WA · rules
Wash. R. Prof'l Conduct 6.2
Accepting Appointments
A lawyer shall not seek to avoid appointment by a tribunal to represent a person except for
good cause, such as:
(a) representing the client is likely to result in violation of the Rules of Professional
Conduct or other law;
(b) representing the client is likely to result in an unreasonable financial burden on the
lawyer; or
(c) the client or the cause is so repugnant to the lawyer as to be likely to impair the
client-lawyer relationship or the lawyer's ability to represent the client.
History
[Adopted effective September 1, 1985; Amended effective September 1, 2006.] Comment [1] [Washington revision] A lawyer ordinarily is not obliged to accept a client whose character or cause the lawyer regards as repugnant. The lawyer’s freedom to select clients is, however, qualified. A lawyer may be subject to appointment by a court to serve unpopular clients or persons unable to afford legal services. Appointed Counsel [2] For good cause a lawyer may seek to decline an appointment to represent a person who cannot afford to retain counsel or whose cause is unpopular. Good cause exists if the lawyer could not handle the matter competently, see Rule 1.1, or if undertaking the representation would result in an improper conflict of interest, for example, when the client or the cause is so repugnant to the lawyer as to be likely to impair the client-lawyer relationship or the lawyer’s ability to represent the client. A lawyer may also seek to decline an appointment if acceptance would be unreasonably burdensome, for example, when it would impose a financial sacrifice so great as to be unjust. [3] An appointed lawyer has the same obligations to the client as retained counsel, including the obligations of loyalty and confidentiality, and is subject to the same limitations on the client- lawyer relationship, such as the obligation to refrain from assisting the client in violation of the Rules. [Comments adopted effective September 1, 2006.]
Provenance
- Source
- www.courts.wa.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-16
- Edition
- 2026-09-16
- Content hash
e69990fc8e4aed35ff0182fc61429311bbd3d3be34d9ef5a0e86374c1ccdbd1e
The link goes to the issuing authority’s own document — the one we read to produce this record. Where a source publishes whole titles rather than sections, your browser may need a moment to jump to the provision.
Unofficial copy of government-published law, reproduced from official sources with full provenance. Not an official publication; verify against official sources before relying on it in a filing. Records in the 'guidance' corpus, and only that corpus, are sub-regulatory (interpretive guidelines, survey procedures) and are not binding law. Validity bounds follow each jurisdiction's declared temporalBasis.