From The Sacramento Bee:

The Social Media Privacy Act, sponsored by state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, sailed through the Senate’sEducation, and Labor and Industrial Relations committees.

The bill’s Assembly counterpart, authored by Silicon Valley Democrat Nora Campos, D-San Jose, passed unanimously through the Assembly Judiciary Committee last week.

Campos said California’s privacy protections must keep pace with technology.

“Our social media accounts offer views into our personal lives and expose information that would be inappropriate to discuss during a job interview,” Campos said in a statement after the Tuesday committee vote.

Though some employers say access to social media accounts is important to find the best candidate, opposition to the practice has gathered momentum.

Maryland lawmakers earlier this month were the first to pass legislation that banned employers from asking for social media passwords and log-ins. . . .

Along with California, lawmakers in another eight states – Illinois,Massachusetts,Michigan,Minnesota,Missouri,New York,South Carolina and Washington – have filed or are reviewing bills barring employers’ access to applicants’ and employees’ social media accounts, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Yesterday, the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless’ blog featured a guest blogger who had a pretty compelling story to tell. Here’s a quick snippet, but read her post in its entirety at WLCH’s blog.

. . . I grew up in the DC foster care system. I didn’t have an easy childhood, but I was always a good student (I even won the science fair two years). After my high school graduation, I went to medical assistant school and began working. Three months after I had my daughter in 2008, I found out that I had Multiple Sclerosis. My daughter’s father decided he couldn’t deal with the stress, so he opted out of our lives. I went to work and realized that I would get sick in spurts. My relapses would come suddenly and fiercely, sometimes a numb leg or numb arms, sometimes I would go blind, sometimes I wouldn’t be able to move at all. It started to affect my ability to keep a job, and I fell behind on my rent.

I first went to Virginia Williams Family  Resource Center (FRC) in 2010 because I lost my apartment, but I was still employed. They gave me first month’s rent and security deposit, but I knew I would get sick again and that the short term assistance would not be enough to keep me from losing yet another apartment. I lost my job again because of my illness and I was evicted from my apartment shortly after that in the fall of  2011. My daughter and I house-hopped between our friends and family for almost two months, sleeping on couches and floors for as long as we could.

Finally, just before the New Year, we were placed in a hotel room on NY Avenue. I was grateful to have a bed to sleep on after so long. But now it’s been months and it feels like we’ve been forgotten. I don’t know what the rest of the shelter system is like, but when you’re in a hotel, you don’t talk to anyone, you don’t see anybody, you have no sense that anyone is working to help you. We’re just there. We’re just a number. I have not seen a caseworker since I got here.

Read the rest of Charmaine Walton’s story here.

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  Today is the 140th anniversary of Arbor Day, which has its roots, so to speak, in a Druidic tree-worship ritual.  I made that up.  It is the 140th.  But we’re just supposed to plant trees, not worship them.  Unless that’s your thing.  Anyway, for the occasion here’s the Screaming Trees’ 90s indie anthem “Nearly Lost You”, a favorite from my flannel-clad adolescence.  Great drums.  Blistering guitar lick.  (Far be it from me to give credence to gender stereotypes, but I predict the fellas will like this one more than the ladies.)

Unrelated: huzzah(!) to our partners at Street Law, Inc., who celebrated a 40th anniversary here in DC on Wednesday.  Special shout-out to exec. director Lee Arbetman, who, based on the photographic evidence I’ve heard about, was an even more dapper dresser in Street Law’s early days than now.  (Congrats, Lee, Megan and company!)

Friday Trivia: there are three words in the English language that begin with “dw”.  What are they?   

Now to business.  This week in access-to-justice, funding, pro bono, and related news:

• the websites of for-profit AZ law firms can use the ol’ dot-org, says ethics opinion;
• in Spokane, WA, client demand for legal aid rising but funding is a challenge;
• the NY AG directs $3 million to legal services on foreclosure matters;
• last week’s White House Forum on the State of Legal Assistance;
• $450K in grants from the NY Bar Foundation split amongst 67 groups;
• Two grants will help U. of Wisconsin law students help vets in need;
• funding challenges confronting the Vermont Bar Foundation and legal services community;
• in the UK, the House of Lords still opposed cuts to legal aid funding;
• Florida governor’s veto of $2 million legal services appropriation draws lots of reaction;
• support for state funding of legal services in Connecticut;
• the LSC board chair on closing the justice gap;
• Illinois AG directs $20 million to legal services.  Nice way to close.

The summaries:

• 5.1.12 (from the future!) – the forthcoming ABA Journal runs a short piece about an Arizona state bar ethics opinion that allows for-profit law firms to use “.org” website domain extensions.  I predict that the “.org” will never, ever be misused by a for-profit outfit providing “legal assistance services” or some such.  No chance.  Right? 

• 4.26. 12 – the Spokane Journal of Business looks at the increased demand for legal services within the local, low-income community even as providers struggle with funding pressures.  (Password-protected.  Sorry.)
  • Personal aside: I gained my first exposure to civil legal aid in Washington State while working as a Jesuit Volunteer with the Northwest Justice Project’s Yakima field office.  One of my fondest Eastern Washington memories is running Spokane’s annual Bloomsday race, a 7.5-miler that, amazingly, draws upwards of 50,000 people.  It’s a beautiful course. 

• 4.25.12 – the New York Attorney general directed $3 million to be shared by 31 public interest law offices for foreclosure defense funding.  The funding comes from settlements over questionable mortgage lending practices.  (Here’s the Legal News Line story.)

• 4.24.12 – last week’s White House Forum on the State of Legal Assistance gathered access-to-justice stakeholders from the legal services world, law firms, and government.  (Read the full summary from the DOJ’s Access to Justice Initiative.)
  • Phyllis Holmen, executive director of the Georgia Legal Services Program, recounts her experience participating in the forum: “Six of us were chosen from around the country, directors of legal aid and legal services organizations accustomed to toiling quietly in the hinterlands. We work on behalf of low-income folks with the kind of life-and-death legal problems that the poor face: the plague of domestic violence, the near impossibility of maintaining a family structure in the face of grinding poverty, the gut-wrenching choices that have to be made between paying medical bills or buying groceries.  The opportunity to tell the president of the United States why we think our work is important was unprecedented. It was a chance to speak at the highest level of our government about the cause to which I have devoted my career: justice for all.”  (From the Daily Report.)

• 4.24.12 – “Sixty-seven organizations across New York State have received grants totaling $450,000, The New York Bar Foundation announced today….Thirteen grants will support Youth Court activities, while others will support programs that assist domestic violence victims, low-income immigrants, public service attorneys, vulnerable senior citizens and incarcerated women.”  There’s a slew of organizations receiving grant money, all of which are listed in the story from the Saugerties Post Star.

• 4.24.12 – “Two new grants will help University of Wisconsin law students gain valuable experience while helping veterans who need legal assistance.  The two Pro Bono Initiative grants for $5,000 each come from the State Bar Legal Assistance Committee and have been awarded to Dane County Veterans Legal Clinic to start a free legal clinic and to the UW Law School Pro Bono Program to expand its efforts to involve more law students in pro bono activities.”  (Story from the University of Wisconsin’s website.)

• 4.24.12 – “[L]ike so many organizations, the Bar Foundation has found itself with less money to give out in the past few years, while the need for the kind of legal services it helps fund has risen.  Vermont Supreme Court Associate Justice John Dooley is a member of the board of directors of the Vermont Bar Foundation. He spoke with VPR’s Jane Lindholm about the financial challenges faced by the organization. (Listen to the interview on Vermont Public Radio.) 
  • As an aside, when I was a 3L my dad and I went skiing in Vermont.  We stayed at a family-owned place called the Swiss Inn.  Turns out the owner was a native Philadelphian (like me and Pa Grumm) and he owned a couple of the Jersey Shore video-game arcades that sucked quarters from my pockets like a vacuum cleaner when I was a youth.  He was very generous to me at the Swiss Inn afternoon happy hour.  My quarters, after all, had paid for his inn. 

• 4.23.12 – in the UK, the House of Lords still refuses to go along with broad-based proposed cuts to the legal aid system. Watch the video on BBC.  Watching British legislative sessions is downright enjoyable.  Ever seen the SNL spoofs? 

• 4.22.12 – all kinds of coverage about Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s veto of $2 million in proposed funding that would have supported the financially embattled legal services community.
  • A News Chief editorial, “Veto Takes Jobs, Help for Poor,” is critical of the governor’s action.
  • “Budget Cuts Impact Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County” is a WPTV story.
  • The Palm Beach Post runs “Lawyers for the Needy Decry Florida Veto.” 

• 4.21.12 – “Shelby County Public Defender Stephen Bush claims state finance officials have been misinterpreting state law regarding funding for the public defenders in Shelby and Davidson counties for 20 years and that the offices are owed $45.2 million — $28.4 million for Shelby and $16.8 million for Davidson.  The public defenders, who appeared before a state legislative committee this week, are asking the state legislature to restore that funding and fix the error going forward.”  (Here’s more in the Commercial Appeal.)

• 4.20.12 – a Hartford Courant op-ed makes the case for a legislative measure that would boost funding for legal aid in the Nutmeg State: “The Judicial Branch has recognized the seriousness of this problem. It has proposed legislation that would use increased court fees to raise $5.2 million for legal aid — enough to maintain the current level of services. There has been broad bi-partisan support to address the legal aid funding crisis. And the Judiciary Committee of the General Assembly has approved the bill on a 45-to-1 vote.  The pending legislation would successfully restructure funding for legal aid, and provide a future anchor to fund access to justice. It is vital that the Connecticut legislature approve this measure. Our system of justice depends on it.

• 4.20.12 – writing in The Hill, LSC Board chair John Levi, who has been very active in his public advocacy of LSC’s mission, explores the “widening justice gap, and why we must close it.”
  • Speaking of closing gaps, as noted last week a House proposal would cut LSC funding from the current, FY12 figure of $348 million –  which itself represents a ~14% cut from the FY11 figure – to $328 million.  A Senate proposal would ratchet funding back up to $402 million.  To put the House proposal in context: in 1981 LSC’s appropriation was about $321 million.  If that figure simply kept up with inflation, LSC’s funding in 2011 should have been over $800 million.  We’ll be lucky to get to half of that this year.

• 4.18.12 – great funding news out of Illinois, from the state attorney general’s website: “Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced that $20 million in funding from the national foreclosure settlement reached this year will be given to legal assistance programs in Illinois to address the current foreclosure crisis and to provide access to the justice system for homeowners and renters.” 

From The Commercial Appeal in Memphis:

Federal officials announced today that an investigation of Shelby County’s juvenile justice system found violations of children’s constitutional rights and discrimination against African-American children.

Prepared remarks by Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and U.S. Atty. Edward L. Stanton III said an investigation opened in August 2009 found that the Shelby County system “fails to provide constitutionally required due process to all children appearing for delinquency proceedings, that the court’s administration of juvenile justice discriminates against African-American children and that its detention center violates the substantive due process rights of detained youth by not providing them with reasonably safe conditions of confinement.”

Justice Department attorneys visited the court and detention center in 2010 and 2011 for the review, and the investigation included analysis of 60,000 youth files. . . .

The complaint filed by Brooks in 2007 alleged mistreatment of juveniles based on race, discriminatory hiring practices, widespread nepotism and political patronage and disregard for federal anti-discrimination laws.

Read the rest here.

For further reading, you can read the Department of Justice’s press release and letter on the investigation here.

By: Steve Grumm

There has been much more than the normal share of good funding news this week.  (My weekly bulletin tomorrow may, for the first time in memory, contain more good funding news than bad.)  Today’s item comes from the Empire State.  The New York attorney general directed $3 million to be shared by 31 public interest law offices for foreclosure defense funding.  The fuding comes from settlements over questionable mortgage lending practices.  (Here’s the Legal News Line story.)

Here’s a complete tangent which is prompted by “New York + Mortgage.”  If you want a thoroughly informative yet easy-to-digest explanation of the events leading to the 2008 Wall Street crisis, do yourself a solid and watch the first two parts of this PBS Frontline series, “Money, Power & Wall Street” (parts 3/4 to air later).  This is exactly what “nonfiction television” should be about.

by Kristen Pavón

Yesterday, Gov. Rick Scott vetoed just over $142 million in line-items before signing Florida’s $70 billion budget. The budget makes deep cuts to higher education, Medicaid, other health care services, and legal services.

As a Floridian, I know how painful these cuts are and how much worse things will get in Florida as a result.

One veto in particular seems especially egregious — a $1.5 million veto for the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence. . . made during Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

The Legislature allotted the funds to the organization in order to support 30 rape crisis centers as they face impending reductions in collections, which currently is the bulk of their budgets.

The cut to the Florida Council was just one of the many health projects that Scott used his line-item veto power to eliminate from this year’s $70 billion budget. . . .

Scott has said publicly that he stands by his vetoes because he believes the programs he eliminated “weren’t a good use of taxpayers’ money and did not serve a statewide need.” He has also said he “gave each project equal and fair consideration.” (Read more here.)

Gov. Rick Scott’s veto also hit Florida’s already distressed legal services community hard.

A day after the governor vetoed $142 million from the budget, officials at an organization that provides legal help for low income Floridians said Scott’s decision will mean a 25 percent reduction in the number of attorneys available for legal assistance in the coming year. A year later, the number of available attorneys will drop even further. . . .

. . . [a] spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Scott, said there was not a clear justification for the size of the appropriation or the need for recurring funds. The spokeswoman, Jackie Schutz, also said the program has other funding sources on which it can rely during tough budget times.

“While the governor believes in the right for everyone to have representation, he doesn’t necessarily believe in funding programs with recurring funds in these economic times,” Schutz said. . . .

Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich, who also announced this week she is running for governor, said the veto was short-sighted and comes at a time when lower income Floridians are disproportionately feeling the brunt of economic woes – foreclosures, evictions, denial of government benefits. The cutting of legal aid at a time of rising need is especially painful.

“We pride ourselves in this country on people having access to the courts,” Rich said Wednesday. “This decision flies in the face of that commitment.”

Read the rest here.

I think I’ll turn to a classic saying to end this post, “If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

I’ll leave you with that. Thoughts?

By: Steve Grumm

Last week many high-level stakeholders in the civil legal services community and government met to review the health (or un-health) of the civil legal services system.  Even the president partook.  The DOJ’s Access to Justice Initiative was one of the players, and they’ve written an event summary on DOJ’s blog. An excerpt:

Legal aid attorneys, pro bono partners from law firms, government leaders, judges, and advocates from around the country gathered at the White House earlier this month for a forum on “The State of Legal Assistance.”  Moderated by Legal Services Corporation (LSC) Chairman John Levi, the forum looked at the legal challenges faced by America’s most vulnerable groups, including veterans, low-income families, the elderly, and people with disabilities.

A 2009 LSC study(PDF) found that less than 20 percent of the legal problems experienced by poor people were addressed with the help of a private or legal aid lawyer.  At the forum, a panel of LSC attorneys spoke of the strains on their system in the wake of the country’s economic recession, and the hardships faced by those served by legal aid.

…

Another sad story from within our public interest sphere.

From Human Rights USA‘s Board of Directors:

Human Rights USA’s Board of Directors is sad to announce that the organization will be closing down on April 30, 2012, and our clients placed with other organizations and law firms who will continue their representation.  The Board’s decision comes primarily as a result of the difficult funding landscape facing public interest organizations at this time.  We would like to extend heartfelt thanks to Human Rights USA’s staff, clients, current and past funders, the countless pro bono attorneys and law student volunteers who have worked with us, and all of the organizations that have partnered with us over the years.

Human Rights USA was founded in 1996 as the World Organization Against Torture USA.  Under its founding director, Morton Sklar, the organization began by reporting to the United Nations on U.S. compliance with human rights treaties and litigating cutting-edge asylum cases on behalf of women fleeing female genital mutilation.  Our asylum work gradually expanded to cover other forms of gender-based violence, including human trafficking and forced marriage, forms of harm that at one time were not considered to establish eligibility for refugee protection.  Human Rights USA has also litigated ground breaking federal court cases, winning the first direct legal challenge to the policy of rendition to torture, and helping many survivors of torture, human trafficking, and other human rights abuses hold the perpetrators accountable and recover compensation for their suffering.

Throughout all of this, Human Rights USA continued to produce reports on critical human rights issues, and in recent years began training other attorneys to utilize human rights principles in their own litigation.  Our 2011 *Guide to Establishing the Asylum Eligibility of Survivors of Human Trafficking and Forced Marriage* will continue to be available through the Tahirih Justice Center (<www.tahirih.org>), an organization that has also performed ground breaking work on gender-based asylum issues for over a decade.  Our 2012 report *Indefensible:  A Reference for Prosecuting Torture and Other Felonies Committed by US Officials Following September 11th*, produced in collaboration with the International Human Rights Law Clinic at American University Washington College of Law, will be available through the Washington College of Law ( <http://www.wcl.american.edu/clinical/inter.cfm>).

Countless law students, staff members and pro bono attorneys have been mentored and trained in human rights law through Human Rights USA over the years, and we take great pride in the small role we have played in the development and education of part of the next generation of human rights attorneys.

Thanks to everyone for their support.

Sincerely,

Human Rights USA Board of Directors

By: Steve Grumm

Always happy to pass along the rare bit of good legal-services funding news.  From the office of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan:

Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced that $20 million in funding from the national foreclosure settlement reached this year will be given to legal assistance programs in Illinois to address the current foreclosure crisis and to provide access to the justice system for homeowners and renters.

“The one sector of our economy that has shown limited signs of recovery is the housing market,” Madigan said. “Providing critical resources for legal assistance programs will create a domino effect in the marketplace. Helping a family stay in their home benefits not just that family but the surrounding community, as well as local and state governments, all of which must happen to stabilize the housing market and revitalize the economy.”

Madigan’s announcement stems from her role in securing a $25 billion national settlement in February with the nation’s five largest bank mortgage servicers – Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Ally Bank, formerly GMAC. The settlement addressed allegations of widespread “robo-signing” of foreclosure documents and other fraudulent practices while servicing loans of struggling homeowners.

…

Credit: TrailerFoodDiaries

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, dear readers.  Greetings from Austin, TX, where NALP’s Annual Education Conference will adjourn manana.  Over 1400 people, all told.  I’ve spent much of my time this week wandering about in a state of sleep deprivation with the law-school public-interest career advisors and clinicians who comprise NALP’s Public Service Section.  I realized once again how fortunate I am to work with a group of such selfless folks. Big high-five to Jessica Kitson, who’s just stepped down as the section chair.  Big Warning to incoming chair Leeor Neta: you’re stuck with me for a year.

Yesterday, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid attorney (and Equal Justice Works fellow) Adriana Rodriguez keynote-ed our public service luncheon.  Adriana’s doing impactful work, in an under-served area, at a time when low-income client needs are swelling.  If the next generation of access-to-justice advocates is anything like Adriana…well…I’ll rest easier.      

This week on the access-to-justice front:

• ABA on AtJ;
• Senate bill would boost LSC funding; House bill would slash LSC funding;
• Veto of legal services funding in Florida;
• Cornhuskers!  Omaha prosecutors and defenders to get salary bump;
• Asking legal services clients to pay it forward;
• Access-to-justice news from England;
• Florida’s high court to weigh in on public defender caseload woes;
• Maryland legislature scales back court ruling on right-to-counsel in criminal matters;
• Pro bono news from DC, Denver and North Carolina.

The summaries:

• 4.18.12 – ABA president William T. Robinson, III weighs in the importance of promoting access to justice.  (Op-ed in The Hill.)

• 4.18.12 – Good news/bad news.  Good: Senate appropriations committee pushed forward a bill that would fund LSC at $402 million in FY13.  This would basically bring the appropriation back to the level it was at before an FY12 cut slashed it to $348 million.  Bad: a house subcommittee bill would slash funding further, to $328 million.  (LSC announcements about the Senate and Housebills.)
  • On a related note, earlier in the week the Maryland State Bar Association’s president made the case for LSC (writing in the Baltimore Sun).

• 4.18.12 – state funding for legal services in Florida falls victim to Gov. Rick Scott’s veto.  “A $2 million veto by Gov. Rick Scott will mean fewer attorneys to represent low-income residents through foreclosure proceedings, domestic violence hearings and consumer fraud cases, legal aid officials and a top Democrat lamented Wednesday. A day after the governor vetoed $142 million from the budget, officials at an organization that provides legal help for low income Floridians said Scott’s decision will mean a 25 percent reduction in the number of attorneys available for legal assistance in the coming year. A year later, the number of available attorneys will drop even further.” (Story from the News-Press.)
  • More coverage from Ocala.com: “Legal Aid Funding Cut Hurts”

• 4.18.12 – a salary bump for prosecutors and public defenders in Douglas County, Nebraska.  (That’s Omaha.)  Salary specifics in the World-Herald.    

• 4.17.12 – Legal Aid Services of Oregon’s Roseburg office is asking clients to pay it forward.  “Legal Aid provides Douglas County with a vital service. They have a mission to give legal services to as many people as possible, but they knew they couldn’t do it alone.  So, they’ve started a new program. ‘The pilot program was our answer to the question of how to achieve justice for the low income communities we serve, with the resources we already have,’ said Sharon Lee Schwartz, the LASO Regional Director.  For every hour those at…LASO put in on a case, they’re asking the clients to do the same.  But not necessarily with legal work.  Those in the program can donate their time to non-profits, help someone with yard work, basically put their skills to work for the community.”  (Full story from KPIC.)

• 4.17.12 – a pair of stories from Blighty:
  • in the UK, a reversal by the government should open up legal aid access to more domestic violence victims. (Story from the UK Press Association.)
  • 4.17.12 – “The annual LawWorks & Attorney General Student Awards were held recently, in the elegant surrounds of the House of Commons, to recognise the outstanding pro bono achievements of students and law school staff throughout the United Kingdom.” (Story from LawCareers.net .)

• 4.16.12 – “The Florida Supreme Court will hear arguments June 7 in a dispute about whether the Miami-Dade County public defender’s office can refuse to represent some clients because of excessive caseloads.”  (Story from the News-Press.)

• 4.13.12 – from the Baltimore Sun: “The Maryland General Assembly passed bills this month that effectively reverse a Court of Appeals ruling that would have required public defenders for indigent defendants at thousands of initial bail hearings held before court commissioners each year. The legislation instead requires lawyers for poor people at reviews of those hearings, which occur less frequently and take place in front of a judge — sometimes days later. That means some of those arrested and denied bail or unable to afford it could spend a weekend or longer in jail awaiting representation.”

• 4.13.12 – not sure if this was a pro bono conspiracy or not, but the local Business Journal publications in DC, Denver, and North Carolina ran articles on pro bono work in their respective communities.  They’re all password-protected, though.  Boo.
  • Denver!
  • North Carolina!
  • DC!