Brief Bank Information

WDA has created a brief bank for use by its members and those engaged in indigent defense in Washington State. This bank was created by the resource attorneys, who have either written these motions or received them from other practicing attorneys. If you have a motion that you would like to contribute to this bank, please contact the resource attorneys, who will then update and publish it to the bank.

AOC Brief Bank

The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) maintains a brief bank that is based upon the briefs filed for indigent appeals in the Washington State Courts of Appeal and Washington State Supreme Court in the last ten or more years. Follow this link to their website.

Strengthening the Sixth Amendment

Below are resources from the Strengthening the Sixth Amendment organization presentation on jury diversity webinar series. The recording and other resources available at https://strengthenthesixth.org/. The resources include:

• Impartial & Representative Juries – STS Website
• State v. Gould (Conn. 2016)
• Color-Blind But Not Color-Deaf: Accent Discrimination in Jury Selection – Jasmine Gonzales Rose
• Report and Recommendations – Arizona Task Force on Jury Data Collection, Policies and Procedures
• Texas Law Says Jury Panels Must Be Chosen Randomly. A Brazoria County Official Had a Different Idea.
• Voir Dire – Center for Jury Studies, National Center for State Courts
• Asymmetry as Fairness: Reversing a Peremptory Trend – Anna Roberts, Seattle University School of Law
• The Impact of Minimal versus Extended Voir Dire and Judicial Rehabilitation on Mock Jurors’ Decisions in Civil Cases – Salerno et. al
• Beyond Batson’s Scrutiny: A Preliminary Look at Racial Disparities in Prosecutorial Preemptory Strikes Following the Passage of the North Carolina Racial Justice Act – Grosso and O’Brien
• Redefining Bias in Criminal Justice – Criminal Justice Magazine, ABA
• A Call to Criminal Courts: Record Rules for Batson – Grosso and O’Brien
• Examining Jurors: Applying Conversation Analysis to Voir Dire in Capital Cases, a First Look – O’Brien, Grosso and Taylor
• Twenty Million Angry Men: The Case for Including Convicted Felons in Our Jury System – James Binnall
• Can Explicit Instructions Reduce Expressions of Implicit Bias? New Questions Following a Test of a Specialized Jury Instruction – Elek and Hannaford Agor
• The Chauvin Trial’s Jury Wasn’t Like Other Juries – Sonali Chakravarti, The Atlantic

As with all resources, WDA staff does its best to keep the brief bank updated but it is your obligation to make sure that the caselaw is still current.

• 3.5 Motions
• 3.6 Motions
• 71.09
• Appeals (Felony)
• Assault
• Bail Motions
• Bail/Pre-Trial Release
• Camping, Panhandling and Crimes of Poverty
• Chemical Treatment Dependency and Evaluations
• Competency
• Compromise of Misdemeanor
• Confrontation
• Corpus
• Cross Exam – Samples
• Defenses
• Discovery
• Disqualification (Judge or Prosecutor)
• DNA
• DOL
• Double Jeopardy
• DUI
• DV
• DWLS
• Family Law and Criminal Law Intersect
• Firearm Rights
• First Amendment
• Forms
• Frye/Forensics
• General Topics
• HIPPA in Criminal Cases
• Hunting Crimes
• Ignition Interlock Issues
• Involuntary Treatment Act (ITA)
• Joinder
• Jurisdiction
• Jury Instructions
• Jury Questionnaires
• Juvenile Court
• Juveniles in Adult Court
• Knapstad Motions
• LFOS
• Mandatory Joinder
• Medical Marijuana
• Misdemeanor Probation
• Misdemeanor Sentencing
• Motions in Limine
• New Trial Arrest Judgment
• NGRI orders
• No Contact Orders
• Post Conviction
• Predicate Offenses
• Presence in Court
• Probation Hearings
• Prosecutorial Misconduct
• Public Disclosure Act
• Public Records Request
• Race: Litigating Race
• Radar
• RALJ appeals
• Resentencing – Youth in Adult Court
• Restitution
• Retroactivity
• Right to Counsel
• Sanctions
• Sealing/Redacting
• Second Amendment
• Sentencing (non-LFO)
• Severance
• Sex Crimes
• Speedy Trial
• SPRC 2 counsel
• Stipulated Order of Continuance
• Substitution of Counsel
• Supplying Liquor to a Minor
• Travel to Canada
• Trespass
• Trial Issues
• Vacating and Sealing
• Vague and Overbroad
• Washington State Patrol Documents
• Withdraw Guilty Plea
• Witness
• Witness Identification
• Writs

Below are the most recently updated documents and links in all brief bank subcategories.