PSJD Public Interest News Digest – May 8, 2020
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello there, interested public! The days remain packed, even as we all stay at home. Some major stories include a decision to restrict the New York bar exam to people who graduated from law school in New York, a judicial opinion out of Ontario suggesting that courts may not want to return to in-person appearances under some circumstances, a decision in New Jersey to allow out-of-state-licensed lawyers to provide temporary, supervised pro bono assistance, and a lawsuit alleging that Secretary DeVos has illegally continued to garnish the wages of student debtholders after the CARES Act suspended this practice.
As always, these stories and more are in the links below.
Stay well,
Sam
State Bar Exams
Remote Court Practice & Lawmaking
- In Ontario, “[a] judge said [while dismissing a lawyers’ objections to proceeding through a video-conference mini-trial] ‘we should not be going back’ to costly personal attendance in court, comparing it to writing with a quill and ink.”
- Also in Ontario, Barry Leon continued his series for The Lawyers’ Daily on lessons learned from the application of technology to court proceedings in the province.
- In Oneida County NY, “[t]he DA’s office…has put together a memo [for the courts] on how to move forward and do business while minimizing the risk of becoming sick.”
- In Arkansas, the state “Supreme Court issued [for] guidelines once in-person appearances resume in the courts.”
- In Chicago IL, “a group of lawyers has stepped in to offer free legal advice with the help of an artificial-intelligence powered chat bot.” The site is rentervention.com.
- In the United States, “[t]echnology companies helping to fight the coronavirus are policing themselves to protect consumer data in the absence of a comprehensive U.S. statute and only a few state privacy laws.”
Voting Rights
- The Tuscon Weekly reported that “[i]n n an April report that warns of the risks of fraud in mail-in voting, a conservative legal group significantly inflated a key statistic…[A]fter ProPublica provided evidence to PILF that it had in fact doubled the official government numbers, the organization corrected its figure.”
Rule of Law
- At The Hague, “the International Criminal Court is moving forward with investigations into the situation in Afghanistan.”
- In Washington DC, “[o]ne of the lead prosecutors in the case against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn has stepped down, as the U.S. Justice Department moves to dismiss the charges.”
Pro Bono Response
- In New Jersey, the state “Supreme Court has issued an order to allow attorneys not licensed in New Jersey to provide temporary, supervised pro bono assistance to individuals and small businesses impacted by the novel coronavirus pandemic.”
- In Chicago IL, “[t]he American Bar Association is unveiling a new online portal designed to better connect pro bono attorneys with individuals and families who need free legal services because of the national COVID-19 emergency.” You can access this portal here.
- In Kentucky, “[l]egal aid societies statewide have launched free training for lawyers who agree to provide pro-bono work in exchange for specialized training on the civil issues Kentuckians are expected to need the most help with.” The initiative, “Together Lawyers Can”, is available at this link.
- In New York, “[a]lmost two years after the New York Workers’ Compensation Board approved rules to allow law students and interns to represent injured workers in medical-only claims, the program has gone nowhere, leaving many workers to represent themselves.”
- In Massachusetts, “Safety Net Project Director Julie McCormack and the students working with her on criminal record sealing (a mostly administrative process before the Massachusetts Probation Service) have taken advantage of the enforced slow-down brought about by COVID19 to develop audio-visual self-help materials for veterans and others seeking to remove the stigma of long ago involvement in the criminal justice system.”
Student Loans & Student Debt
- In Washington DC, “[s]tudent loan borrowers have filed a lawsuit against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for allegedly illegal wage garnishments…[as n]early six weeks after the effective date of the CARES Act and the associated mandated suspension of collections, however, the Department of Education has allegedly continued to garnish the wages of some defaulted student loan borrowers.”
- Also in Washington DC, “Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) has proposed new legislation to delay federal student loan payments for new college graduates for up to three years. The [] Act would apply to anyone who graduates college from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020. Interestingly, the proposed legislation would empower the Secretary of Education (who is currently Betsy DeVos) – not Congress – to extend eligibility to anyone who graduates in 2021 or 2022[.]”
- Business Insider published a guide to which student loans qualify for forebearance under the CARES Act.
Non-Profit & Gov’t Management & Hiring
- The consultancy Bridgespan and Echoing Green, “an organization that invests in and provides support for leaders of emerging social enterprises,” released a report finding that “[o]rganizations led by people of color win less grant money and are trusted less to make decisions about how to spend those funds than groups with white leaders[.]”
- In Arizona, “[t]he Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits, an advocacy group representing more than 20,000 nonprofits, estimates the state’s nonprofit sector has already lost more than $40 million due to the COVID-19 pandemic and anticipates a $433 million loss be year’s end.”
- In the United States, “[a]lthough it remains unclear when or if the United States will effectively “flatten the curve” of the coronavirus outbreak, federal agencies appear poised to begin calling at least some employees back to the office in the coming weeks.”
- In Washington DC, “[a] new bill in the House would ensure that federal workers who cannot take vacation this year due to the coronavirus pandemic and end up exceeding annual limits on how much time off can carry over from year to year. would not lose their paid leave.”
Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues
- In New Mexico and Texas, detained immigrants “are barred from placing free, private calls to their attorneys, hindering their access to counsel and robbing them of attorney-client confidentiality, a new lawsuit in New Mexico federal court alleges.”
- In Cambridge MA, “Harvard Law School immigration experts said a recent executive order suspending immigration to the United States will especially harm young children and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients.”
Access to Justice – Criminal & Decarceration
- The Appeal commented on how state bar exam delays may impact indigent accused persons’ access to justice: “what will happen to the marginalized—and Gideon’s mandate—when an entire class of public defenders cannot begin their jobs as scheduled in the fall of 2020?”
- In Missouri, “[s]even judges have been dismissed from a lawsuit over Missouri’s public defender wait lists. Circuit Judge William Hickle ruled the judges were not necessary parties to the lawsuit, which seeks to end the use of wait lists for public defenders.”
- In New York, the Legal Aid Society filed a lawsuit “argu[ing] that…[named] inmates particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 because of their race and pre-existing medical conditions [should be released immediately].”
- In New Mexico, the state “Supreme Court…denied a request to hasten the release of some inmates from prisons across the state to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.”
Access to Justice – Civil & Economic
- In Washington DC, “[t]he Legal Services Corporation’s Board of Directors will meet remotely on Tuesday, May 19, 2020…Unless otherwise noted herein, the Board meeting will be open to public observation.”
- In Charlottesville VA, “[the] Legal Aid Justice Center call[ed] Governor Northam’s pending decision to begin reopening the state’s closed businesses “reckless”. Executive Director Angela Ciolfi told Morning News Virginia is nowhere near where [the state] need[s] to be in terms of testing capacity and contact tracing in order to make the move.”
- In Utah, the state Bar Foundation “has released a report addressing the unmet legal needs of lower-income Utahns. The report…highlights the civil legal needs of the roughly 26% of Utah’s population living at or below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines.” The full report is available here.
- In Washington DC, “[f]ederal relief aid in the CARES Act was supposed to ensure the country’s indigenous peoples were not forgotten. Instead, tribes have been embroiled in a legal fight with the Trump administration over attempts to send the money to for-profit Native corporations in Alaska. While a federal judge sided with the tribes last week, the U.S. Treasury Department has yet to release any of the funds…[w]hen the money finally does flow…Native Hawaiians won’t see any of it.”
- In South Carolina, “legal experts said…in the weeks and months ahead, they expect a deluge of renters and homeowners who will be unable to keep up with payments.”
- In San Francisco CA, “Mayor London Breed received a demand letter…insisting she follow the Board of Supervisors’ unanimously passed ordinance to procure 8,250 hotel rooms and put vulnerable homeless people in some 7,000 of them.”
- In New York NY, local reporting argued that “[a]mid this pandemic, it is imperative that New York City expands the Right to Counsel law by increasing legal capacity to meet the inevitable COVID-19 eviction demand, and, building on this model, establish a new initiative to provide free legal representation to vulnerable small businesses.”