This bill amends existing law. It extends the time limit for filing a petition or motion for collateral attack on a criminal judgment and sentence (for judgments that are valid on their face and rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction) from one year to three years after the judgment becomes final (amendment to RCW 10.73.090). It defines "collateral attack" as any postconviction relief other than a direct appeal and lists examples, and it defines when a judgment becomes final as the latest of: the date the judgment is filed with the trial court clerk, the date an appellate court issues its mandate disposing of a timely direct appeal, or the date the U.S. Supreme Court denies a timely petition for certiorari (noting a motion to reconsider denial of certiorari does not delay finality). The Department of Corrections must, as soon as practicable after the section’s effective date, attempt to notify people who are serving incarceration, probation, parole, or community supervision for a felony about the amended time limits in RCW 10.73.090 and 10.73.100 (amendment to RCW 10.73.120). The bill also amends duties and authorities of the Office of Public Defense (RCW 2.70.023). It states the office generally does not provide direct representation except as provided in the section, allows managing and supervising attorneys who meet public defense qualifications to provide limited short-term telephonic or video initial consultation coverage when contracted counsel is unavailable, permits placement and supervision of law clerks/externs/interns with contracted counsel consistent with admission and professional conduct rules, and allows office employees to provide pro bono legal services if they obtain and retain a written client-signed statement acknowledging the services are provided in the employee’s personal capacity and the State is not liable. The office must provide public defense for indigent persons in involuntary commitment cases at the request of the Health Care Authority using county funds under RCW 71.05.110, and it may provide direct representation of indigent adult or juvenile offenders eligible for state-funded counsel to prosecute or respond to collateral attacks pursuant to cited statutes. The amendments are procedural and administrative in nature (statute-of-limitations extension, definitional clarifications, notice requirements, and expanded/clarified office duties), not a creation of a new crime or a specified penalty change. The extracted text does not state the effective date of the amended sections and it references other RCW provisions (RCW 10.73.100, RCW 10.73.150, RCW 2.70.020(1)(b)) whose contents and interactions are not included here.

If enacted, people convicted of felonies who are serving time or under community supervision will have up to three years instead of one year to bring most postconviction challenges, which will likely increase the number of late-filed collateral-attack motions and create more work for defense counsel and courts. The Department of Corrections will have to allocate staff time and resources to try to notify everyone under supervision about the new deadline "as soon as practicable," so there will be an immediate administrative cost and logistical effort to reach incarcerated people, those on probation or parole, and others under community supervision. The Office of Public Defense will get new, limited roles that change how cases are handled: supervising short-term telephone or video intake coverage when private or contracted counsel aren’t available, placing law clerks with contracted lawyers, permitting employees to do pro bono work with signed waivers that limit state liability, providing public defense in involuntary commitment cases at the Health Care Authority’s request using county funds, and in some cases directly handling collateral-attack work for indigent clients. Those changes can shift workload and liability risk to the office, may require new office policies and recordkeeping, and could increase counties’ expenses for involuntary commitment defense; the bill’s effective date and how these rules interact with other cited statutes are not provided here, so some operational details remain uncertain.