Appellate practitioners in the state of Washington may soon have some significant new rules to be aware of. In November 2019, the Washington Supreme Court published for comment multiple proposed changes to the Rules of Appellate Procedure (RAP). The main thrust of the proposed rule changes is to establish word count limits to briefs and motions, instead of the current page limits that currently govern.
The main content can be found in the new proposed rule 18.17 of the Rules of Appellate Procedure. That proposed new rule lays out the formatting required, the size and type of font to be used, and provides the word limits for different types of documents, and requires the inclusion of a certificate of compliance with the word count limit above the signature line similar to what King County Superior Court requires for civil motions.
If the rule goes into effect, all briefs and motions would need to be in a 14-point font, either a serif font comparable to Times New Roman or sans serif font comparable to Arial. This requirement applies to footnotes and quotations, in addition to the main body text.
The word count limits run anywhere from 2,500 words for replies to motions, 4,000 words for a statement of grounds for direct review, 12,000 words for the briefs of appellants, petitioners, and respondents to 72,000 words for personal restraint petitions filed in capital cases (and lots in between).
The purpose of these proposed rule changes is to “provide[] a level playing field, where the length of a document (and thus, how much legal argument can be made) is not determined by formatting decisions such as fonts, spacing, and use of footnotes.” In other words, some litigants would use formatting tricks (smaller fonts, smaller amount of space between lines, etc.) to get around the page limits, which can give those litigants an unfair advantage and make briefs difficult to read for the courts.
The rest of the proposed changes to the RAP’s are updating cross references and eliminating references to the old page limits.
In 2016, the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure switched to word counts, so this would put Washington squarely in the mainstream.
The comment period for these proposed changes expired April 30, 2020. Once the comment period is up, the court will review the comments and make a final decision about whether to adopt the proposed changes, in full or in part, or decline to adopt them.