An LCB Violation Notice in Washington: Twenty Days, Three Options, and What the Penalty Will Be

Who the Liquor and Cannabis Board is, and what it can do to your license

The Board licenses and regulates every business in Washington that makes, moves or sells alcohol: breweries, wineries, distilleries, distributors, bars, restaurants, taprooms, grocers and the special occasion licensee running a one-night event. The licensing side lives in chapter 66.24 RCW and the penalty side in chapter 314-29 WAC, and the two are worth reading as one thing, because the decisions you make at application are the ones the enforcement division measures you against later.

When the Board moves against a license, that is not an informal agency decision. RCW 66.08.150 makes any denial of reissuance, and any revocation, suspension or modification of a license, an adjudicative proceeding under the Administrative Procedure Act, chapter 34.05 RCW. An opportunity for a hearing must be given before a revocation or a modification, and before a suspension except in the emergency case described further down.

That same statute contains the sentence that catches people. RCW 66.08.150(3): "No hearing may be required until demanded by the applicant, permittee, or licensee." The right exists. It does not arrive on its own.

How long does it take to get a liquor license in Washington, and what actually holds it up

Nobody can give you a date, and anyone who does is guessing. What can be described is the sequence, because almost every delay comes from one of three places in it.

The investigation

RCW 66.24.010(2) lets the Board inspect the premises and inquire into all matters in connection with the construction and operation of the premises, and it lets the Board consider an applicant's prior criminal conduct, their administrative violation history with the Board, and a criminal history record check. Where that check goes to the FBI, the Board must require fingerprinting. This is worth building into the schedule rather than assuming away in a lease.

The local authority's twenty days

The Board notifies the chief executive officer of the city or town, or the county legislative authority where the premises are outside a city or town. Under RCW 66.24.010(8)(c) that authority then has twenty days from the date the notice was transmitted to file written objections against the applicant or the premises, and for a renewal the window runs to at least thirty days before expiry. The Board may extend it.

Those objections are not a formality. RCW 66.24.010(12) requires the Board to give substantial weight to a local objection based on chronic illegal activity, which the statute defines as a pervasive pattern of activity threatening public health, safety and welfare, documented in things like police reports, calls for service and emergency medical response data, or alternatively an unreasonably high number of DUI citations under RCW 46.61.502 tied to the applicant's operation of a licensed premises. A jurisdiction with a file on your block can make that file your problem.

The five hundred feet

RCW 66.24.010(9)(a) requires written notice of the application, with receipt verification, to churches and schools within five hundred feet of the premises to be licensed, and to the public institutions in that radius that the Board has identified as appropriate to receive notice. The measurement is along the most direct route over public walks and streets from the school's main entrance to the nearest public entrance of your premises, not as the crow flies. For premises not already licensed, the Board may not issue the license if the premises are within five hundred feet of a tax-supported public elementary or secondary school and an official representative of that school objects in writing, on proximity grounds, within twenty days of receiving the notice. The Board may extend that objection period, and under RCW 66.24.010(10) the restriction does not bar the assumption of an existing license or the relocation of licensed premises inside the restricted area.

Private schools are treated differently and are worth knowing about before you sign anything. Under RCW 66.24.010(9)(c) the Board must fully consider and give substantial weight to a private school's objection, and where it issues the license anyway it has to write to the school explaining why.

The administrative violation notice, and the twenty days that follow

WAC 314-29-005 says what the notice contains: a short narrative of what the officer is charging, the dates, a copy of the law or rule allegedly violated, an outline of your options, and the recommended penalty.

WAC 314-29-010(1) gives you twenty days from receipt to do one of three things, on a form the agency provides. Accept the recommended penalty. Request a settlement conference in writing. Request an administrative hearing in writing.

Twenty days from RECEIPT, not from the postmark and not from the day you got round to opening it. Write the date on the envelope.

What happens if you let it pass is set out in the same rule and it is worse than most owners expect. The recommended suspension goes into effect. If the violation included a monetary penalty, then after day twenty and up to thirty days from the DATE OF THE NOTICE, which is a different starting point from the twenty days to respond, you can still pay the recommended penalty plus a twenty-five percent fee instead of serving the suspension. If the penalty was money rather than suspension, you owe that plus a twenty-five percent late fee, due within thirty days of the notice date. On a failure to pay, collection provisions take effect immediately, or the Board may institute other action it considers appropriate, including revocation. An unpaid debt can also be assigned to a collection agency, after the Board has attempted to advise the licensee of the debt and at least thirty days have passed.

Two further consequences sit at the end of that rule and they are the ones that end businesses. A licensee who has failed to respond to a violation notice, or who has outstanding fines, is not eligible to renew the license. And failing to address monetary penalties on two or more violation notices within a two-year period results in cancellation.

What the three options actually mean

Accepting

Fast, and final, and it goes on your record. That record is what the next notice gets measured against, which is why accepting a first violation without reading the penalty tables is a decision about your second violation as much as your first.

The settlement conference

A conversation with a hearing examiner or an enforcement captain about the circumstances of the charge, the recommended penalty and any aggravating or mitigating factors, rather than a trial about the facts. It is where mitigation gets heard. Any compromise reached there is not self-executing: it goes to the Board for approval, and if the Board does not approve it you can renegotiate, accept the original penalty, or request a hearing. WAC 314-29-015(4) lets the Board impose a different penalty than the standard one based on mitigating or aggravating circumstances, and lets it offer a monetary option in lieu of suspension days on mitigation. The rule gives two examples of mitigation that may mean fewer suspension days or a lower monetary option: a signed acknowledgment of the business's alcohol policy on file for each employee, and an employee training plan that includes annual training on liquor laws. The Board also keeps a public list of business practices as further examples, and neither list is exclusive. If you have those, bring them. If you do not, that sentence is a to-do list.

The administrative hearing

A contested proceeding under the Administrative Procedure Act, usually before an administrative law judge appointed at the Board's request under RCW 66.24.010(3)(d) and chapter 34.12 RCW, with an initial order that can be reviewed. An initial order that nobody seeks review of becomes the final order.

What the penalty will be, and why the second one costs so much more

WAC 314-29-015 sorts violations into five groups: public safety, regulatory, licensing, nonretail violations involving manufacture supply and distribution, and public safety at sports entertainment facilities. The schedules are guidelines rather than a tariff, and the Board can depart from them in either direction.

The arithmetic that matters is the window. For chapter 314-29 WAC purposes a two-year window is measured from the date one violation occurred to the date a later one occurred. Not from when the notice issued, not from when you paid.

Group One, the public safety violations, is counted in a way that surprises people. WAC 314-29-020(2) says Group 1 violations are counted sequentially rather than independently, so a later violation of a different type inside the same group still counts as the next offense. The rule's own example: over service one day and a sale to a minor a week later makes the sale to a minor a SECOND offense, because both sit in the same group. And beyond a first Group One violation, the notice does not carry a monetary option at all. The Board may still offer one at a settlement conference on mitigation, which is a reason to request the conference rather than write a check.

That is the whole economics of a first violation. Treating it as a parking ticket is what makes the second one a suspension you cannot buy your way out of.

The violations that cancel a license on the first offense

Most of the schedules escalate. A few do not. Under WAC 314-29-030, which covers licensing violations, several entries read cancellation of license in the first-violation column with nothing before it.

A true party of interest violation under RCW 66.24.010(1) and WAC 314-12-030 is one of them. So is failure to furnish required documents, and misrepresentation of fact.

True party of interest is the one worth stopping on. RCW 66.24.010(1) and WAC 314-12-030(1) require the license to be issued in the name of the true party or parties in interest, and RCW 66.24.010(13)(c) lets the Board require lease agreements, operating agreements and other contracts to satisfy itself that the licensee really retains ownership and control of the premises. Who counts turns on the specific arrangement, which is why a structure that feels like ordinary business is worth checking before the Board checks it. The schedule for getting it wrong has one column.

Summary suspension, when the Board does not wait

RCW 66.08.150(4) lets the Board suspend a license for up to one hundred eighty days with no prior hearing where it finds that public health, safety or welfare imperatively require emergency action, and it must put that finding in the order. Proceedings for revocation or other action have to be promptly instituted and determined, and an administrative law judge may extend the summary suspension period for up to one calendar year if the main proceeding cannot finish in the first one hundred eighty days because of the licensee's own actions.

The statute does require the enforcement division to complete a preliminary staff investigation before asking the Board for an emergency suspension. If this happens to you, that sentence is the first thing to ask about.

Where this goes wrong

The notice sits on the office desk for three weeks because the owner is waiting to talk to somebody. Day twenty-one is not a late start. It is a decision already made.

A first violation gets paid off to make it go away, with nobody reading what it does to the second one inside the two-year window.

The monetary option is treated as the cheap route when the settlement conference was the route that could have reduced the underlying penalty.

Nobody has the mitigation the rule actually names. Signed alcohol policy acknowledgments and an annual training plan are cheap to put in place before a violation, and a plan written after the notice arrives does not show the history the rule is looking for.

The applicant never finds out the city filed an objection, because the twenty days ran against the local authority and nobody was watching that calendar.

An ownership change, a new investor, or a management agreement goes through without anyone asking whether it moved the true party of interest. That is the one with cancellation in the first column.

Renewal is treated as administrative while a fine is outstanding, and the licensee discovers at renewal that they were not eligible.

What a lawyer does here

Most of the value is in the first week. Working out which group the charge sits in and what it does to the next two years, rather than only what it costs today. Choosing between the settlement conference and the hearing on something other than instinct. Assembling the mitigation the rule names before the conference instead of describing it afterwards. Getting the demand for a hearing in writing and on time, because the right exists only once it is demanded. On the licensing side, it is finding the objection before it hardens, and reading an ownership structure for true party of interest exposure before the Board reads it.

I handle Washington liquor licensing and LCB enforcement work from my office in downtown Spokane, and I have appeared in administrative proceedings before the Board. The work covers breweries, wineries, bars, restaurants and taprooms. I am admitted in Washington, WSBA #55307, and Oregon, OSB #242384.

If a violation notice has arrived, the date you received it is the first thing to establish and the twenty days are already running. I offer a free consultation by appointment at my Spokane office, 601 W. 1st Ave., Suite 1400. Bring the notice itself, the envelope, and whatever you have in the way of training records and written policies.

Disclaimer

This article is general information about Washington law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Law changes, and how it applies depends on facts specific to your situation. If you have a question about your own circumstances, speak with a lawyer.