PSJD Public Interest News Digest – March 16, 2018
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello there, interested public! Student loans made for the most noteworthy news again this week, as the Department of Education weighed in on state government’s recent efforts to regulate lending. The LSC also announced a new disaster legal aid initiative. For these stories and more, read on!
Until next week,
Sam
Student Loans
- The Federal Department of Education issued guidance warning state regulators that “[s]tate regulation of the servicing of direct loans impedes uniquely federal interests.” Experts consulted in the Washington Post article linked here believe that “[m]any states are likely to view this document as legally dubious.”
- The National Review published a piece endorsing the idea of offering student loan relief to borrowers who forgo collecting Social Security, lending support to the student loan solution proposed earlier this year by Rep. Tom Garrett (R-VA).
- Responding to claims that student debt is ruining borrowers’ lives, Ameritech Financial warned against “us[ing] blanket statements…when student deb situations vary so much from borrower to borrower.”
Immigration
- In New York, NY, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest relaunched a hotline that people can call to determine if they are eligible for naturalization and register for immigration clinics.
- In San Francisco, CA, Sheriff Vicki Hennessy apologized for her office, while allowed two US ICE agents access to interview rooms at San Francisco County jails–a breach of the city’s Sanctuary City policy.
Legal Technology
- In Florida, Southern Legal Counsel and the Florida Justice Technology Center partnered to create FloridaNameChange.org, a tool to assist transgender Floridians with updating government-issued documents to reflect their new names and gender markers. (You’ll be able to hear about the Florida Justice Technology Center’s work at NALP’s Annual Education Conference, where their Executive Director will be speaking at the Public Interest Lunch on Thursday, April 26th.)
- In New York, NY, TechCrunch.com profiled JustFix.nyc — a smartphone-based service that helps tenants document issues, draft letters of complaint, and file cases in NYC Housing Court.
Disaster Legal Aid
- At a Congressional briefing, “[t]wo state chief justices and legal aid experts from states recently affected by natural disasters [discussed] how legal aid programs funded by the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) assist survivors.” LSC’s Board Chair also announced a new taskforce “to improve legal aid disaster relief coordination and effectiveness across the country.”
- In Florida, the Puerto Rican Bar Association of Florida “opened a nonprofit legal clinic focused on providing legal services to Puerto Ricans who have settled in Florida after fleeing Hurricane Maria.” The clinic itself employs displaced Puerto Rican attorneys.
Criminal Justice Reform
- Professor Besiki Luka Kutateladze of Florida International University embarked on a two-year study of prosecutors’ offices in Jacksonville, Tampa, Milwaukee and Chicago. Professor Kutateladze’s team plans to “comb individual case files and implement new data-tracking tools that will detect racial bias, explain how plea deals work and see if policies are increasing the community’s trust in the justice system.”
- In Yolo County, CA, the District Attorney and the Public Defender announced a collaborative effort to expedite relief to individuals with marijuana convictions affected by California’s recent ballot measure legalizing the drug.
- In Montana, the state appointed a new Director of the Office of the State Public Defender, tasked with “continuing implementation of a package of bills passed during the 2017 legislative session to reform the Office[.]”
- In Glynn County, GA, the ACLU filed a lawsuit accusing country officials of “an unconstitutional cash bail system that discriminates against people who are financially strapped.”
- In Ottawa, Ontario, Yahoo News! examined the impact of the city’s indigenous people’s court six months into its operation.
Music Bonus!
Thundercat @ NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert Series (10/25/17)