By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, ladies and gents.  I spent time earlier this week romping around in the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado, prompting me once more to wonder why I live on the East Coast.  My Blackberry’s continued buzzing while I was 9000 feet up reminded me that, for good or for ill, it’s harder and harder to truly disconnect these days.  I fought off a few impulses to toss it into the Big Thompson River.  And I’m glad I didn’t because much has happened in the public interest arena. 

First, big props to Kelly Tautges, Friend of the PSJD Blog and (actual title) Director of Pro Bono with the Chicago Bar Foundation.  The Daily Law Bulletin has named Tautges one of “40 Under 40” lawyers to watch in Chicago.  I was enlisted to help embarrass Kelly by publicizing this distinction.  So that’s checked off the to-do list.  (Sorry, Kelly.  Not really.)

Okay, the access-to-justice and public-interest week in very, very short:

• Missouri’s indigent defense program is becoming a weekly news fixture;
• next door in Illinois, funding for foreclosure prevention goes to a Chicago legal aid office;
• the “Is the Income Based Repayment program sustainable?” inquiry continues;
• a public defender in San Diego will cost you $50;
• a profile of NOLA’s pro bono project;
• the FTC goes after “legal aid” scams preying on distressed homeowners;
• Michigan bill to revamp indigent defense program faces legislative scrutiny;
• pro bono Down Under;
• Manhattan DA and New York Law School collaborate on new clinical program;
• Colorado Bar Association fundraiser may offset IOLTA shortfalls facing the legal aid community;
• is California’s 3 Strikes law striking out;
• Alabama revs up the “justice bus” engine;
• proposed New Mexico constitutional amendment to create independent public defender program
• Massachusetts launches program for retired attorneys to do pro bono work.
• Super Music Bonus.

The summaries:

• 10.11.12 – there’s been a lot of ink spilled recently over the health of Missouri’s indigent defense program.  Some county defenders’ offices are limiting case intake on account of a perceived case overload which is straining resources.  A new report from the state auditor may muddy the picture, however.  “Missouri’s auditor challenged Wednesday whether the state’s public criminal defense lawyers really can support the notion that they face a genuine ‘caseload crisis.’  In a report critical of the Missouri state public defender system, Auditor Thomas A. Schweich took no position as to whether such a crisis really existed. He noted that his auditors found that the system has depended on outdated models and unsupported assumptions to calculate how much time its lawyers actually work on cases….  Cathy R. Kelly, director of the public defender system, said her office already was working on solutions to problems outlined in the audit.
  Kelly said she is happy to find better ways of measuring caseloads. But those figures, when they become available, could show that the problem is worse that anyone imagines, Kelly said.  ‘Be careful what you wish for,’ she said.”  (Story from the Kansas City Star.  Additional coverage from St. Louis Public Radio, MissouriNet, and here’s the auditor’s report.)

• 10.11.12 – $650,000 of Illinois’s mortgage foreclosure fraud settlement money is going to Metropolitan Family Services to represent low-income families facing foreclosure.  (Story from the Sun-Times, and here’s an MFS press release.

• 10.11.12 – a couple of weeks ago we took note of a blog post wondering whether the Income Based Repayment program can have staying power given how many debt-laden graduates enter the employment market each year.  This week an AmLaw op-ed piece picks up on that question: “IBR is calibrated for typical college graduates who have less than $30,000 in student loan debt. Its proponents did not contemplate the already high and ever-increasing costs of professional education coupled with acute professional oversaturation and underemployment. With so many law school graduates trying to enter the workforce with six-figure debts and very poor short- and long-term employment prospects, the likelihood that the government will be forced to cancel large amounts of law school debt in 20-25 years is high. As a result, the question floating in the legal education community is just how unpayable are most law school debts?” I’m on vacation this week and haven’t had a chance to closely read the data-heavy piece.  But in the Great Recession’s wake this is a question that law school administrators must be looking at.  I’d love to hear from Heather Jarvis, Equal Justice Works, and other debt experts on the issue.

• 10.10.12 – “Criminal defendants who are too poor to hire their own defense attorneys will have to pay $50 for public-defender representation under an ordinance approved unanimously by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.  People who are too poor to pay even the new $50 “registration fee,” can ask a judge to waive it.  Despite concerns about the impact on the Sixth Amendment right to defense counsel, many counties in California have implemented court-appointed-attorney fees, which the state Legislature legalized in 1996. Originally set at $25, the cap was raised to $50 in 2010.”  (Story from San Diego City Beat.)

• 10.10.12 – a profile of NOLA’s Pro Bono Project: “Rachel Piercey, executive director of the Pro Bono Project, talks with great passion about her group’s work to provide free civil legal services to New Orleanians who need them. ‘We’re in our 26th year of operation, and we continue to grow because unfortunately, the civil needs of the poor are not going away,’ she said.   ‘And the needs always exceed the available resources. The entire organization is built around the volunteer concept and giving back to our community.’  During a typical year, the project averages between 1,300 to 1,400 cases, but in 2012 there has been a 50 percent increase in the case load.”  (Full story in the Times-Picayune.)

• 10.10.12 – “Targeting scam artists offering bogus legal services to distressed homeowners, the Federal Trade Commission on October 9 announced three suits against mortgage relief operations that allegedly victimized thousands of consumers.   In suits filed in federal court in Florida, California and Ohio, the FTC charged the companies with violating the Federal Trade Act and the Mortgage Assistance Relief Services rule by falsely claiming they could help homeowners avoid foreclosure. In some instances, the scammers allegedly promised but failed to deliver assistance from a ‘network’ of lawyers, or falsely passed themselves off as attorneys.”  (Full story in the National Law Journal.)

• 10.9.12 – news out of Michigan about proposed reforms to what is now a decentralized, county-by-county indigent defense system.  “A Senate panel has begun hearing arguments on a bill to fix the way Michigan counties provide defense attorneys to the poor.  The chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee says he’s still skeptical about the legislation.  Senator Rick Jones says…he…doesn’t see it as a statewide issue that requires sweeping changes…. The bill would create a state panel to set standards for appointing public defenders. Supporters point to a number of studies that rank Michigan’s public defense system among the worst in the country.  Some Michigan counties worry the changes could cost them, even if they’re already doing a good job.  The state House has already passed the bill out of committee. It now awaits a vote on the House floor.”  (Story from Michigan Public Radio.)

• 10.9.12 – “Australia’s foremost pro bono advocate has challenged mid-tier and small law firms to devote more resources to pro bono work.  John Corker…of the National Pro Bono Resource Centre…spoke to Lawyers Weekly in the wake of the release of the National Law Firm Pro Bono Survey.  While the average number of pro bono hours per lawyer per year had increased when compared to the last survey two years ago (from 29 hours per lawyer per annum in 2010 to 29.9 hours in 2012), it was large law firms that picked up the slack.” (Full story from Lawyers Weekly.)
  • Here’s the Centre’s 2012 report, in case you’d like to learn more about pro bono Down Under in the Outback among the Kangaroos and the Fosters and “That’s not a knife…” and I’ve run out of stereotypes so let’s all be happy about that.
  • As an aside, I’ve met John Corker a few times.  He’s a delightful person and a highly successful advocate for pro bono in Australia.  While at a conference in 2008, John and I ended up sitting together for John’s first-ever baseball game.  (Twins v. Red Sawx in the old Metrodome.)  I’m a lifelong baseball fan, and thought it would be easy to walk him through the basics.  Turns out baseball is by any objective measure the craziest game you could ever conjure up, and/or I’m the world’s worst explainer.  John graciously pretended to understand my ham-handed rule explanations.  But we had some beers and shared some laughs.  And that’s baseball’s true virtue, anyway, people.

• 10.9.12 – “The Manhattan District Attorney’s office and New York Law School are teaming up to have students prosecute non-violent misdemeanors and violations in the Manhattan Criminal Court’s Quality of Life part. The clinical program announced Oct. 5 will allow students to engage in plea negotiations, prepare witnesses and participate in suppression hearings and bench trials under the supervision of assistant district attorneys and adjunct professors. The yearlong clinic will begin in the fall of 2013.”  (Story from the New York Law Journal.)

• 10.9.12 –  “[Legal aid] programs around the state will be spared cuts after a Colorado Bar Association fundraising drive has helped cover almost the entire projected [IOLTA] shortfall.  The CBA and its sections in three months have raised $79,000, just shy of the estimated cuts….  The programs are funded largely by the Colorado Lawyer Trust Account Foundation, made of the interest earned on lawyers’ trust accounts. But because of the down economy, and its resulting low interest rates, the fund hasn’t generated the same funding level as past years. Just this year, COLTAF monies going to Colorado Legal Services dropped by $500,000.  In June, the CBA learned that pro bono programs were going to receive an $83,000 reduction in their COLTAF funding. The bar quickly organized a fundraiser, and nearly every section contributed with the CBA matching the donations dollar-for-dollar.”  (Here’s the story – but I just quoted most of it – from Law Week Colorado.)

• 10.8.12 – a New York Times op-ed looks at whether California’s “3 strikes” law is working as it should.  A study [by Stanford Law’s Three Strikes Project] showed that more than 4,000 inmates in California are serving life sentences for nonviolent offenses under the three-strikes law. While it is possible that some of the inmates may be eligible for parole after 25 years, a majority face the prospect of decades of prison time. Many of these stiff sentences struck us as egregious. Although judges have sentencing discretion in a very narrow band of three-strikes cases, the reality is that judges almost universally consider themselves bound under California law to impose a life sentence for a third felony offense, no matter how minor.”  (Here’s the fancy multimedia opinion piece.)

• 10/8/12 – Alabama’s going the justice bus route.  “Low-income Alabamians across the state this month can get free legal help when the ‘Justice Bus’ rolls into town.  In conjunction with the National Pro Bono Celebration, volunteer lawyers will fan out to four spots in the Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile regions. They literally will arrive in buses.  The lawyers will help people with uncomplicated civil matters like wills and trusts, uncontested divorces, housing disputes and debt collection issues.”  (Story from Alabama.com.)  The piece notes that these very well-intentioned Alabama lawyers borrowed the idea from lawyers in California.  They also borrowed the name “Justice Bus,” which may or may not be cool with San Francisco-based One Justice, which launched the initiative back in 2007.

• 10.6.12 – “It’s the last item on the Nov. 6 ballot. Hence, proponents are urging voters to “start at the bottom” with Amendment 5, which would change the New Mexico Constitution to create an independent Public Defender Department.  The chief public defender is currently appointed by the governor, and the agency is attached to the state’s Corrections Department.  The amendment gives authority to appoint the chief public defender to a Public Defender Commission, which also would provide administrative guidance and oversight of the new department.”  (Story from the Santa Fe New Mexican.)

• 10.5.12 – Massachusetts has just launched a program for retired attorneys to serve as pro bono “fellows”, helping beleaguered legal aid offices deal with overwhelming caseloads.  (Story from the AP.)

• Music!  Pretty sure I posted this once before, but repetition is just fine for this heart-melting Bill Withers tune.