WA · rules
Wash. R. for Enforcement of Lawyer Conduct 15.4
Trust Account Overdraft Notification
(a) Overdraft Notification Agreement Required. To be authorized as a depository for
lawyer trust accounts referred to in RPC 1.15A(i), limited license legal technician (LLLT) trust
accounts referred to in LLLT RPC 1.15A(i), or limited practice officer (LPO) trust accounts
referred to in LPO RPC 1.12A(i), a financial institution, bank, credit union, savings bank, or
savings and loan association must file with the Legal Foundation of Washington an agreement,
in a form provided by the Washington State Bar Association, to report to the Washington State
Bar Association if any properly payable instrument is presented against a lawyer, LLLT, LPO or
closing firm trust account containing insufficient funds, whether or not the instrument is
honored. The agreement must apply to all branches of the financial institution and cannot be
canceled except on 30 days' notice in writing to the Legal Foundation of Washington. The Legal
Foundation of Washington must provide copies of signed agreements and notices of cancellation
to the Washington State Bar Association.
(b) Overdraft Reports.
(1) The overdraft notification agreement must provide that all reports made by the financial
institution must contain the following information:
(A) the identity of the financial institution;
(B) the identity of the (1) the lawyer, LLLT, or law firm, or (2) the limited practice officer
or closing firm;
(C) the account number; and
(D) either:
(i) the amount of overdraft and date created; or
(ii) the amount of the returned instrument(s) and the date returned.
(2) The financial institution must provide the information required by the notification
agreement within five banking days of the date the item(s) was paid or returned unpaid.
(c) Costs. Nothing in these rules precludes a financial institution from charging a
particular lawyer or law firm for the reasonable cost of producing the reports and records
required by this rule, but those charges may not be a transaction cost charged against funds
payable to the Legal Foundation of Washington under RPC 1.15A(i)(1) and ELC 15.7(e).
(d) Notification by Lawyer. Every lawyer or law firm who receives notification that any
instrument presented against a trust account of the lawyer or law firm that was presented against
insufficient funds, whether or not the instrument was honored, must promptly notify the Office
of Disciplinary Counsel of the information required by section (b). The lawyer must include a
full explanation of the cause of the overdraft.
History
[Adopted effective October 1, 2002; A mended effective January 1, 2009; December 1, 2009; April 28, 2015; December 8, 2015.]
Provenance
- Source
- www.courts.wa.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-16
- Edition
- 2026-09-16
- Content hash
789d111438e07d3de1735b4e5f44ec994e3ca4255178e5bfd646fc4ad1b76cbf
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