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Researchers unveil interactive LFO dashboard showing roughly $530 million imposed in Washington (2018–2021)
Summary
A new dashboard from the Washington State Center for Court Research presents legal financial obligations (LFOs) data for 2018–2021, offers demographic and jurisdictional filters, and is designed for annual updates and person-centered analysis, officials said.
Dr. Carl Jones of the Washington State Center for Court Research on Tuesday demonstrated a new interactive dashboard that tracks legal financial obligations imposed in Washington state between 2018 and 2021.
"You have the opportunity to, look at the process, at different points — at the point of imposition, and then later, given payment amounts paid and then amounts of outstanding debt as of July 02/2023," Jones said during the Minority and Justice Commission meeting. He told commissioners the dashboard allows users to filter by charge, jurisdiction and demographic categories and to switch the unit of analysis from cases to people.
The demonstration included a data summary Jones described as "roughly $530,000,000 in LFOs imposed in that four‑year period." The dashboard breaks imposed sums into restitution, fines and fees, and enables drilldowns by restitution recipient and by charge, he said.
Commission staff said the dashboard builds on a 2024 legislative report and is being released with a how‑to guide, frequently asked questions and planned video walkthroughs. Frank Thomas, senior staff to the commission, said the project also includes an operational LFO calculator being piloted with test judicial users and an administrative portal that will allow legal updates to be implemented year to year.
"We're in the process of, first reaching out to our LFO subject matter expert commissioners," Thomas said, noting judges David Keenan and Linda Coburn agreed to serve as early testers.
Jones warned of a temporary network issue when accessing the tool from outside the Administrative Office of the Courts network but said the team expected that to be resolved. He said the dashboard link is available in the meeting packet and will be posted on the AOC website under the DRT dashboard reporting tool.
Next steps discussed include making data sharing recurring so new annual data can be fed into the dashboard and offering training resources to help judicial officers and stakeholders use the tool for policy and courtroom decision‑making.
The commission expressed support for the tool as a means to examine intersections of race, geography and charge in LFO imposition and to inform future policy work.
