kinds of rights. That includes the commercial lease itself: CAM and operating-cost disputes, personal guaranty exposure, build-out and repair conflicts, and negotiated exits — where the firm's landlord-tenant depth carries directly into the commercial context.

Because Rivercrest Law also litigates Consumer Protection Act claims, small business clients get an attorney who knows both sides of the commercial fairness equation: how businesses get held accountable, and how they protect themselves.

Washington landlord-tenant law changes quickly, and getting it wrong is expensive. Sebastian Miller is a field expert in Washington landlord-tenant law: he enforced it for the State, litigates it in private practice, and follows every change in the law as it happens.

The firm provides advisory counsel on landlord-tenant matters across the state: lease review before you sign, lease questions during the tenancy, notice requirements, rent increase rules, deposits, and compliance. Advisory engagements are conflict-screened.

Real estate disputes carry the highest stakes there are: the place you live, or the property you own. Rivercrest Law litigates real estate matters across Washington, including purchase and sale agreement disputes, failure to disclose defects, boundary and easement disputes, co-ownership disputes, and conflicts with property management companies.

Much of the firm's docket already sits at the intersection of real estate and litigation: manufactured home communities, property managers, and landlord-tenant disputes that mature into claims over the property itself. That experience translates directly to real estate litigation for buyers, sellers, and owners.