Statute of Limitations on Court Fines in Washington State

The statute of limitations on court fines in Washington State is generally ten years, and the clock starts on the later of two dates: when the judgment and sentence is entered, or when you are released from total confinement. The state can apply once to extend that window by another ten years, for a maximum of twenty. Victim restitution ordered for crimes committed on or after July 1, 2000 is the major exception and has no expiration at all.

When the Ten-Year Clock Starts

Washington treats court-ordered fines, fees, and restitution, collectively known as Legal Financial Obligations (LFOs), as civil judgments for collection purposes. Under RCW 6.17.020, the state has ten years to enforce them through garnishment or other legal process.¹

For criminal LFOs, the ten years does not run from your conviction date. It runs from the later of the date the judgment and sentence was entered or the date you were released from total confinement. If you served prison time, that difference can be significant. Someone sentenced in 2015 and released in 2020 has a collection window that begins in 2020, not 2015.

How the State Can Extend the Deadline to Twenty Years

The ten-year period is not always the end of the story. The county clerk can apply on the state’s behalf for a single ten-year extension, and the court must grant it if the application is timely.¹ Timely means filed within the 90 days immediately before the original ten-year period expires. Miss that window and the extension is off the table.

No judgment can be enforced for more than twenty years from the original entry date, with narrow exceptions for restitution and child support.¹ So for most non-restitution LFOs, twenty years is the absolute ceiling.

Victim Restitution Has No Expiration

Restitution ordered for crimes committed on or after July 1, 2000 follows a different rule entirely. For those offenses, the court keeps jurisdiction over the person until the restitution is paid in full, no matter how many years pass.² There is no ten-year limit and no twenty-year cap. The obligation does not expire.

For crimes committed before July 1, 2000, restitution follows the same ten-year collection period as other LFOs, with the same option for a ten-year extension.² The date of the offense controls which rule applies.

What Happens When the Period Runs Out

Once the ten years passes (or twenty, if extended) with no further enforcement action available, the LFO becomes time-barred. The state can no longer garnish your wages, seize assets, or force payment. The Washington Supreme Court held in State v. Gossage that defendants are entitled to a Certificate of Discharge once their unpaid LFOs are time-barred.

In practice it can be messier. Some county clerk offices have continued to collect on time-barred LFOs and have refused to sign the verification that nothing is owed. If your fines are past the statutory deadline and the clerk will not acknowledge it, you may need to petition the court for an order confirming the debt is unenforceable. That Certificate of Discharge is not just a formality either. It is a prerequisite for vacating a felony conviction, so an unresolved LFO, even a time-barred one, can block you from clearing your record.

Interest No Longer Accrues on Most Fines

For many years unpaid LFOs in Washington accrued interest at twelve percent annually, which frequently pushed balances well past the original fine.³ That changed with HB 1783. As of June 7, 2018, no interest accrues on non-restitution LFOs.⁴

If you have older non-restitution LFOs, the court is required to waive all interest that accumulated before June 7, 2018, once you file a motion asking for it. The statute uses “shall,” so the waiver is not discretionary.⁴

Restitution interest is different. At sentencing, the court can decline to impose it after considering factors like whether you are indigent, homeless, or dealing with mental illness. After sentencing, the court can waive or reduce restitution interest only in two situations: you have already paid the restitution principal in full, or the interest accrued while you were incarcerated and you lack the current or likely future ability to pay.⁴ The court must also consider input from the victim before reducing restitution interest.

Asking the Court to Reduce or Eliminate What You Owe

You do not have to wait out the ten years. Under RCW 10.01.160, anyone who has not willfully failed to pay can petition the sentencing court at any time to reduce or remit their remaining LFOs. If the court finds that payment would impose manifest hardship on you or your immediate family, it can wipe out part or all of the balance or change how you pay.⁵

The process usually involves a motion and a declaration laying out your finances, what you have paid, and why you cannot pay the rest. Courts look for a good-faith effort, which generally means paying the restitution principal in full or making at least fifteen monthly payments in any eighteen-month period. Consistent payments plus real hardship gets a much warmer reception than a long silence.

Discretionary costs are treated separately. Courts cannot impose them on defendants who were indigent at the time of sentencing. Washington’s indigency definition is broad enough to include people who are homeless, have a mental illness, or whose household income exceeds 125 percent of the federal poverty guidelines but whose basic living costs still leave them unable to pay.⁵ Discretionary costs imposed despite indigency may be challengeable.

What Can Happen Before the Clock Runs Out

The collection window is long, and a lot can happen inside it. If the court refers your unpaid LFOs to a private collection agency, RCW 19.16.500 allows a surcharge of up to fifty percent on the first $100,000 of unpaid debt and up to thirty-five percent on any amount above that.⁶ For debts under $100, the agency can charge the full amount as a minimum fee. A $2,000 fine can become a $3,000 obligation once it goes out to collections, and the fee agreement is presumed reasonable under the statute, so the surcharge itself is hard to fight. Setting up a payment plan directly through the court before referral is one of the best ways to avoid it.

Willful nonpayment can also lead to a bench warrant. Under Bearden v. Georgia, though, the court cannot jail you for nonpayment without first holding a hearing on whether your failure to pay was willful. If you tried in good faith and simply cannot afford it, the court has to consider alternatives.

Bankruptcy Will Not Erase Court Fines

One thing bankruptcy does not do is get rid of court fines. Under federal law, debts for fines, penalties, or forfeitures payable to a government entity are generally not dischargeable, and criminal restitution is likewise off-limits in both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13.⁷

A Chapter 13 filing can give you breathing room by putting you on a court-supervised repayment plan of up to five years, during which the government generally cannot collect restitution outside the bankruptcy process. But whatever restitution balance remains at the end of the plan survives the discharge and still must be paid.

1
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 6.17.020 – Execution Authorized Within 10 Years
2
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 9.94A.760 – Legal Financial Obligations – Restitution Obligations
3
Washington State Legislature. HB 1783 Bill Analysis
4
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 10.82.090 – Interest on Judgments – Disposition of Nonrestitution Interest
5
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 10.01.160 – Costs – What Constitutes – Payment by Defendant
6
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 19.16.500 – Public Bodies May Retain Collection Agencies
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge