In February of 2021, the Washington State Supreme Courts ruled in State v. Blake that the state's felony drug possession statute was unconstitutional. As such, anyone convicted under the state's applicable statutes is eligible to have their conviction(s) vacated. This process requires refunding any financial penalties paid by an individual with an associated conviction. The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) will facilitate the payment of refunds upon certification by the appropriate court clerks.

This change will help automate, audit, and generally secure the statewide refund programs.

Successful completion of this project will achieve the following objectives:

• A mechanism for certifying and tracking refunds for each case vacated by a court decision is established.
• Court clerks are provided a simple mechanism to certify a refund amount to an individual associated under each case.
• Tools and processes are established for monitoring the progress of issuing refunds.
• A mechanism is established for adding one or multiple cases potentially requiring a refund within the tracking system.
• Documentation of activities related to each refund is tracked, linked and stored in a single location.
• The public is provided with a portal to request and track their court ordered refunds.

The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) would create a separate system to help facilitate statewide court refund programs such as the one associated with the Blake Decision. This separate system will provide three user interfaces:

• AOC Admin Portal: To manage each refund program and the list of eligible cases under each program. Also to provide dashboards for tracking refund programs, look up specific refund requests and provide final authorization of a refund request.
• Court Clerk Portal: To look up cases linked to a given decision, certify those cases, and report cases that are not listed under the decision so that administrators may add them in.
• Public Portal: To request refunds, update contact information, check on their refund status and provide identity verification processes in addition to the courts' verification processes.

It will also integrate with OFM systems to facilitate processing and tracking of authorized payments.

The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) would create a separate system to help facilitate statewide court refund programs such as the one associated with the Blake Decision. This separate system will provide three user interfaces:

• AOC Admin Portal: To manage each refund program and the list of eligible cases under each program. Also to provide dashboards for tracking refund programs, look up specific refund requests and provide final authorization of a refund request.
• Court Clerk Portal: To look up cases linked to a given decision, certify those cases, and report cases that are not listed under the decision so that administrators may add them in.
• Public Portal: To request refunds, update contact information, check on their refund status and provide identity verification processes in addition to the courts' verification processes.

It will also integrate with OFM systems to facilitate processing and tracking of authorized payments.

Project kickoff meeting held on January 27, 2023.