January 22, 2010 at 7:32 am
· Filed under News and Developments, Public Interest Jobs, The Legal Industry and Economy
- 1.21.10 – Cloud Computing Journal (running a Business Wire piece) – $2 million in cy pres funds resulting from an $11.5 million class-action settlement in California will go to legal services and other public interest organizations. Beneficiaries of the funding windfall include Public Counsel, Bet Tzedek Legal Services, East Bay Community Law Center, and the Legal Aid Society of San Diego. Link to press release.
- 1.19.10 – Government Executive newsletter – by 2013, 78% of federal, administrative law judges will be eligible for retirement. (Over 50% are eligible now.) Feeling the pressure to beef up their ranks, agencies that “rely most heavily on [ALJs]…would like to be able to hire them for specialized knowledge” and “find ways to have conversations about [their] job performance without infringing on judicial independence.” Link to article.
- 1.18.10 – Kitsap Sun (Washington State) – in the wake of a statewide initiative to bolster the indigent defense network, Kitsap County, in Washington State, “began dramatically reshaping how the indigent are represented in criminal court” by creating an Office of Public Defense. Having “in-house” public defenders has proven highly cost-effective; it costs the government about one-half the amount to have a staff public defender handling felonies than it would to contract with outside counsel. The OPD’s supervising attorney “anticipates that the county will hire even more public defenders.” Link to article.
- 1.18.10 – New York Times “City Room” Blog – in a follow-up to a blog post last week describing the public interest placement experience of deferred Ropes & Gray associate Chris Reid, Mr. Reid offers thoughtful answers to questions raised by readers of the original blog post. Mr. Reid’s responses address his adjustment to a chaotic practice setting (housing court), the rewards of his immersion into public-interest culture, and how this experience may change his approach to practice when he returns to the private bar. Link to article.
- 1.18.10 – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – the Wisconsin Department of Corrections has sent letters to some former inmates who have completed their sentences, demanding that they submit DNA samples or face possible prosecution. However, the state’s DNA submission law does not “expressly say that offenders are still obligated to submit DNA if they are no longer in prison, on probation or on parole.” Some critics charge that the Department of Corrections may be exceeding its statutory authority, giving the former inmates an easy ground for suppression should their DNA be used against them in a future criminal proceeding. Link to article.
- 1.17.10 – “Ozarks First” Website – (including video report) – the amount of low-income applicants seeking help from Legal Services of Southern Missouri has risen by 20% in just one year. And “[b]ecause of our funding we can’t help everyone,” according to the group’s executive director, who further notes that, “[w]e’re turning away a lot of people who are income eligible.” This leads some low-income Missourians to take a do-it-yourself approach to resolving their legal problems. Link to article.
- 1.16.10 – Chicago Public Radio – the business of Cook County’s Central Bond Court takes place at a frenzied pace, as judges, prosecutors, and defense counsel race through bond/bail hearings for newly charged defendants. This very rapid spinning of the wheels of justice – an average hearing lasts 47 seconds – concerns some critics, who question how justice can be done with so little time devoted to many cases, and who also note that defendants’ fates vary considerably from judge to judge. Link to story.
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