By: Steve Grumm

Bipartisan Bird. Big Bird kickin’ it with former first lady Pat Nixon.

Happy Friday, folks.   I hope your week is closing out well.  From my perch here in Washington, DC I’m looking out at a beautiful October morning.  Well, truth be told I’m looking out at an office building alleyway, a dumpster, a frozen yogurt place, and the guy in the office across the alley with whom I have a sort of awkward, and very quiet, relationship.  Nevertheless it is a nice day. 

What’s happened this week in the world of access to justice?  The Legal Services Corporation released a report from its pro bono task force.  There are two birthdays, one for a law school clinic and one for a legal aid organization.  Indigent defense caseloads continue making headlines throughout the country.  And more…

The news in very, very brief:

• show me new public defender caseload limits in Missouri;
• happy b-day, LANC;
• short on capital defenders in the bayou;
• a call for more legal-aid funding from the NY gov’t.;
• LSC’s Pro Bono Task Force report;
• LSC board meeting and an op-ed from its chair;
• former law school dean to administer NY’s new pro bono requirement;
• the importance of legal aid in serving domestic violence victims;
• happy b-day to a UC Davis clinic;
• new WA public-defender caseload limits cause stir among one county’s contract defenders;
• what is BABSEA CLE?;
• super music bonus!

The summaries:

• 10.4.12 – here is a trio of stories about how the criminal justice community is reacting to newly effective caseload limits in some Missouri public defenders’ offices:
  • from St. Louis Public Radio: “Several public defender offices around the state have notified courts they will not be taking cases beyond their maximum caseload this month.  The 18 offices around Missouri include ones in St. Louis, St. Charles, Jefferson City and Springfield.  In St. Louis instead of turning away all cases public defenders met with the 22ndCircuit Court and the Circuit Attorney’s office to craft a different solution. Director Mary Fox says the circuit’s presiding judge then issued an administrative order that the public defender’s St. Louis office will no longer take cases involving certain non-violent crimes.”
  • a Columbia Daily-Tribune piece looks at what’s happening in Boone County, where overwhelming caseloads several months ago led to supreme court action to take action: “The 13th Judicial Circuit has agreed on a protocol for assigning private attorneys to overflow public defender cases, and those attorneys will be assigned cases at the end of the month.  Public defenders in the circuit, which includes Boone and Callaway counties, today began transferring to an assignment docket misdemeanor cases as well as misdemeanor and felony probation cases of qualified clients not incarcerated….  The enactment of today’s protocol, however, is not a long-term solution. The Missouri Bar and the Missouri State Public Defender will be seeking additional funding for more attorneys and resources when the Missouri General Assembly gathers later this year.” 
  • same thing from this password-protected Columbia Missourian piece: “Monday marked the first day the Boone County Public Defender’s office operated under a monthly 1,727-hour caseload restriction.” 
  • 10.4.12 – Legal Aid of North Carolina has hit the big 5-0.  Here’s some coverage from the Winston-Salem Chronicle.

• 10.3.12 – short on capital defenders in Louisiana.  “East Baton Rouge Public Defender Mike Mitchell says his office is in ‘crisis.’ He says the office cannot accept any new death penalty cases…  In Louisiana, death penalty cases must be tried by lawyers who are certified to try those type of cases. Mitchell says he cannot accept any new cases because he has 7 current and 15 pending.”  (Story from WAFB.)

• 10.3.12 – an Albany Times-Union editorial calls on the state government to find more legal aid funding: “A major mechanism for funding legal aid in New York is the Interest on Lawyer Account Fund, which draws revenue from interest on some bank accounts set up by lawyers on behalf of clients. As interest rates on those accounts have plunged, from 2.25 percent in 2007 to just .25 percent, so has its annual revenue, from $31.7 million to just $6.5 million.  Indeed, when all government and private sources are added up, funding for civil legal aid has plummeted from $261 million three years ago to $223 million this past year.  Meanwhile, the need has soared, as more and more people struggle to keep their homes, obtain public assistance to feed their families, or get what’s due them from unemployment insurance.”

• 10.2.12 – the Legal Services Corporation’s blue-ribbon Pro Bono Task Force has issued a much anticipated report, laying out the need for increased pro bono work, and calling for specific actions from various actors in the legal community.  Here’s a summary of the reports recommendations, here’s the full report, and here’s a list of the task force members.

• 10.1.12 – with the LSC board meeting in North Carolina, board chair John Levy penned this op-ed in the Charlotte News Observer: “LSC’s programs throughout North Carolina and the rest of the country are increasingly overwhelmed with requests for help. As a result of the recession, nearly one in five Americans – 61 million people – now qualify for LSC-funded civil legal assistance because they live at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty guideline. That is an all-time high.   As demand has been rising, the combined funding for LSC programs from federal, state, local and all other sources has dropped from $960 million in 2010 to $878 million in 2012…. The circumstances in North Carolina mirror the national trend. More than 21 percent of North Carolinians now qualify for help from Legal Aid of North Carolina, but LANC is facing a 14 percent drop in funding from all sources this year.   Last fall, budget cuts forced LANC to shutter three field offices in largely rural areas and eliminate nearly 30 staff positions, impacting services in 11 counties. The budget crunch has also forced LANC to impose a salary and hiring freeze since 2008 and to narrow the kinds of cases it will accept.”

• 10.1.12 – – in the Empire State, Touro Law’s former dean is tapped to oversee implementation of the new rule that will require 50 hours of pro bono service in order to become licensed to practice.  “Lawrence Raful, the former dean of Touro Law Center on Long Island, has been appointed by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman to oversee implementation of a new rule that all applicants to the New York bar first prove they have completed at least 50 hours of pro bono activities (NYLJ, Sept. 20).  Raful will be the Unified Court System’s “point person” in dealing with law schools, law firms, legal services providers and others who have questions about the new requirement, said Paul Lewis, chief of staff to first deputy state administrative judge Lawrence Marks.” (Story from the New York Law Journal.)

• 9.30.12 – October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  In Tennessee, a Legal Aid Society attorney emphasizes the importance of legal aid in supporting DV victims.  “Studies show that the most effective way to end the cycle of abuse is to help victims become independent of their abusers. Low-income victims often remain in abusive marriages or relationships because they can’t afford the legal assistance needed to get a divorce or an order of protection. A victim who understands that she can get an order of protection, divorce, job training, affordable housing and child care will have the confidence and courage to leave an abuser and become a stable, independent member of the community.”  (Full op-ed in The Tennessean.)

• 9.29.12 – happy 30^th to the Immigration Law Clinic at UC Davis Law: “Founded in 1982, the clinic was the first in the nation to train law students to represent non-citizens in immigration court, said Dean Kevin Johnson.  Guided by supervising attorneys, about 30 law students per semester have represented clients from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Jamaica, Romania, Fiji, Laos, Cambodia, India, China and the Philippines.”  (Here’s a brief profile in the Sacramento Bee.)

• 9.29.12 – there’s all sorts of confusion in one Washington State county in the wake of a state high court order which will place caseload limits on public defenders.  In Benton County, a handful of contracted defenders handed in resignations – which may have been a form of protest –but then reconsidered.  “A Benton County public defense attorney who tried to rescind his resignation during a contract dispute has filed for an injunction to keep his job. Six of the county’s nine public defenders recently submitted letters of resignation following a stalemate in negotiations about new caseload restrictions mandated by the state Supreme Court. Four of the attorneys later rescinded their resignations, but it’s not clear if Benton County commissioners knew that when they voted this week to accept the resignations of Dan Arnold, Kevin Holt, Scott Johnson, Sal Mendoza Jr., Gary Metro and Larry Zeigler.”  (Story from the Tri-City Herald.)

• 9.29.12 – here’s an interesting piece on an American lawyer who runs a nonprofit training Southeast Asian lawyers on representing impoverished clients in countries where relatively weak rule-of-law protections can leave those on the economic margins on the justice system’s margins as well.  “Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia Community Legal Education Initiative (BABSEA CLE), a nonprofit Lasky cofounded about a decade ago, trains young lawyers across the Asia-Pacific region to defend the powerless, even though law schools here typically place little emphasis on helping vulnerable groups.  Lasky’s organization has worked with more than 40 universities in nine Asia-Pacific countries to develop programs that teach lawyers to understand the need to provide legal services to at-risk communities.”  (Story from the Alaska Dispatch.)

Music! Last Sunday I attended a Unitarian Universalist service which included a “dedication” ceremony for my little cousin, Matthew Patrick Clowry.  (My roots are in Catholicism, so I’d liken a dedication ceremony to a christening.)  It was a lovely experience, the only downside for me being that Matthew, who is a year old, fidgeted less than I did during the service.  Some habits we do not lose.  In any event the service closed with an inspiring and pretty song that was new to me.  So here’s Nina Simone’s take on “I Wish I Could Know What It Means to Be Me”, which is a nice way to start a day.