Access to justice is enshrined in Washington State’s Constitution, however, accessing the courts remains out of reach for many Washingtonians, especially for youth and poor people.
The cruel reality is that Washington State has two very different court systems: one for those who can afford to participate, and one for those who can’t.
In 2010, Washington’s Supreme Court tried to correct this injustice by adopting General Rule 34 (GR 34), which ensured that any indigent person could seek access to Washington courts by requesting a waiver of filing fees or surcharges the payment “of which is a condition precedent to a litigant’s ability to secure access to judicial relief.” This rule ensured access to justice, regardless of someone’s ability to pay. To qualify a person must either (a) show their indigency directly to the court or (b) be represented by a Qualified Legal Services Provider (QLSP), like LCYC.
Indigency is often determined by enrollment in a needs-based, means-qualified assistance program such as Federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Federal poverty-related veteran’s benefits, or a Food Stamp Program, but can also be established if the household income is at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty guideline. To put this into context, a family of four would have to earn $41,250 or less to meet this requirement. Many of the youth we serve are unable to earn income at all due to their age, because they are in school, or due to immigration status.
Despite this requirement set by Washington’s Supreme Court, clients and their attorneys saw discretionary applications of GR 34 that varied from county to county. For example, counties would choose to waive one fee but not all fees or would deny outright valid fee waiver applications. Poor Washingtonians continued to experience barrier after barrier to accessing justice – and because Washington has a non-unified court system, it was hard to keep track of all the variant county practices.
Frustrations led to a 2013 landmark case before the Washington State Supreme Court, Jafar v Webb, where the Court was asked to decide whether, under GR 34, courts had the discretion to grant only partial waivers of fees and surcharges to indigent clients. The Washington State Supreme Court held that: “GR 34 provides a uniform standard for determining whether an individual is indigent and further requires the court to waive all fees and costs for individuals who meet this standard. The rule was adopted to ensure that indigent litigants have equal access to justice. Any fees required of indigent litigants are invalid and must be waived under the rule."
13 years after our Supreme Court made that clear and unequivocal statement, we are still fighting to protect the original intent of GR 34 and Jafar. LCYC has engaged in various advocacy strategies in an effort to hold gatekeepers of the court accountable and ensure access to justice for our clients, including working in coalition with QLSP partners to educate clerks and judges and coordinate advocacy efforts.
QLSPs, like LCYC and many others, continue to face barriers on behalf of our indigent clients – just so they can access justice as promised. These barriers include:
Outright denial of QLSP waivers: some court clerks and judges are refusing to grant fee waivers based on the QLSP declaration. They are requiring indigent litigants represented by a QLSP to submit a separate personal declaration and evidence of their indigency, which GR 34 does not require.
Denials by Clerks, never in front of a judge: Clerks deny fee waivers without opening a new case, issuing a case number, or presenting the fee-waiver motion to a judge. Indigent litigants have no recourse: there is nothing to appeal (no order or other formal court action) and no procedural mechanism to appeal.
Denial of certain types of fees: Clerks consider certain fees as “executive branch administrative fees” and clerks claim these cannot be waived. Examples: ex-parte fees or e-filing fees or jury fees. That is wrong—every fee or charge not only can but must be waived for indigent litigants.
E-filing challenges: In some courts, you can’t even file your case or fee waiver without paying a fee.
In May 2026, pro-bono attorney and lead litigator on Jafar v. Webb, Brian Buckley, filed two waiver motions in Grant County related to the $30 ex-parte fee, on behalf of two LCYC clients. In both cases, the Clerk received our GR 34 waiver papers and the $30 check that LCYC included as a fallback and deposited the check without ever presenting the waiver papers to the Commissioner. On June 30th, Grant County Commissioner Tom Middleton ruled from the bench that, pursuant to the clear language of Jafar, indigent clients are entitled to a waiver of all fees or charges. The Grant County Clerk has now appealed that ruling and is fighting to avoid having to waive fees for the poor and grant equal access to justice.
Commissioner Middleton’s Grant County ruling is just the beginning – there is more work ahead of us to ensure access to justice for poor people in Washington’s 38 remaining counties and finally ensure equal access to courts for all people, regardless of their ability to pay.
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