PSJD Public Interest News Digest – April 5, 2019
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello there, interested public! The big news this week is that the Department of Education, in response to questioning from Senator Kaine, revealed statistics concerning the percentage of public servants whose applications for student loan forgiveness have been granted (or, much more frequently, denied). This news, linked below, reinforces the Law360 profile released this week discussing the mounting challenges facing public service attorney recruiting. Also of particular interest is an argument in Mondaq making the case that the 2019 PROTECT Students Act could significantly change the definition of “nonprofit institution of higher education.”
In the good news column, the looming legal aid strike in British Columbia was averted through at least the end of this summer.
See you around,
Sam
Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues
- In New York, “Gov. Andrew Cuomo sa[id] 19 attorneys have been selected to serve as full-time legal counsels providing free services to immigrants who need assistance…The selected attorneys are with organizations that provide legal assistance, including the Legal Aid Society and the New York Legal Assistance Group. They’ll be working with state Opportunity Centers located from Long Island to the North Country and western New York.“
- In California, local news reported immigration advocacy groups are warning that “many immigrants are being released without a court date” and sometimes “with no directions and no paper work”–a situation that puts them at risk of being “stopped at a checkpoint and sent back as an illegal alien,” according to Mayor Tony Martinez of Brownsville.
Environmental Law
- Professors Michael B. Gerrard of Columbia Law and John C. Dernbach of Widener University published Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States, “a ‘legal playbook’…identifying well over 1,000 legal options for enabling the United States to address one of the greatest problems facing this country and the rest of humanity.“
Public Service Management & Hiring
- In Texas, “three lawyers seeking to eliminate the mandatory bar in Texas have made new filings arguing for a judge to decide the matter fast,” in “one of at least four lawsuits filed nationally challenging mandatory bar membership in the wake of two U.S. Supreme Court decisions.” (The underlying suit involves a claim “that their ‘coerced’ membership helps support programs for minority, immigrant and disadvantaged communities that they do not endorse.”
- In Mondaq, Two lawyers from Cooley LLP criticized specific provisions of the PROTECT Student Act, noting that “[t]he bill would significantly amend the definition of ‘nonprofit institution of higher education’ at section 103 of the Higher Education Act…The new language would, for the first time, very specifically dictate the composition of an institution’s board of trustees.“
- In New Haven CT, the Yale Daily News reported that “Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has opened an investigation into [Yale] Law School’s decision to extend its nondiscrimination policy to summer and postgraduate public interest fellowships[.]” In response, Yale Law released a Statement on Nondiscrimination.
- In New York NY, “NYU Law’s Institution for International Law and Justice has announced the launch of a new LL.M. fellowship program…called the LL.M. Public Interest Fellowship [which] will allow fellows to work in a host organization of their choosing.”
- In Montgomery AL, the board of the Southern Poverty Law Center elected a new interim president and CEO: Karen Baynes-Dunning.
Student Debt & Loans
- In Washington DC, “[i]n response to an inquiry from [Sen.] Kaine, the Education Department disclosed last week that 38,460 people had submitted requests for forgiveness as of Dec. 28 under the new program. Most, 28,640 people, were immediately rejected because they had not previously filled out a formal loan forgiveness application — one of the many criteria of the relief program. Of the 9,820 applicants who cleared the first hurdle, 1,184 are still under consideration. The rest were rejected for myriad reasons…Only 262 people have jumped through all of the hoops required for their loans to be discharged.”
- In Maine, “[a] bill designed to protect student loan borrowers…from unscrupulous lending practices has received unanimous support in committee.”
- In Illinois, “[a]n initiative of Treasurer Michael Frerichs’ office would allow him to refinance an Illinois resident’s college loans at low-interest rates in hopes that it will help them better afford their payments.”
- In California, “Assemblyman Mark Stone…introduced a bill promising to create a ‘Student Borrower Bill of Rights’ that would curb abusive and deceptive business tactics that critics say are routinely deployed by the industry…Stone says the bill comes on the heels of the ‘collapse’ of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s student loan section due to new federal policies.“
- Also in California, “Hyundai this week introduced Student Assurance, an incentive for customers with student loan debt.” Autoremarketing.com, the site that carried the story, noted that the automaker’s move comes in response to “the possibility that student-loan debt could push a potential buyer into the subprime credit tier.“
- BenefitsPro.com delivered “highlights from [a] presentation on student loan benefits as a crucial [employee] recruitment tool[.]“
Legal Technology
- In Ventura County CA, “[the] Public Defender’s office has entered into a partnership with Uptrust, a criminal justice-focused text message communication and reminder service, to reduce the number of Failure to Appear (FTA) incidents, arrest warrants and technical violations in the county.”
- Tulsa County OK has also adopted Uptrust.
- (A similar system was recently deployed in Minnesota, as described in an earlier edition of this digest.)
Access to Justice – Civil
- In Colorado, “[t]he Office for Victims Program within the Division of Criminal Justice and the University of Denver Sturm College of Law have launched…the Colorado Civil Justice Corps, [a] $2 million grant program [that] will fund at least five two-year fellowships at nonprofits that provide civil legal services to crime victims.”
- In New York NY, “City Council members…urged the state’s chief judge to ensure courts are physically configured so eligble tenants and lawyers can convene and do a better of of informing individuals about their right to representation [in eviction cases].”
- In British Columbia, “Attorney General David Eby and legal aid lawyers have reached a truce that will give the bar a 25 per cent pay hike to prevent a threatened strike[.]” But a member of the board of B.C.’s Association of Legal Aid Laywers said “the $7.9-million grant is little more than a stop-gap,” and “[l]awyers in B.C. could walk off the job in November if no resolution is found.” More on this story from Canada’s The Lawyer’s Daily.
- Also in British Columbia, “[t]he B.C. bar association is calling for the provincial government to…mandate the provincial Legal Services Society…deliver independent rights and advocacy to involuntarily admitted patients [detained under the Mental Health Act.]“
- In Alberta, “the Canadian Bar Association is calling on the candidates [in the Alberta election campaign] to ensure proper funding for the justice system,” warning that “[i]f the next government of Alberta doesn’t invest in the justice system, the courts will continue to falter with chronic backlogs[.]“
- In Ontario, “Attorney General and Minister of Francophone Affairs Caroline Mulroney announced a new initiative…to identify more opportunities to deliver enhancements to Franco-Ontarians accessing court services and court proceedings heard in French.”
Access to Justice – Criminal
- In California, the state Supreme Court “unanimously agreed that a pretrial prosecution appeal of a suppression order is a critical point ‘at which the defendant has a right to appointed counsel as a matter of state constitutional law.‘”
- In Maine, a report for the state legislature concluded that “Maine’s often-embattled and unique system for providing legal representation to indigent people accused of crimes lacks safeguards guaranteeing financial oversight and quality,” according to the Bangor Daily News.
- In Montana, a state representative criticized the “Office of Public Defender’s out-of-control spending.” Two county commissioners also spoke out against “a move afoot in the Montana Legislature to siphon off money allocated to counties to backfill a shortfall in the Office of the State Public Defender program.” As discussed in last week’s digest, a state senate committee recently approved a $2 million increase in the office’s budget.
Criminal Justice Reform
- In New York, “[t]he state’s district attorneys…moved to block the creation of a new commission that would be tasked with reviewing complaints of misconduct specifically against the state’s prosecutors, who argued that the legislation passed to create the panel is unconstitutional.”
- In Philadelphia PA, “District Attorney Larry Krasner…has partnered with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI)…to evaluate how data-driven technology can be used to help reconcile the problem of mass incarceration in Philadelphia and across the United States.“