No person shall be permitted to practice as an attorney or counselor at law or to do work of a legal nature for compensation, or to represent himself or herself as an attorney or counselor at law or qualified to do work of a legal nature, unless he or she is a bona fide resident of this state and has been admitted to practice law in this state: PROVIDED, That any person may appear and conduct his or her own case in any action or proceeding brought by or against him or her, or may appear in his or her own behalf in the small claims department of the district court: AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That an attorney of another state may appear as counselor in a court of this state without admission, upon satisfying the court that his or her state grants the same right to attorneys of this state.
RCW 2.48.190
Qualifications on admission to practice.
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case 91 Wash. 2d 48 - Washington State Bar Ass'n v. Great Western Union Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n (1978)
Most recently applied in 96 Wash. 2d 443 - Hagan & Van Camp, P.S. v. Kassler Escrow, Inc. (November 1981)
2023 c 102 s 2; 1987 c 202 s 107; 1921 c 126 s 4; RRS s 139-4
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.