Proposed Rules Archives

• Proposed Changes to RAP 6.2 - Discretionary Review (in Word Format)
• No comments were submitted.

PURPOSE: The Office of Public Defense (OPD) proposes to change RAP 6.2 in order to ensure that appellate counsel has adequate time to prepare a motion for discretionary review after appointment by the court of appeals.

An indigent party has a right to counsel for the purpose of seeking discretionary review in certain civil cases. See In re Grove, 127 Wn. 2d 221, 897 P.2d 1252 (1995). In those cases, the court of appeals will appoint counsel upon receiving the notice of discretionary review (and accompanying order of indigency) from the trial court.

The trial court has 14 days to send the notice to the court of appeals. However, RAP 6.2 requires a party to file a motion for discretionary review within 15 days after the notice of discretionary review has been filed in the trial court. Therefore, by the time the court of appeals receives the notice of discretionary review and appoints appellate counsel the 15 day period is almost over. This rule has caused confusion for trial counsel who believe that they must file the motion for discretionary review in order to meet the 15 day deadline.

In practice, the court of appeals will reset the 15 day period for filing the motion for discretionary review once it appoints appellate counsel. OPD’s proposed change would adopt this practice in the RAP and eliminate the confusion of who is responsible for preparing the motion. The proposed change would only affect those cases in which an indigent party is entitled to counsel for the purpose of seeking discretionary review.