PSJD Public Interest News Digest – November 15, 2019
Sam Halpert, NALP Director of Public Service Initiatives
Hello there, interested public! I was travelling last week for the NLADA’s annual conference; it was a fantastic event to have been a part of but it did take me away from my digest feeds for a while. I’ll be working through my backlog for the rest of the month to bring you all up to speed, but here’s some news for today: major stories include student debt, where the New York Fed. analyzed data that places racial disparities in student debt into stark relief, and civil access to justice, where the Utah state government is researching possible regulatory changes which would allow nonlawyers to provide legal services. (Meanwhile, researchers in Canadian academia launched a survey concerning limited scope services in family law matters.)
As always, these stories and more are linked below.
See you around,
Sam
Immigration, Refugee & Citizenship Issues
- In San Diego CA, “[a] federal judge asked for clarification…about how exactly the federal government’s “Migrant Protection Protocols” are being employed by immigration agents at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego as he considers whether asylum seekers have a right to counsel when being interviewed about their fear of being returned to Mexico.”
- In Louiville KY, “[o]ne…nonprofit is offering small loans to help former doctors, nurses and other[ profesionals whose certificants haven’t transferred over when they immigrated to the United States] overcome the financial obstacles preventing them from pursuing their professions in their new home.”
- In Hartfort CT, “[t]he Hartford Courant reports that [] immigration agents say a Connecticut court security officer tried to prevent them from entering a courthouse where they planned to detain a Jamaican man.”
- In Harris County TX, “County District Attorney Kim Ogg on Friday announced her decision to fire a prosecutor who allegedly refused to file charges in a case after questioning whether the Mexican victim was ‘illegal.’”
Student Loans & Student Debt
- In New York, the New York Federal Reserve published a blog post highlighting racial disparities in both the size and the growth rate of student loan debt.
- Also in New York, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips published a legal update concerning “[o]versight of student loan servicing[, which] remains top of mine for state regulators[.]”
- In Washington DC, Pew Charitable Trusts released a report finding that “[a]pproximately a quarter of [student] borrowers defaulted within five years of entering repayment.”
- Also in Washington DC, “[f]acing a federal lawsuit and mounting criticism, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos [] said she will forgive certain student loans for more than 1,500 borrowers who attended a pair of for-profit colleges that shut down last year.”
Legal Technology
- In New York NY, NYU Law’s Policing Project published an article discussing its recent efforts (and successes) building relationships with technology companies as they consider the ethics of their partnerships with law enforcement.
- Also in New York NY, [t]he Legal Aid Society alleged that “‘The NYPD’s fingerprint database of juveniles included children who were never even prosecuted, children whose cases may have been dismissed or they may have been acquitted,’ …Legal Aid says it discovered the NYPD database after a 14 year old was arrested based on fingerprints kept by the department. Legal Aid, which represents most juvenile defendants, says it also learned the state was improperly holding on to fingerprints…The NYPD did not admit any wrongdoing, although it now says it destroys the fingerprints of minors after those prints are sent to the state. Legal Aid is now calling on the City Council to immediately hold oversight hearings on police surveillance, technologies and databases.”
- In Washington DC, “[a] federal regulator is investigating whether the federal privacy law known as HIPAA was followed when Google (GOOGL) collected millions of patient records through a partnership with nonprofit hospital chain Ascension.”
- In Redmond WA, “Microsoft [announced it] will follow California’s landmark online privacy law nationwide when it goes into effect next year[.]”
Non-Profit & Government Management & Hiring
- In New York NY, “[t]he paralegals and social workers who help vulnerable New Yorkers need raises just as badly as the attorneys they support, the lawyers’ labor union says.”
- In Washington DC, the President issued an Executive Order ending an Obama-era policy that required federal contractors and subcontractors “to make bona fide job offers to employees of the predecessor contractor who had worked on the contract site for at least three months and who would otherwise be terminated.”
- In Montgomery AL, “Southern Poverty Law Center management said…they would not voluntarily recognize a union organized by employees at the civil rights nonprofit and have hired a Virginia law firm whose website boasts about victories over labor organization attempts.”
Access to Justice – Civil
- In Canada, researchers at King’s University College and the Queen’s University Faculty of Law “invit[ed] lawyers across Canda who have undertaken [limited scope services] in family cases or [who] are considering doing so to complete a confidential online survey.” (Survey available here.) Their goal is to publish the results in order to “help improve access to family justice by providing greater access to affordable legal services.”
- In Utah, “[a]n independent legal research center will work with Utah officials to test what could be groundbreaking regulations on allowing nonlawyers to provide legal services.”
- In New York NY, “New Yorkers indicted city landlords for criminal and civil crimes against tenants’ rights during a mock trial hosted by the Right to Counsel NYC Coalition in Tribeca.”
- In British Columbia, “Legal aid services are back to normal after a one-day walkout disrupted some services at the Vancouver Regional Centre[.]”
- In Richmond VA, “[a] task force has been created to come up with ways to help mitigate and prevent evictions in Richmond, Virginia. The group will include affordable housing and social justice advocates, youth and family homelessness specialists, public housing residents and property management professionals.”
- In New Mexico, “[a] newly formed task force is searching for ways to improve the state’s system for providing legal representation to parents and children embroiled in abuse and neglect cases.”
- In Vermont, “The Access to Justice Coalition, a joint venture between the Vermont Supreme Court, the Vermont Bar Association and the primary providers and funders of low-income legal services in the State released a recently completed Economic Impact Study.”
- In Kansas City MO, “[t]enants’ rights are at the forefront at the Kansas City City Council as a growing group tries to pass a ‘Tenants Bill of Rights.’”
Access to Justice – Criminal
- In Alaska, the state “commissioner of the Department of Administration acknowledged staffing and workload issues for the state’s Public Defender Agency and highlighted the administration’s commitment to fixing them[.]”
- In Oregon, “the Oregon Office of Public Defense Services…recently decided not to renew [a] local attorney group’s contract, making numerous allegations of misconduct.”
- In Sarpy County NE, “[t]he…Public Defender’s office will stop accepting misdemeanor appointments beginning Nov. 18…citing increasing workloads for assistant public defenders.”
- In Missouri, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch speculated about how recent political changes in Missouri suggest that public defenders in the state may be more successful getting assistance with their caseloads than they have been previously.
- For more on the public defense in Missouri, there’s this article in the Scottsbluff Star Herald.
Criminal Justice Reform
- In Oklahoma, “Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater stands accused of launching an illegal criminal investigation into former state House Speaker Kris Steele and Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform, a nonprofit he leads. The accusations stem from a wrongful termination claim by Prater’s former employee William Muller, [who claims] Prater ordered him in the fall of 2017 to obtain a grand jury subpoena from the state attorney general’s office so he could find “incriminating or compromising information” on Steele and his reform group, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union.”
- In Connecticut, “[s]tate police…began using various social media platforms to provide “use of force” statistics to the public, an initiative that comes with the passage this year of legislation aimed at better accountability that requires police quicken timelines for the release of information and video to the public.”
- In Portland OR, “public defense attorneys…began a coordinated effort [] in advocating against cash bail for their clients, in collaboration with a national legal nonprofit.”
- In New York, “[v]ideo of what appears to be the unprompted stop-and-frisk of a Bronx teen without a criminal record is further evidence that cops still target New Yorkers of color for illegal searches, attorneys say.”
- In San Francisco CA, “[t]he new San Francisco district attorney has said his office will not prosecute prostitution or public urination crimes in the city.”
- In Los Angeles CA, “[f]ormer public defender Rachel Rossi announced…she is entering the race to become the next Los Angeles County district attorney.”