If you cannot afford an attorney, you must financially screen by phone to determine eligibility for a public defender. (Visit our legal services page to see the kinds of representation the Department of Public Defense provides.)

To screen, please call the DPD financial screening line at (206) 477-9727, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday. 

If you do not have access to a phone, you may report in person to a DPD hotphone location in Seattle or Kent and use a phone located there to place a call to us, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, at these locations: 

• DPD’s offices: 710 2nd Ave, Suite 200, Seattle  
• King County Courthouse: 516 3rd Ave, Seattle – 6th floor hallway beside law library  
• Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center: 1211 E. Alder St., Seattle – 4th floor, Room 4002 
• Maleng Regional Justice Center: 401 4th Ave. N., Kent – next to room 1B in the rotunda 

You can also email DPDScreening@kingcounty.gov to have a DPD screener contact you. 

On-Call Attorney Advice

The Department of Public Defense provides on-call attorney services seven days a week. If it is after normal business hours and the police want to question you or you're facing another situation that requires immediate legal help, call 206-477-8899. During business hours, please call our main office at 206-296-7662.

Juvenile Records Sealing

The department also helps people who have juvenile records. DPD works with clients to get their names off of the sex registry for juvenile offenses and to have their juvenile records sealed. DPD can also help to lower the amount of money owed on a juvenile case so that those records can be sealed. Call 206-477-9727 Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., to learn more. Read a flyer about this service. 

If you already have an attorney and need to meet with them, here are the locations of our division offices, where our public defenders are located. All of our division offices are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

DPD also has offices in the Jefferson Building near the Patricia H. Clark Children & Family Justice Center, where our juvenile units and some family defense attorneys are located:

         Jefferson Professional Center
         1401 E. Jefferson Street
         Seattle, WA 98122

Contact your attorney

You can look up the phone number of your attorney, or any DPD employee, by visiting the King County online directory and entering the attorney's first and last name into the search window. Most attorneys are listed in the directory. If you can't remember your attorney's name, call DPD at 206-296-7662, and we'll help you figure it out.