Keep informed with PSLawNet’s weekly aggregation of public interest news stories from around the country.

• 1.18.10 – National Law Journal [forthcoming edition] – last term, the Supreme Court interpreted “the Constitution to require that forensic and other evidence be presented mainly in person, not by affidavit.”  Some prosecutors and law enforcement officials howled at the prospect of having to make lab technicians and other analysts available for testimony at every trial at which their work product was used.  Briscoe v. Virginia, argued earlier this week, “could be a vehicle for reversing that 5-4 decision less than a year after its issuance.  But that outcome appears far from certain.”  Link to article (which recounts the argument).

• 1.14.10 – Sun-Sentinel (Florida) – in Broward County, the public defender and the state attorney, both elected officials, are engaged in a charged debate about practices of the state attorney’s office.  A letter from the public defender “leveled a broadside…saying [that prosecutors] systematically sit on evidence favorable to defendants, cover up for bad cops and use a double standard of justice that favors the wealthy…”  The state attorney denies the accusations and is vigorously defending his office.  Link to article.

• 1.13.10 – Pacific Business News – “Citing the financial difficulties of the recession, the Hawaii Immigrant Justice Center will now operate as a new division of the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii…The Center said four of its 10 employees will be kept on to work for the new division.  Link to article.

• 1.12.10 – Dallas Morning News – the annual Equal Justice Campaign, a fundraising initiative co-sponsored by the Dallas Bar Association and Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas, has kicked off, and includes a fundraising raffle with some surprisingly nice prizes: the winner chooses whether s/he wants an Infiniti, Lexus, or Cadillac, and one runner-up will win a $1000 gift card.  Link to article.

• 1.11.10 – New York Times “City Room” Blog – the recession-driven decline in fee-paying work for law firms forced many to defer start dates of incoming associates.  In New York City, “…140 prospective corporate lawyers signed up for an unusual new program organized by the New York City Bar Association: Serve the public good for a year, then hop back on the corporate track.”  One such deferred associate, Fordham Law alum Chris Reid is spending his deferral period with the Legal Aid Society in Brooklyn.  [Ed. Note: readers of the blog post were encouraged to comment, and Mr. Reid is due to respond to some of hte comments at the end of this week.  Some of the comments contain well-considered points and thoughtful questions for Mr. Reid.  A few comments hone in  on the question of whether the phenomenon of deferred associates taking public interest placements had had a displacement effect on those who are on public interest career paths.]  Link to blog post.

• 1.11.10 – Casper Star-Tribune (Wyoming) – a Wyoming state senator who had intended to introduce a bill to fund a statewide civil legal services program through increases in courthouse filing fees has decided to wait for a bill to be introduced in the state house.  The senate is constitutionally proscribed from introducing “revenue-raising legislation.”  Sen. Tony Ross, also a member of the Wyoming Access to Justice Commission, is confident that a bill will materialize in the house, though who may introduce it is still uncertain.  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: for past coverage of Sen. Ross’s initial intentions to propose legislation, see this 12.2.09 Star-Tribune story.  Past coverage of the more general issue of rebuilding the Wyoming legal services infrastructure is available in this late-October-2009 Star-Tribune story and this editorial in support of state funding for legal services.

• Civil Legal Services Funding Update: there has been a flurry of recent announcements about charitable foundation, government, and corporate grants awarded to legal services providers.
  • 1.8.10 – A Legal Aid of North Carolina press release announced that the “Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation will continue its vital support for LANC by renewing a major grant of $450,000 for its Home Defense Project.  The Home Defense Project (HDP) fights to save homes and reduce foreclosures in North Carolina. In North Carolina, home foreclosures are expected to exceed 50,000 in 2010.”
  • 1.11.10 – in Indiana, the Evansville Courier & Press has reported that “[t]he Indiana Supreme Court is providing $1.5 million to Legal Aid agencies in the state.  The first installment, $750,000, already has been given to 11 agencies…  The Indiana General Assembly appropriates funding for the Civil Legal Aid Fund, and the Indiana Supreme Court awards the grant money to qualified agencies across the state.  In its news release announcing the funds, the Supreme Court said it’s ‘committed to ensuring that individuals involved in civil matters also have access to attorneys’.”
  • 1.11.10 – according to a press release, the ”…New York Bar Foundation today awarded four New York City-based legal aid organizations more than $528,000 in grant money to fund tenant screening training and outreach programs in neighborhoods across New York City. The funds were distributed as part of a $1.2 million cy pres class action settlement fund…”
  • 1.13.09 – Atlanta Business Chronicle – the charitable arm of UPS, the UPS Foundation, made a $20,000 grant to the Atlanta Legal Aid Society “to fund the Health Law Partnership, a collaboration between Atlanta Legal Aid, Georgia State University College of Law, and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.”  Link to article.