Revised Code of Washington
Wash. Rev. Code § 36.26.070 (2025)
Duty to represent indigent defendants
✓ laws through the 2025 session: 2026 session laws are not yet included
Find cases:
SyfertCases citing this section
WA-LEGapp.leg.wa.gov
JustiaTitle on Justia
CornellLII Search
CasesGoogle Scholar
The public defender must represent, without charge to any accused, every indigent person who is or has been arrested or charged with a crime for which court appointed counsel for indigent defendants is required either under the Constitution of the United States or under the Constitution and laws of the state of Washington:
(1) If such arrested person or accused, having been apprised of his or her constitutional and statutory rights to counsel, requests the appointment of counsel to represent him or her; and
(2) If a court, on its own motion or otherwise, does not appoint counsel to represent the accused; and
(3) Unless the arrested person or accused, having been apprised of his or her right to counsel in open court, affirmatively rejects or intelligently repudiates his or her constitutional and statutory rights to be represented by counsel.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 2
cases, 1976–1982 · leading case: Vovos v. Grant, 555 P.2d 1343 (Wash. 1976).
Vovos v. Grant, 555 P.2d 1343 (Wash. 1976). “RCW 36.26.070 states the public defender "must represent" on court appointment certain indigent persons arrested or charged with a crime.”
State v. Dougherty, 655 P.2d 1187 (Wash. Ct. App. 1982). “" RCW 36.26.070. In the majority of cases, the appointment of a public defender satisfies Bounds .”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.