By unanimous order on July 2, the state Supreme Court lowered the amount of time that certain adults must be arraigned and allowed to request bail from 14 down to three days.

The order amending CrR 4.1, CrRLJ 4.1, and CrRLJ 3.2.1 will take effect on Sept. 1 and stipulates that any adult jailed in connection with a criminal case, or released with conditions, must be arraigned and given the opportunity to request bail within three days. This sharply reduces the current in-custody period of up to 14 days in which a defendant could be held in jail after the initial complaint or citation was filed in court.

The change will have significant impacts on how cities conduct court proceedings, especially cities where its court is only in session part of the week.

Probable cause hearings changes

The Supreme Court also ordered that a preliminary hearing to determine probable cause for warrantless arrests must be conducted within 48 hours of the filing of a felony complaint in district court, and that if a person accused of felony is jailed or released with conditions, the deadline for filing information to support the complaint is reduced from 30 days to 5 days.

The new arraignment limits were imposed at request of the public defender offices in King and Snohomish Counties earlier this year, and were approved over prosecutors’ objections that a three-day limit is too short for logistics including evidence discovery and notifications of victims and out-of-custody defendants.