PSJD Public Interest News Digest – June 21, 2019
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello there, interested public! Lots of news this week. My “Editor’s Choice” feature returns to highlight a forthcoming article in which a professor suggests that the number of student borrowers eligible for public service loan forgiveness may be significantly higher than current DoE practice suggests. Also, NELP released a new report accusing the federal government of outsourcing its duties to for-profit contractors. Legal Aid organizations in Ohio commisioned an independent study demonstrating the long-term impact of their legal services, and the Chief Justice of Canada made comments related to (but not directly about) recent cuts to civil legal aid in Ontario. All this and more, in the links below.
See you around,
Sam
Editor’s Choice
Professor Gregory S. Crespi of SMU Dedman School of Law released “Why Are 99% of the Applications for Debt Discharge under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program Being Denied, and Will This Change?” on SSRN.
Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues
- In Boston MA, “[a] federal judge…has temporarily banned Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from making arrests in or around the state’s courthouses.”
- Also in Boston, WBUR discussed how “[l]ocal law school instructors said there’s been a rise in the number of students studying immigration law in response to President Trump’s aggressive stance on immigration enforcement.”
- In New York, “[t]he New York State Bar Association’s (NYSBA) House of Delegates is urging the governor and Legislature to establish a right to counsel in immigration proceedings.”
- In Washington DC, “[c]iting the “mistreatment” of migrant children in U.S. custody, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democratic presidential candidate, [urged] her fellow lawmakers in Congress to limit funding allocated to certain shelters used by the government to house unaccompanied migrant minors.”
- Meanwhile, in New Jersey, ICE “has paid $125,000 to a Honduran mother and son as part of a settlement in a suit accusing the agency of using ‘coercive tactics’ to get them to give up their asylum claims while detained.”
Student Loans & Student Debt
- In Washington DC, a suit filed by borrowers who were defrauded by their schools “alleg[ed] that Betsy DeVos and the Department of Education are collecting on debt that isn’t legally enforceable” by garnishing money from their tax refunds despite their right to have their debt discharged.
- In Maine, “Gov. Janet Mills [] signed legislation that will provide greater regulatory oversight of student loan lenders.”
- At an “InnerCircle gathering of top CHROs and other executives…who manage HR and benefits budgets across the country,” Ayco CEO Larry Restieri named student loans as the “top trend” that CHROs have on their radar: “One of the things [HR experts] are finding is that with the student loans issue, it’s not just a recent graduate issue but it’s one that affects baby boomers greatly.”
- Inc.com profiled “6 Companies [Who] Found Unique Ways to Help Employees Pay Off their Student Loan Debt.”
- The Center for American Progress argued that “to begin solving student debt, the education department must factor in race and ethnicity.”
- Forbes continued its series on the student debt positions of various Presidential candidates with a profile of Amy Klobuchar.
Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring
- In Washington DC, “[a Department of Labor] Administrative Law Judge told attorneys for the department’s Wage and Hour Division to be prepared to explain whether Administrator Cheryl Stanton has the authority to revoke “investigative powers at her sole discretion” that were previously delegated to her staff [after] Stanton’s decision to rescind certain authority that had been given to investigators across the country.”
- Also in Washington DC, the National Employment Law Project released a report documenting “the sharp increase in federal spending on temporary help services under the Trump administration. The data suggests that, rather than decreasing the size of government…the Trump administration and its allies in Congress are merely outsourcing government work to temporary staffing agencies, which degrades the quality of those jobs and reduces accountability over the quality of that work. It also takes the delivery of traditionally public interest services…from non-profit government agencies and places them with private for-profit entities[.]”
Legal Technology
- In New York, the state’s Office of Victim Services announced “a new online resource offering free civil legal assistance to crime victims.”
- In Cambridge MA, the Harvard Law School Library Innovation Lab released “Historical Trends,” “a new tool [that] allows the public to explore the use of language over 360 years of caselaw.”
- In Washington DC, “[a] group of House Democratic lawmakers is demanding answers about why Customs and Border Protection’s Biometric Exit Program includes data collected from U.S. citizens.”
- The ABA Journal profiled the work of Measures for Justice, a nonprofit that “travels the U.S. unearthing, collecting and publishing criminal justice data.”
Access to Justice – Civil
- In Canada, “Chief Justice Richard Wagner says legal aid is ‘essential’ to ensuring the justice system is fair and efficient for all…as Ontario Premier Doug Ford is facing sharp criticism for slashing funding for legal aid by 30 per cent.”
- Meanwhile, in Sudbury ON, MPP Jamie West held “a town hall meeting on cuts to legal aid.”
- In Cleveland OH, the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and Community Legal Aid released an independent report commissioned from the Center for Community Solutions finding that “54 percent of clients who responded to the survey reported an improvement in at least one area of stability [improvement]” (areas include financial, family, health, housing, education, and civic involvement).
- Finding that In Louisiana, “Gov. John Bel Edwards’ office [announced] plans to sign a bill that includes $500,000 for [legal assistance for some of its most vulnerable residents]. The money will remove Louisiana from a list of only four states that don’t provide any funding for legal assistance in civil matters.”
- In Oregon, “[a] bill that would provide attorneys to Oregon’s only women’s prison has passed the House and Senate and is currently awaiting Gov. Kate Brown’s signature. The bill would provide the Oregon Justice Resource Center (OJRC) funding for three full-time attorneys to create a civil legal program inside Coffee Creek Correctional Facility.”
- In New York State, the state legislature “passed…one of the most sweeping interventions by government in the New York City real estate market in decades, establishing new rules for millions of people on everything from rent increases to security deposits to evictions.”
- In Philadelphia PA, the Philadelphia Inquirer published an op-ed arguing that “[t]he time is now for Philadelphia to have a one-stop shop for legal services.”
- In San Francisco CA, Richard Posner, formerly of the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, “signed on to serve as an adviser to Legalist, a San Francisco start-up founded by two Harvard undergrads in 2016. ‘The principal motive for my retirement was the failure of the court to treat litigants without financial resources fairly.’ Posner said in a statement issued by Legalist. ‘Litigation finance patches an important hole for businesses with valid claims who lack the funds to hire an attorney.”
- In Orlando FL, local attorney Anthony Suarez launched the “Legal Services Clinic of the Puerto Rican Community…initially founded to cure a drastic need brought on by the devastation of hurricane Maria to Puerto Rico, and to serve the influx of Puerto Ricans arriving from the island who needed legal assistance.”
- In Chicago IL, “LAF, known before 2011 as the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, bec[ame] Legal Aid Chicago.”
Access to Justice – Criminal
- In Ottawa, “Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Wagner told a news conference…things are on the right path almost three years after the high court set out strict timelines for completing criminal trials.”
- In Windsor ON, “a [] lawyer and a law professor predict more vulnerable people charged with crimes — whether they’re guilty or not — will be spending more time in jail, and local courts will become further clogged after the province announced cost-cutting changes to bail hearing assistance for the poor.”
- In Virginia, the Virginia Mercury profiled “a recent push by some Virginia public defenders to practice ‘holistic defense’ — a method of legal representation that goes beyond the role of a typical public defender by connecting clients with legal and social support services in an effort to reduce the likelihood that they’ll reoffend.”
- In New York NY, “[the city’s] public defenders will have their pay raised to match the salaries of the lawyers who represent the city — known as Corporation Counsel[.]”
- In Chautauqua County NY, the public defender’s office announced that it will receive a $15 million grant “from the state Office of Indigent Legal Services [resulting] from a lawsuit…brought against five New York state counties in Central New York for ineffective representation of the indigent.”
- In Richland County SC, the County Council “approved a pay raise for attorneys at the…Public Defender’s Office, one that will put them on level ground with prosecutors at the Fifth Circuit Solicitor’s Office.”
- In Morgantown WV, the state’s Public Defender Services held their 2019 Annual Indigent Defense Conference.
- In Ohio, “[t]he House Finance Committee is expected to allocate $3 million over the next two years to fund a program aimed at attracting more public defenders throughout Ohio.”
- Also in Ohio, “Trumbull County commissioners…approved a plan to provide attorneys for defendants in the Trumbull County court system who can’t afford to pay for them.”
Criminal Justice Reform
- In Washington DC, “[m]ore than four years after Congress required the Department of Justice to assemble information about those who die in police custody, the agency has yet to implement a system for collecting that data or release any new details of how and why people die under the watch of law enforcement.”
- In St. Louis MO, Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner “sent [Public Safety Director] Edwards and Police Chief John Hayden a letter…announcing that she had added 22 police officers to a growing list of those she has banned from her office. They cannot seek charges against people they arrest, apply for search warrants or serve as essential witnesses in cases.”
- In Pendleton OR, the city “has stopped jailing people unable to pay fines…following the settlement of a federal lawsuit contending city officials were running a debtors’ prison.”
- In Santa Clara County CA, the “District Attorney’s office is changing the way it treats people arrested or cited for possessing small amounts of illegal drugs.”
- In Connecticut, the ABA Journal discussed preparations in the state “to become the first state to collect statewide criminal case data from prosecutors broken down by the defendants’ race, sex, ethnicity, age and ZIP code.”