BILL REQ. #:  S-4159.2 

READ FIRST TIME 02/07/14.   

     AN ACT Relating to establishing new authority for courts to assess cost recovery fees for costs associated with new indigent defense standards; amending RCW 3.62.085; adding new sections to chapter 3.62 RCW; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that the state supreme court has adopted new standards and caseload limits for public defenders, which were originally scheduled to take effect in September 2013, but will not become effective until January 2015.
     The legislature finds that while these standards of four hundred misdemeanor cases per public defender per year, or weighted-system standards of three hundred misdemeanor cases per public defender per year, are intended to raise the quality of counsel provided to low-income and indigent populations, they also will have a very real fiscal impact on the criminal justice and court operations of cities and counties which already are struggling to address these costs.
     The legislature therefore intends to provide local courts and courts of limited jurisdiction with additional fee authority to assess costs on offenders that can be used to offset growing expenditures associated with indigent defense and public defender caseload limits.

Sec. 2   RCW 3.62.085 and 2005 c 457 s 10 are each amended to read as follows:
     Upon conviction or a plea of guilty in any court organized under this title or Title 35 RCW, a defendant in a criminal case is liable for a fee of ((forty-three)) fifty-one dollars. This fee shall be subject to division with the state under RCW ((3.46.120(2),)) 3.50.100(2), 3.62.020(2), 3.62.040(2), and 35.20.220(2).

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   A new section is added to chapter 3.62 RCW to read as follows:
     Funds deposited into the city or county general fund attributable to the increase in fees imposed by section 2, chapter . . ., Laws of 2014 (section 2 of this act) must be used to support criminal justice matters connected with indigent defense cases.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4   A new section is added to chapter 3.62 RCW to read as follows:
     In order to provide full and ample funding to support criminal justice matters connected with the caseload limits for indigent defense set under CrR 3.1, in addition to the funds deposited into the city or county general fund attributable to the increase in fees imposed by section 2, chapter . . ., Laws of 2014 (section 2 of this act), the administrative office of the courts shall reimburse the city or county from existing resources in an amount of no less that five hundred twenty-eight thousand dollars.