PSJD Public Interest News Digest – June 14, 2019
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello there, interested public! Lots of news this week. In New York City, legal aid attorneys are unionizing, while in Saskatchewan, contract talks between Legal Aid Saskatchewan and its employees’ union have broken down. In Portland Oregon, public defenders staged a walkout to insist on staffing and pay reforms while in Detroit, Michigan is setting up an entirely new public defender’s office (and hiring!). Legal Aid Ontario provided more information about how recent budget cuts will affect its operations, while legal aid providers in the province pushed back against the government decision. And student loan debt oversight in the United States continues to be controversial. That’s all for now; back to a busy summer.
See you around,
Sam
Editor’s Choice
I mention this piece without commenting on its substance, but because I suspect that with US News’ profile many prospective students will read it: US News and World Report published “How to Find a Strong Human Rights Law Program.”
Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues
- In Washington DC, “[t]he Trump administration…defend[ed] reductions to legal aid an other services for unaccompanied children, but advocates say those programs are too important to cut[.]”
- In Yolo County CA, the County Board of Supervisors “approved a recommended budget..that includes funding for a new attorney in the public defender’s office dedicated to assisting county residents facing deportation.”
- Nonprofit Quarterly published “As Immigrants Face Attacks, Where Stands Philanthropy?”, an article discussing a brief on the subject released earlier this year by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.
Student Loans & Student Debt
- In Texas,Gov. Abbott signed SB37, “which bans Texas agencies from denying, suspending, or revoking a borrower’s occupational license simply because they had defaulted on their student loans.”
- In Washington DC, “U.S. Senators Rick Scott [], Mike Braun [], Krysten Sinema [], and Chris Coons [] introduced the Student Loan Tax Elimination Act of 2019, which proposes to eliminate the origination fee on federal student loans beginning on July 1, 2019.”
- Also in Washington DC, “[s]everal civil rights groups [] sent a letter to [CFPB] Director Kraninger questioning whether the CFPB is engaging in the oversight of the student loan market they believe is necessary to ‘root out potentially discriminatory practices.’”
- Meanwhile, “Democratic lawmakers at a house hearing…pushed for tougher oversight of companies handling student loans.”
- Again also in Washington DC, “[t]he Education Department appointee who oversees the government’s $1.5 trillion student loan portfolio…stepped down from the board of an organization that owns some of that debt, after POLITICO asked about a potential conflict of interest.”
- LendEDU published a study concluding that “32% of consumers that file for bankruptcy also carry student loan debt that is virtually impossible to successfully discharge.”
- PaymentsJournal.com used LendEDU financial aid data “covering nearly 1,000 colleges and universities…to evaluate how the student loan debt situation across the country has changed in the past 10 years.”
- Forbes published the latest in their “series on the 2020 presidential candidates’ positions on student loan debt.” This installment focuses on Senator Kamala Harris. Last Friday’s covered Pete Buttigieg.
- In related news, “Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren…and Rep. James E. Clyburn [] announced…their plan to introduce legislation in the Senate and House to eliminate up to $50,000 in student loan debt for 42 million Americans.”
- Additionally, in response to a question from CNN’s Dana Bash “about how [Sen. Bernie] Sanders’ plans on student debt stack up against those of Senator Elizabeth Warren,…said, ‘Our plan will cancel a substantial amount of student debt and in some ways probably go further than Senator Warren’s.’ He added later, ‘I don’t have the plan in my pocket right now.”
- Textbook exchange company Chegg “announced a new benefit that will allow employees to pay off their student debt through an equity pool of the company’s existing stock….’We’re taking our best and our brightest and murdering them with a lifetime of debt,’ Chegg CEO Dan Roenweig [said], pointing to the high rates of depression and suicide on college campuses.”
- Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported that “a proposed change to the tax code would give companies more incentive to offer assistance to their workers.”
Legal Technology
- In San Francisco CA, “[p]rosecutors in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office will use a new artificial intelligence tool in an effort to remove any potential implicit bias when charging a suspect.”
- Law360 published an article profiling the role hackathons are playing in addressing the access to justice gap.
War Crimes
Access to Justice – Civil
- In Toronto ON, Legal Aid Ontario “released details…on how it will function after Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government unveiled a $133-million cut[.]” The changes include “cut[s to] funding for bail hearings and chop[s to] the cash it gives to Toronto’s Parkdale legal clinic[.]”
- Meanwhile, “COPE Ontario “endors[ed] the Association for Sustainable Legal Aid’s demands that Attorney General Caroline Mulroney meet with it’s [sic] member organizations, including the Association of Community Legal Clinics of Ontario, before the legislature rises later this week.”
- Also meanwhile, the former vice president of the Defense Counsel Association of Ottawa argued in CBC News that “[u]nrepresented litigants devour justice system resources. Their cases take longer to wind their way through the bureaucratic court system and cost more to prosecute. So, a dollar saved through legal aid cuts will consume more resources at the end of the day.”
- In Saskatchewan, “Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 1949…notified the provincial labour minister that contract talks [with Legal Aid Saskatchewan] have reached an impass[,]…accusing Legal Aid Saskatchewan of using stall tactics and bargaining in bad faith.”
- In Minnesota, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that “[a] tenant who complained about the conditions of his apartment had the right to challenge his eviction on the basis of retaliation by the landlord”, in a case housing attorneys say “expanded the legal rights of tenants in similar cases.”
- Meanwhile, in New York, the state “Senate Majority Leader…and Assembly Speaker “expressed optimism that Governor Andrew Cuomo will sign [] legislation into law [that will] strengthen tenant protections in the state.”
- Also meanwhile, in Newark NJ “[s]ome council members…were shocked the city actually had to pay for the so-called “pro bono” attorneys in the city’s right-to-counsel program. …’I thought that these services were going to be provided pro bono by the attorneys providing the service,’ said Councilman At-Large Carlos Gonzalez, who once worked as an attorney in eviction court.”
- In Washington DC, “[m]ore than 100 law students, along with nearly 100 solo and small-firm practitioners and legal educators, are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to eliminate copyright protection for state annotated codes of law and certain other state and local legal materials.”
- The Hill published an article by an attorney from the Pacific Legal Foundation, who warned that “courts have begun awarding fees against unsuccessful plaintiffs in public interest lawsuits. This unwelcome trend threatens to deter future public interest litigation.”
- The Legal Talk Network interviewed Rebecca Sandefur about “why people rarely turn to lawyers or courts for assistance with their problems, how to properly educate civilians on obtaining legal help, and what role small and solo firm lawyers play in the solution.”
Access to Justice – Criminal
- In Portland OR, “dozens of public defenders in Oregon walked out of courthouses and into the Statehouse this week to lobby for a bill that would fix a staffing shortage and an outdated contract payment system that has some attorneys representing more than 200 clients at once.”
- In Wayne County MI, the county announced that it “will partner with Neighborhood Defender Service, a Harlem public defense practice, to open a Detroit public defender office this fall.”
- In East Baton Rouge Parish, the parish “chief public defender sought permission…to withdraw from some cases and decline future appointments, even if it results in charges being dismissed against indigent defendants[, ]…[c]iting chronic underfunding and excessive workloads.”
- The Chief Legal Officer of Verizon announced “the expansion of Verizon’s pro bono program to include criminal justice issues.”
- In Franklin County NY, county legislators “approved an increase of the starting salary for attorneys in the public defender’s office to build interest in positions that have been impossible to fill so far.”
- In Richland County SC, the “County Council gave final approval to its two-year budget…rais[ing] starting pay for lawyers who represent low-income defendants charged with crimes up to the level of junior prosecutors in the solicitor’s office.”
- In Meigs County OH, county commissioners “passed a resolution…praising the work of the Ohio Governor and House of Representatives regarding funding for indigent defense in Ohio [and] ask[ing] the Ohio Senate to adopt the House recommendation on the matter.”
- In Trumbull County OH, “[c]ounty commissioners and judges in the county’s courts are…trying to decide how to design a new system to provide attorneys to people charged with crimes who can’t afford one of their own.”
Criminal Justice Reform
- In New York NY, “[w]orkers with the New York Legal Assistance Group alerted the nonprofit indigent legal services provider of their intent to form a union with [the] Association of Legal Aid Attorneys.”
- At Columbia Law School, “on the heels of a student protest from the Black Law Students Association at Columbia,” “Elizabeth Lederer, one of the prosecutors in the conviction of the Central Park Five, has resigned as a professor[.]”
- In Arlington County VA, “incumbent Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo Stamos [was] defeated by challenger Parisa Delghani-Tafti, who ran a campaign centered on criminal justice reform.”
- In Queens NY, “Philly DA Larry Krasner Endors[ed] Tiffany Caban’s Bid to Be Queens’ Next Top Prosecutor.”
- In Wisconsin, “Gov. Tony Evers…re-created Wisconsin’s pardon board, fulfilling a campaign promise to once again consider granting pardons after Republican predecessor Scott Walker halted the process eight years ago.”
- In St. Louis MO, “officials…asked a federal judge to delay her order mandating new bond hearings for 700 jail inmates, saying a ‘rush to judgment’ could endanger the public.”
- In California, “[Democratic] lawmakers and dozens of supporters rallied in…support[ of] two Assembly-approved bills that would automatically expunge arrest and conviction records for an estimated 1 million residents who are already entitled under existing law because they have completed their sentences and supervision.”
- In Denver CO, the New Civil Liberties Alliance “filed a brief…asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit to determine that it is unlawful for a prosecutorial entity…to rewrite the law in Congress’ place.” According to a statement by an NCLA attorney, “the lawsuit raises key issues about whether agency regulations may contradict a statute passed by Congress[.]”