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Have your civil rights been affected by your past felony conviction? Has not being able to exercise these rights affected you in a negative way? Let us help you restore them.

Civil rights are fundamental to being an American and feeling like a full member of society. Civil rights include the sacred right to vote, to hold office, and to be on a jury. Access to civil rights are what make someone feel like a complete member of the community. However, if you have a felony conviction, these rights may be taken away from you, preventing you from fully participating in our civil society. Restoring your civil rights is a key part of reintegrating with society and feeling like a full Washingtonian again. Fortunately, the State of Washington provides a pathway for restoring your lost civil rights.

We have handled more that 750 cases in Washington, and we are national leaders in post-conviction relief. We are driven to help people in your situation and want to use our years of experience and skill to help you get your rights restored in Washington.

Washington Certificate of Discharge: Pathway to Civil Rights Restoration and Vacating Conviction Record

A Certificate of Discharge in Washington will restore your civil rights that were not already restored when you were released from the authority of the Department of Corrections, including the permanent right to vote, to hold office, and to serve on a jury. It will not restore your firearm rights, but you can pursue restoration of this right through the Washington Firearm Rights Restoration process.

In addition to restoring your civil rights, obtaining a Certificate of Discharge is an eligibility requirement to clear your conviction through a vacate. Without the Certificate of Discharge, you will not be able to seek a record vacate.

Seek the Certificate of Discharge as soon as you are eligible in order to avoid delays in restoring your civil rights, and so you can ensure your ability to vacate the record. Both values of the Certificate of Discharge will provide the necessary pieces to restoring your full membership into the community, and relieve you of the stigma a conviction places on you.

Want to know what type of relief you are eligible for? Please take this confidential and free eligibility test to find out if you can get your rights restored.

Washington Certificate of Discharge: How to Achieve Civil Rights Restoration

In the State of Washington, there are two basic ways to obtain a Certificate of Discharge. The first is to be automatically issued one by the sentencing court and the other is to petition the court to issue you a Certificate.

Automatic Issuance by Sentencing Court

The first way to obtain a Certificate of Discharge is to be issued one automatically once you complete all the requirements of your sentence. Washington law mandates the Department of Corrections to inform the sentencing court that an individual under their supervision has satisfied all sentence requirements, including financial obligations. The court will then issue the Certificate of Discharge with an effective date that matches the date when obligations were satisfied. Nevertheless, many courts do not always automatically issue your Certificate of Discharge, but we can petition the court for the Certificate so you can get your rights back right away.

Another common occurrence is the defendant who has completed all non-financial sentence obligations, but is no longer under under the supervision of the court. In this circumstance, the Department of Corrections will inform the sentencing court that all non-financial obligations have been satisfied and will provide the court a specific itemization of what financial obligations are still owed. This will allow the court to automatically issue a Certificate of Discharge once the individual has satisfied the financial obligations of their sentence. The effective date of the Certificate of Discharge will match the date of when the final obligations were satisfied. However, despite their best efforts, the Court sometimes fails to issue the Certificate. If you have satisfied your financial obligations to the court long after the discharge of your supervision, we can be hired to make sure the court issues you your Certificate right away with the correct date.

If you are unsure whether a Certificate of Discharge was automatically issued in your case, we can be hired to research the case and determine whether the Certificate is in your court file.

Application for Certificate of Discharge

The other way to obtain a Certificate of Discharge is to petition the Court when the automatic processes fail and you need to take proactive steps to obtain your civil rights. If you completed all the terms of your sentence, including all financial obligations, and are not issued a Certificate of Discharge then you may make a motion to the sentencing court to issue one. In order to do so, you must provide proof to the court that all sentence requirements, including financial obligations, were completed. Once the court verifies this information, it will issue a Certificate of Discharge with a retroactive effective date of when all requirements were satisfied.

For those unable to pay all the financial obligations or complete all the terms associated with their case, there is still hope. After a 5-year waiting period, you may file a motion with the court for a Certificate of Discharge and provide proof of completion of all other non-financial obligations of your sentence. If you don't have proof of the completion of all your non-financial terms of sentence, the court may waive this requirement if it finds good cause to do so. The waiting period begins five years from the date of completion of completion of community custody, or if you were not required to serve community custody, after the completion of full and partial confinement; or the date that all financial obligations were satisfied if you failed to complete a different term of your sentence.

It must be noted that with each of these processes, a no-contact order ordered as part of your sentence is not considered to be part of the sentence that must be completed in order to obtain a Certificate of Discharge. If you are subjection to a no-contact order as part of your sentence, it will be converted to a separate civil no-contact order under the same terms and conditions. The Certificate of Discharge does not lift the no-contact order, but a no-contact order is not a bar to obtaining a Certificate of Discharge.

Getting your Washington Certificate of Discharge

The day you sign up for this service we will start work on your case. Having specialized in post-conviction relief cases we know how to handle your case as fast as possible. We will petition the court where you were convicted showing evidence that you have completed your sentence or obligations other obligations ordered. IF you haven't completed your sentence obligations, we can help you show the court that there is good cause to still issue you the Certificate. Each court varies on how long it takes to process such a petition. The standard case in Washington takes about 3 to 4 months.

We pride ourselves on offering excellent service at affordable prices. We have a flat rate for this service that includes all costs. We will research, compose and file your petition, file any other necessary documents, answer any opposition and if a hearing is scheduled we will send one of our top-rated, licensed attorneys to court to advocate for you. We find that in most cases you will not have to come into court yourself. If you are curious about what is going on with your case, at any given time, you can always call us or log into our state of the art online case management system for an update.

View all of the Civil Rights Restoration Frequently Asked Questions.