PSJD Public Interest News Digest – May 4, 2018
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives 
Hello there, interested public! I must confess, with the Annual Education Conference very much on my mind the news that leapt off the page for me this week concerned coverage of efforts in Newark and San Francisco to create a right to counsel in eviction cases, in the model of New York City. The Public Service Section’s Conference Proposals Committee is considering proposing a conference session on these kinds of new initiatives and their implications for legal hiring; if you’re a NALP member feel free to reach out to me for details on how to attend the open meeting where we’ll be discussing this proposal and others, today at 1:30pm EST.
See you around,
Sam
Funding & Loans
- In Canada, uncertainty around a federal pay system has led to a situation in which “thousands of public servants [] don’t know whether they have been paid the raises and back pay owed to them [and won’t know] before June 30, 2019.”
- The President of the ABA argued in The Hill that “Congress must increase funding for the Legal Services Corporation.”
- In the US, major private industry leaders participated in a panel discussion discussing whether payroll-integrated student loan repayment and financing support should be a new form of job benefit.
- The US Department of Education revealed in court filings details of its new plan for serving borrowers in default on their federal student loans.
Legal Technology
- In Ohio, the Toledo Legal Aid Society launched a website, toledolegalaid.com, “intended to better connect underserved populations with legal representation.”
- The Center for Agriculture & Food Systems released the “Farmland Access Legal Toolkit,” an online resource designed to “support[] current and aspiring farmers in finding and transitioning farmland.”
- In Canada, “the federal government is willing to accept the privacy and security risks of storing data in the internet cloud as an alternative to its own aging computers that are ‘at risk of breaking down,’ says an internal policy paper.”
- Ars Technica’s Senior Technology Policy Reporter previewed arguments from his forthcoming book, Habeas Data, in the Los Angeles Times.
- In California, the ACLU wrote in support of SB1186, “a bill that helps restores power at the local level and makes sure local voices are heard when surveillance proposals are on the table.”
Access to Justice – Civil
- In Newark, NJ, the Mayor proposed a “municipal ordinance that would provide Newark’s low-income residents with access to free legal representation in landlord-tenant disputes.” The proposed ordinance would cover tenants facing eviction in Essex County Landlord Tenant Court earning up to 200 percent of the federal poverty line.
- In San Francisco, CA, the San Francisco Public Press profiled Proposition F–an upcoming ballot initiative that would provide free legal aid to tenants facing eviction.
- In Minneapolis, MN, the Star Tribune profiled the medical-legal partnership at the Community-University Health Care Center–one of the first such programs in the country, and an idea that has gained increasing traction at clinics and hospitals nationwide.
- In Albany, NY, the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new Center for Legal Services.
- In South Dakota, the State Bar of South Dakota sponsored a 3-day Ask-A-Lawyer event, an annual program allowing people to call in and ask anonymous questions about legal issues for free.
Access to Justice – Criminal
- In Louisiana, “the Louisiana Public Defender Board recently reached a compromise on a new plan intended to more fairly distribute state funds used to pay lawyers who represent indigent defendants…[b]ut because the amount of money available under the new plan is still limited, almost all districts are still worried.“
- In Wisconsin, “[t]he number of lawyers…willing to defend indigent clients for $40 an hour dropped 16 percent in five years, the head of the State Public Defender’s office told the supreme court.”
- In Missouri, the Pulitzer Center published a story detailing how “Missouri Public Defenders are Overloaded with Hundreds of Cases While Defendants Wait in Jail.”