WA civil legal aid organizations mourn state funding cuts: 'It's a gut punch'

An unexpected slash to a small corner of Washington’s state budget has civil legal aid organizations scrambling to plan for a future without financial support.

Both the House and Senate biannual budgets put forth by state lawmakers this year included around $5 million to support the legal aid organizations that are critical in helping to vacate unconstitutional drug convictions across the state. But after the two budgets were reconciled in the final days of the legislative session, the funding had disappeared. State lawmakers put forth a balanced $77.8 billion budget on April 27 after months of debate and amid an anticipated $16 billion budget shortfall. The final budget is now awaiting Gov. Bob Ferguson’s approval.

“It’s a gut punch,” said Camerina Zorrozua, the legal director and co-founder of The Way to Justice, a nonprofit legal aid organization based in Spokane that has relied on the funding since 2021. “The rug was just pulled out from under us.”

Since 2022, three Washington legal aid and advocacy organizations — Civil Survival, Living with Conviction, and The Way to Justice — have relied on state funding from the Office of Civil Legal Aid to help people vacate convictions on their criminal records that became constitutionally void after a 2021 Washington Supreme Court ruling known as State v. Blake.

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2025/05/11/wa-civil-legal-aid-organizations-mourn-state-funding-cuts-its-a-gut-punch/