From the National Law Journal (article may be password-protected):

Opponents of the death penalty applauded Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn for deciding on March 9 to sign legislation abolishing capital punishment in the state and to commute the sentences of the 15 inmates still on death row to life in prison without parole

…

Abolitionists said the dramatic step taken by Illinois would add new momentum to efforts in other states to end the death penalty. Illinois is the fourth state in four years to end capital punishment – the others being New Mexico, New Jersey and New York. Legislators in Montana, Connecticut, Kansas and Maryland may act on repeal measures this year.

Another NLJ article back in January, which we blogged about, touched upon the potential significance of Illinois’ actions in influencing the national debate on capital punishment.  As we noted at the time:

Why is movement in this one state watched by death penalty opponents and proponents alike?  Well, Illinois may be a bellwether state because of its position near the middle of the cultural/political spectrum.  It is a Midwestern state that is neither as socially conservative as many Southern states nor as progressive as many Northeastern states. 

For more coverage of the repeal, see the Chicago Tribune (“What killed Illinois death penalty” was inaccuracy, not just morality), and the Chicago Sun-Times (“Quinn signs bill repealing Illinois death penalty”).

The Government Executive website has a piece about a proposal in the House aiming to improve the process for recruiting and retaining (as future employees) federal interns.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., on Thursday introduced the 2011 Federal Internship Improvement Act

I Want You(r internship to go exceedingly well)!

 (H.R. 914) to increase the number of government interns who are converted to full-time employees. This legislation would establish reporting requirements so that the Office of Personnel Management could evaluate agencies’ implementation of intern programs based on conversion rates, as well as determine the quality of those programs through exit interviews. It also would also establish a central clearinghouse so that agencies can recruit qualified candidates who interned for another agency.

…

Connolly expressed concern that agencies convert just 6.6 percent of interns to full-time employees compared with more than 50 percent in the private sector. Government will have to fill more than 200,000 mission-critical jobs in the next three years, he wrote.

It’s noteworthy that this proposal comes in the wake of large-scale changes to the way that Uncle Sam attracts junior talent.

Federal agencies currently are overhauling the process for bringing students and recent graduates into government service. President Obama on Dec. 27, 2010, issued an executive order scrapping the controversial Federal Career Internship Program. The directive also established three pathways for young talent to enter the federal workplace. OPM Director John Berry in January outlined how agencies should convert FCIP participants to competitive service, along with the steps for continuing use of current internship programs while regulations are finalized.

Wisconsin state politics have become national news of late. But here’s a bit of particularly bad news for the legal services community that hasn’t made it to the fore of news coverage…

The Wisconsin Law Journal reported last Friday that:

Civil legal service providers for poor people in Wisconsin are facing substantial cuts pending the inclusion of a budget proposal that eliminates all state money for those organizations.

Part of Gov. Scott Walker’s 2011-13 budget reallocates money collected by the Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation and distributed to organizations such as Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee and Legal Action of Wisconsin to other aspects of the criminal justice system

…

Walker’s proposal would shift money allotted to civil legal service providers to support pay increases for assistant district attorneys and also for additional court reporters in the state.

The executive director of Legal Action noted in the piece that the cut could cause his organization to lay off over 40% of its staff.  The PSLawNet Blog is all for raising prosecutors’ salaries, but not – repeat, not – at the expense of cutting off legal services funding at a time of acute need.

UPDATE: here’s reaction to Governor Walker’s budget proposal from the Wisconsin State Bar. It offers some context for the funding changes which would affect public service lawyers, and notes that the budget contemplates adding 45 public defender positions statewide – a healthy development.

This week: attorney licensing fee increases to bolster Minnesota public defense and civil legal services programs; New York’s pilot program to provide counsel to homeowners facing foreclosure; jail time for a former Southwestern Pennsylvania Legal Services employee who embezzled $188K; a North Carolina law professor minces no words in criticizing those on Capitol Hill who would do away with LSC; the funding woes plaguing the Massachusetts legal services community; in Texas, legislative proposals to channel funding to legal services; more Minnesota – this explains why funds are needed to prop up legal services providers; a couple of law student group fundraisers, including the “Spartan War Helmet” mustache(?); the Pro Bono Institute puts the lie to the notion that pro bono contributions could make up for a poorly funded legal services infrastructure; the Nat’l. Law Journal looks at law school employment bridge programs for recent grads; and, “Law Schools Revamp Their Curricula to Teach Practical Skills.”

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• 3.3.11 – the Minnesota Lawyer reports that the North Star State’s high court has extended two fees on attorney licensing renewals in order to bolster funding for both indigent defense and civil legal services.  “The Minnesota Supreme Court has extended a $75 increase to the lawyer registration fee to help fund the state’s public defense system and made a $25 increase for legal services permanent.  The increases were sought by the Minnesota Board of Public Defense and the Legal Services Advisory Committee.”  (See below for coverage of the Minnesota legal services community’s funding troubles.)

• 3.2.11 – the New York Law Journal covers the launch of pilot program that will provide representation to homeowners who are facing foreclosure proceedings.  The program is launching in Orange and Queens Counties, where the need is high.  “Both counties have been hardpressed by the surge in foreclosures. Filings in Orange County have grown more than five times since 2005, while they have more than doubled in Queens.”  For more coverage, Lo-Hud.com (referring to the Lower Hudson Valley) also featured a story about this new initiative.  “In the next few weeks, Legal Services of the Hudson Valley and the Legal Aid Society in New York City will assign lawyers to foreclosure cases in Orange County and in Queens, respectively. Queens was chosen because it has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the state, and Orange County was selected as a typical New York suburb.”

• 3.2.11 – we don’t know whether to characterize this as bad or good news. From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Cheri A. Logue faces 22 months in prison for embezzling around $188,000 from the Southwestern Pennsylvania Legal Services Corp., under a sentence handed down Monday [in federal court] … Logue…took the money by way of 467 transactions over seven years – writing checks, making withdrawals from accounts, steering agency funds to cover her bills, and wrongly using the company credit card.”  Logue said that a gambling addiction fueled her behavior.

• 2.28.11 – Professor Gene Nichol, of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Center on Poverty, Work & Opportunity, minces no words in criticizing North Carolina congresspersons who voted to eliminate federal funding for the Legal Services Corporation.  Writing an op-ed in the News Observer, Nichol notes that “Every Republican member of the North Carolina delegation, except Virginia Foxx, voted to end legal services. For Howard Coble, Renee Ellmers, Walter Jones, Patrick McHenry and Sue Myrick, no aid to the one-third of North Carolina families qualifying for legal services was more than enough … Let me try to put those votes into perspective … Poor and near poor Americans are effectively priced out of the civil justice system. As studies have demonstrated for decades, in North Carolina and nationally, we leave millions unrepresented on some of the most crushing issues of life – domestic violence, child custody, housing, employment, education, health care, sustenance, vital benefits and the like.”  Nichol highlights the fact that, in comparison with the legal systems of other developed democracies, the U.S. has measured poorly in providing meaningful access to justice for all its citizens, in spite of the many platitudes suggesting that America’s civil justice system is exemplary.

• 2.28.11 – Legal Assistance Corporation of Central Massachusetts’ board president, Gayle Flanders Weiss, highlights the “devastating” funding shortfalls confronting LACCM and other providers in the Bay State.  Writing in the Worcester Business Journal, Weiss notes that, “[LACCM] has suffered  crushing funding cuts, losing more than 30 percent of its revenue over the last two years. LACCM’s clients — laid-off workers denied unemployment benefits, lead-poisoned children in need of decent housing, victims of domestic violence — all rely upon LACCM to help them with their most basic needs, and all stand to lose when LACCM is unable to provide services because of its funding cutbacks.”  The piece closes with a call to tell state legislators to adequately fund the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation (MLAC), a statewide agency which administers and distributes funding to legal services providers.

• 2.28.11 – the Houston Business Journal brings some news about state legislative proposals to prop up flagging legal services funding in Texas: “The Texas Legislature will consider bills soon that would help fund civil representation for poor Texans through fees. Preliminary state budget estimates reflect a reduction of 51 percent in funds for such legal aid, a decline of more than $23 million … Sen. Jose Rodriguez, D-El Paso, filed Senate Bill 726, the Judicial Access and Improvement Fund legislation, on Feb. 15. The bill relates to the establishment of a judicial access and improvement account to provide funding for basic civil legal services, indigent defense and judicial technical support through certain county service fees and court costs imposed to fund the account.  On Feb. 16, Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin, filed House Bill 1392, which would impose a fee on the transfer of property following a foreclosure sale to fund civil legal services for indigents.  A proposal to mandate funds generated by consumer protection suits will also be proposed, according to statements made by the Texas Access to Justice Commission and the Texas Access to Justice Foundation.”

• 2.28.11 – MinnPost.com takes an in-depth look at the funding woes confronting the Minnesota legal services community.  The reporting is good; the news is bad.  IOLTA revenues plummeted by 85% between 2007 and 2010.  Even worse, the fund will exhaust its reserves in the next year.  Stakeholders in the legal services community are scrambling to prop up other existing funding mechanisms or to find new ones.  But it doesn’t look like providers will see an appropriations increase from the state government, and other solutions are limited at best.

• 2.28.11 – the Yale Daily News reports on fundraising efforts to support public interest funding.  The Public Interest Auction is at the core of the fundraising initiative: “Around 250 members of the Law School community attended the auction, which raised nearly $44,000 for the Law School’s public interest fellowships for recent graduates and graduating third year students.”  And although less lucrative than the auction, the mustache competition – a fundraising event which the PSLawNet Blog finds troubling and noble at the same time – brought in some welcome revenue: “Though it was not part of the auction, the Mustaches for Public Interest Competition garnered $750. Male and female law students raised money based on the impressiveness of mustaches they grew over the past few weeks.”  (The mustache competition winner was something known as the “Spartan War Helmet.”  Good stuff!)

• 2.28.11 – in the National Law Journal, Pro Bono Institute president Esther Lardent argues that cutting LSC funding would be unwise – not only because it would lead to constrictions among LSC grantees at a time of increased client need, but also because it will lead to diminished pro bono work.  “The reality is that effective pro bono service by attorneys in private practice is possible only if these attorneys can rely upon the expertise and consistent community presence of LSC programs. Pro bono is not a panacea. All too often, pro bono is not available or appropriate for a wide range of matters. Conflicts of interest, for example, have severely limited volunteer service in foreclosure matters and are often endemic in smaller cities and rural areas. And pro bono resources are difficult to secure in emergency matters. Without a strong core of full-time advocates, pro bono simply does not work … Our legal pro bono efforts are the envy of the rest of the world. Congress needs to understand that cutting funding for legal services will stop the flow of valuable and free private assistance. This proposed funding cut not only threatens the very core of access to justice; it is economically unwise.”

• 2.28.11 – A National Law Journal article explores the phenomenon of law school employment bridge programs which have sprung up in the recession’s wake as a way to help unemployed grads build skills and get jobs.  The piece looks at SMU Law’s “Test Drive” program, “in which “the school pays employers $3,500 to take in recent graduates for one or two months. Advocates said the program is an innovative way to help graduates get a foot in the employment door amid an exceptionally tight job market. Skeptics dismissed it as an attempt to game the U.S. News & World Report’s law school rankings by inflating job-placement data.”  Also covered are Duke’s “Bridge to Practice” program, which pays a stipend to the graduates as opposed to forwarding funds to employers, and the University of Miami’s “Legal Corps” program, which differs from SMU’s and Duke’s in that it sends graduates into public interest placements only.

• 2.27.11 – the Chronicle of Higher Education, in a (password-protected) piece entitled “Law Schools Revamp Their Curricula to Teach Practical Skills,” notes a small movement toward integrating more experiential learning opportunities into legal education: “Nationwide, law schools are integrating more clinical experiences and practical-skills training into their curricula in response to complaints that their graduates lack real-world experience. But few have gone as far as Washington and Lee, which has jettisoned the entire third year and rebuilt it from scratch … The change reflects a practice-based trend that has assumed greater urgency with the escalating costs of legal education and diminished job prospects for graduates.  The changes are also in response to criticisms from a number of national foundations and associations regarding the strictly theoretical approach many law schools have long taken to preparing students for legal careers.”  Highlighting curriculum changes at Washington & Lee, as well as Cal Western, Harvard, Stanford and Touro – the degree of change varies widely from school to school – the piece also reviews the chorus of calls for change, coming from the Carnegie Foundation, the ABA, the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), and many legal employers.

This week, there are multiple stories highlighting reaction to a potential $70 million cut in LSC funding, which we covered in a blog post earlier this week.  Here’s what’s in the Bulletin:

• A loss of local funding here and a loss of local funding there could add up to a big subtraction for the Louisiana-based Capital Area Legal Services Corporation;
• Putting current threats to legal services funding in context: it’s bad, but it’s not new;
• KC gets in the Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) game;
• Legal Aid of East Tennessee labors against a spike in instances, and severity, of domestic violence;
• Pine Tree Legal Assistance makes the legal forest easier to navigate for veterans and their families;
• Show me a solution to the Missouri indigent defense crisis!  Or at least show me cautious optimism!;
• The American Bar Association won’t stand for LSC funding cuts;
• And neither will the Colorado Bar Association;
• A little bit of funding for a Tennessee MLP;
• Law & Order: Los Angeles, guest-starring volunteer prosecutors;
• Kudos for a foreclosure-right-to-counsel initiative in New York State;
• Profiling an incoming Skadden Fellow who will tackle juvenile justice issues in Detroit.

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• 2.24.11 – Louisiana’s Tri-Parish Times reports that “[l]ow-income individuals and families that have depended upon or might need legal assistance when dealing with civil matters in Louisiana could be left without representation as parishes cut back on their budgets in 2011.  Capital Area Legal Services Corp., which has been funded by contributions from 12 parishes, including Terrebonne and Lafourche, is faced with a loss of financial support that could range from $24,530 to $47,330 this year. In turn, the legal aid agency could soon be faced with cutting some of its services.”  CALSC is an LSC grantee, so while these parish funding cuts may not seem like very large amounts of money, every little bit will count as the federally funded programs stare down potential LSC budget cuts from Congress.  (More on LSC funding below…)

• 2.23.11 – in the Nonprofit Quarterly, Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation executive director Lonnie Powers authors a piece that looks at current threats to civil legal services funding in the context of the longer-term funding vicissitudes that the provider community has experienced.  Powers, who writes in his individual capacity and not on behalf of MLAC, notes that funding threats are traditionally either ideologically driven – in part by those who believe “…that low-income people do not deserve access to attorneys or in any event they do not deserve the same access as wealthy people” – or driven by the prevailing economic winds.  As to the latter, Powers highlights the dilemma that while “legal aid funding is tied to the economy [particularly regarding IOLTA funds] and therefore cycles with the economic health of the states and the nation, the demand for services is countercyclical.”  So, precisely at a time when providers are struggling to avoid layoffs and program constrictions, the numbers of eligible clients are swelling.  Powers also notes how severe an impact a current proposed LSC budget cut could have: “[T]he $70 million reduction in LSC funding voted by the House would, according to LSC, conservatively result in: a layoff of at least 370 staff attorneys in local programs, [and] closure of may rural offices…”

• 2.23.11 – a press release announces a new medical-legal partnership among Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City and Legal Aid of Western Missouri.  “Saint Luke’s Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) is modeled after similar programs that have succeeded in improving the health of indigent patients around the country since 1993. The partnerships integrate lawyers as a vital component of the health care team, to help patients deal with legal problems that directly or indirectly harm their health. The concept has earned the backing of groups such as the American Hospital Association, American Bar Association, American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics.”  The partnership “is based on a model known as I-HELP. I stands for income and insurance issues; H is for housing issues; E is for ensuring patient safety in domestic situations; L is for legal status; and P is for power of attorney and guardianship.”  As the PSLawNet Blog has noted before, there’s a lot of momentum these days in support of medical-legal partnerships.  There’s yet another story about MLP funding below…

• 2.23.11 – the work of Legal Aid of East Tennessee figures prominently in this Knoxville Metro Pulse story about a spike in local domestic violence.  Knoxville Police Department figures show that, between 2002 and 2009, reports of domestic violence grew by about 30%.  Along with more people reaching the breaking point, the violence is becoming more severe, says Dave Yoder, executive director of Legal Aid of East Tennessee, which closed 751 domestic violence cases from its Knoxville office last year. ‘Where we used to see more pushing and shoving and slapping, now we’re seeing more internal injuries,’ he says.”

• 2.22.11 – from Maine’s Portland Press Herald: “A website designed to be the nation’s leading resource for the legal needs and rights of military families,Statesidelegal.org, is up and running thanks to the work of Maine’s largest legal aid provider.  Portland-based Pine Tree Legal Assistance was the lead agency in the creation of the site … [which] serves as an online hub for legal information — including videos, self-help tools and other resources — specifically for military personnel, veterans and their families.”

• 2.22.11 – last week’s Public Interest Law News Bulletin contained a whole bunch of coverage of the indigent defense funding crisis in Missouri.  This week, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s editorial board sounded a cautiously optimistic note about reform inching forward.  The editorial does a nice job summarizing the series of events that led to the current crisis, and notes that, in advance of an expected Missouri Supreme Court decision concerning a public defender’s refusal to accept new cases last summer, a retired state court judge has just issued a report shedding some light on where there are flaws in the state’s current protocol to handle swollen caseloads.  The piece closes with a statement supportive of the Show-me State defenders: “[T]he only reason the system might be inching toward reform is because public defenders put their professional responsibilities first — by saying “no” to an overload of new cases.”

• 2.22.11 – the ABA Journal on the ABA’s reaction to the House’s passage of a spending bill last weekend that would cut the Legal Services Corporation budget by $70 million: “ABA President Stephen N. Zack released a statement on Sunday opposing the budget reduction. “The promise of American justice and fairness cannot be an empty one,” Zack said. “But that’s what will happen if funding for legal help to poor and working class families is slashed as proposed. These cuts would hurt people in every region, from Kansas to Kentucky, Texas to Virginia, Ohio to Florida.  Earlier this month, the policymaking ABA House of Delegates voted to oppose any funding cuts to the LSC.”

• 2.21.11 – also stemming from the proposed LSC cuts, the Colorado Bar Association comes to the aid of LSC-funded Colorado Legal Services.  Colorado Law Week features a statement from the bar association, noting in part that “[t]he $70 million cut, which will have to be absorbed entirely in the next eight months, will have a devastating impact on all of LSC’s grantees, including Colorado Legal Services, our statewide legal aid program. More importantly, it would have a devastating impact on the low-income Coloradans who are served by Colorado Legal Services—LSC anticipates it will have to reduce its grants to 136 local legal aid nonprofit programs, including Colorado Legal Services, by an average of 18 percent.”

• 2.21.11 – and while we’re focusing on LSC grantee organizations, here’s a small but welcome bit of (good) funding news for the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands.  From the WREG TV station website: “Some families of low-income children who are sick, or fighting court battles for their children’s health, just got a little relief with a grant made to the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee.  The Baptist Healing Trust awarded $40,200 in grant money to continue its support of a partnership between Legal Aid and the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital.”  As we’ve noted before, there’s a lot of momentum these days in support of medical-legal partnerships.

• 2.20.11 – volunteer lawyers prosecuting cases in LA.  From the Los Angeles Daily News: Faced with drastic budget cuts that have forced the early retirement of dozens of prosecutors, the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office has turned to training law school graduates or entry-level attorneys who volunteer to try criminal cases for free…. The volunteers, all of whom have passed the bar, go through a month of training and then prosecute cases for five months. They have helped fill in a gap left by the loss of about 70 prosecutors who took early retirement packages after an 18 percent cut to the office’s budget in 2009 as the city struggled to make ends meet.”

• 2.20.11 – the Journal News’s editorial board (of New York’s Lower Hudson Valley) looks favorably upon state Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman’s effort to level the legal playing field for those facing home foreclosures: “In his annual State of the Judiciary address last week, Lippman outlined a plan to make New York the first state in the nation to ensure that all homeowners facing foreclosure are represented by a lawyer — a leveling of the playing field long overdue. Any homeowner in foreclosure who doesn’t have counsel would be furnished one by Legal Aid or a similar group, which would be expected to staff foreclosure offices in courthouses  …  The assistance cannot come soon enough.  In 2010 alone, New York courts held more than 100,000 settlement conferences in foreclosure cases. In almost two-thirds of the cases…the homeowners appeared without a lawyer.”

• 2.19.11 – the Detroit Free Press published a swell profile of incoming Skadden Fellow Aisa Villarosa, who’s now a 3L at Wayne State and will be remaining in Motown to work on juvenile justice issues.  See our blog coverage of the Free Press piece and a note about the broadening of law-school pool from which Skadden draws its fellows.

Just a quick follow-up on our post last week about threats to LSC funding on the Hill.  LSC released a statement on Saturday, which reads in part:

The U.S. House of Representatives today passed a $70 million cut in Legal Services Corporation (LSC) funding from the current level, reducing grants to 136 local legal aid nonprofit programs by an average of 18 percent.The proposed $70 million cut is from the Fiscal Year 2010 funding of $394.4 million provided to LSC programs. An effort to eliminate all funding for LSC programs was defeated on a bipartisan vote, 259 to 171, on February 16.

Under the House proposal, about 160,000 fewer low-income people would receive civil legal assistance and 80,000 fewer cases would be handled by the LSC-funded programs. The proposed funding cut would force layoffs of about 370 staff attorneys and shut down some offices in rural areas.

This cut is a part of a continuing resolution to fund federal programs through the remainder of Fiscal Year 2011.  So a battle about FY 2012 is still to come, but it suggests that LSC’s opponents will be active in pushing for funding cuts.  In light of the fact that LSC has long had enemies – and, we should note, many friends – on Capitol Hill, it’s noteworthy that conservative budget hawks are not just targeting programs to which they are ideologically opposed.  Here’s a good Washington Post article highlighting the fact that even programs which traditionally received conservative support find themselves threatened as some on the Hill are determined to cut spending at all costs.  All of this suggests that stakeholders in the equal justice community must take an all-hands-on-deck approach in supporting legal services funding in the coming weeks.

We return after a week’s absence with a robust edition of the News Bulletin.  Below, please read our coverage of:

• Layoffs at the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund (AppalReD);
• Legal services funding crisis in Texas – and proposed solutions;
• in Georgia, even a small cut to DV legal services funding will have a big impact;
• Maine indigent defense program still struggling with funding;
• Ditto, and it’s even worse, in Missouri;
• A profile of L.A. County’s public defender;
• Right to counsel in New York foreclosure proceedings;
• How an LSC funding slash could impact Florida’s legal services community;
• DOJ’s budget proposal calls for a modest increase in attorney positions, sheds light on agency priorities;
• Lots of coverage of FY 2012 LSC funding proposals;
• A 1,000-lawyer public defense agency in Massachusetts?;
• President Ronald Reagan’s legacy in spurring the growth of conservative public interest organizations;
• Cuts in Florida court funding will strain defenders and prosecutors;
• New academic work on exonerations via DNA evidence;
• Some props for the Tennessee Justice Center;
• Lawyers ensuring Florida farmworkers are paid for their labor;
• In Arizona, the Justice Bus rides again!;
• A political fight in Chicago (surprise!) – dispute about 10% cuts to the state’s attorney’s and defender’s budgets;
• Continued wrangling about the administration of Georgia’s indigent defense program;
• A solution to lowering criminal justice costs in Seattle: fewer capital-case prosecutions;
• Rhode Island U.S. Attorney not invited to party as DEA, state trooper make big drug bust;
• The importance of pro bono in Eastern Pennsylvania;
• Tennessee’s “attorney emeritus” pro bono program has launched.

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• 2.17.11 – as a follow-up to previous coverage of financial troubles at the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund (AppalReD) – an LSC-funded legal services provider in Eastern Kentucky – a piece in the Richmond Register provides some detail about layoffs: “Layoffs are expected in Appalachian Research and Defense Fund of Kentucky (AppalRed) offices around the state. A total of nine employees will be cut, according to a press release from Interim Executive Director Jonathan Picklesimer.”

• 2.16.11 – The Dallas Morning News reports on the efforts of stakeholders in Texas’s legal services community to counter an extraordinary decline in IOLTA revenue – nearly 75% since 2007.  “Representatives from the state Supreme Court, the Texas Access to Justice Commission and Foundation, and legal aid services said that low interest rates, an economic downturn and an increase in the need for legal aid services have created a crisis.”  As a result, they are advocating for state legislators to create new court filing fees that would generate funding to serve low-income Texans with legal needs.  Here are some specifics on the legal services funding crisis and proposed legislative solutions, from a joint Texas Access to Justice Commission/Foundation press release.  Finding creative solutions makes sense in light of the fact that the state appropriations picture doesn’t look pretty for legal services: the Houston Chronicle reports that a current proposal contemplates a cut of $23 million in legal services funding.

• 2.16.11 – in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Legal Services Program’s Vicky O. Kimbrell writes that the small amount which may be cut from the state judiciary’s fund for domestic violence legal services could have large impact.  “In this weary season of budget slashing, the latest of many, the Georgia Legislature is considering a cut — about $80,000 — to funding for free legal representation of folks, women and children mostly, who are victims of domestic violence … Amid the millions of dollars of cuts, this may seem like small potatoes. In theory, yes.”  But in fact, the proposed cut represents “enough to fund representation of 64 clients in domestic violence cases.”

• 2.16.11 – Maine’s Kennebec Journal provides the latest on funding challenges confronting the Pine Tree State’s indigent defense administration: “Leaders of the new state commission that oversees legal defense for the poor say a recent budget compromise should enable them to keep paying court-appointed lawyers into early June, the last month of the fiscal year.  However, the added $200,000 for the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services’ budget is only enough to keep the commission running, they say. It does not address long-term financial concerns and an ongoing $600,000 budget shortfall that was inherited from the prior administration.”  The article goes on to provide background on the Commission’s formation and the rocky financial road it has driven since.

• 2.16.11 – the long-simmering controversy about an overworked, under-funded indigent program in Missouri is coming to head.  As reported in the Springfield News-Leader, the state’s high court is expected to decide soon on the question of whether public defenders’ offices may essentially shut down when caseload limits become too high.  In the meantime, the Supreme Court had appointed retired Missouri judge Miles Sweeney as a special master.  The court asked Sweeney to look into the controversy.  (A scanned-in version of Sweeney’s report, filed with the Supreme Court on 2.9.11, is available on the KOMU TV station website.)  Judge Sweeney’s report was not expected to offer any silver bullets to the problem, but it did make some noteworthy suggestions, including reworking the state’s criminal code so that some crimes are treated as misdemeanors, which require fewer resources to prosecute and defend.  Sweeney also determined that  public defenders need more funding, as reported on the KSPR TV website.  It’s important to remember, too, amidst this more abstract debate about how to fund and administer an effective indigent defense system, that strains on the system can have profound effects on people’s lives.  One defendant sat in jail from July, 2010 until early this month, even though his plea deal would have put him in drug treatment (not jail), and only through January (as reported by the Belleville News-Democrat).   

• 2.16.11 – the L.A. Times runs an enjoyable, and inspiring, piece on Ron Brown, who grew up in an L.A. housing project and faced down personal and professional adversity while rising quickly through the ranks to become Los Angeles County’s public defender.  Brown appears to be naturally gifted as a litigator, but has also invested great amounts of time and energy in honing his lawyering and management skills.  The story serves as an ample lesson for law students that, at all stages of their lives, many successful lawyers work through unexpected challenges – from bumps in the road to more tragic events.

• 2.15.11 – Civil Gideon!  Kind of!  The New York Times reports on civil-right-to-counsel program being unveiled in New York State foreclosure proceedings: “New York court officials outlined procedures Tuesday aimed at assuring that all homeowners facing foreclosure were represented by a lawyer, a shift that could give tens of thousands of families a better chance at saving their homes.  Criminal defendants are guaranteed a lawyer, but New York will be the first state to try to extend that pledge to foreclosures, which are civil matters. There are about 80,000 active foreclosure cases in New York courts. In more than half of them, only the banks have lawyers.”  The program is going to launch in Queens and Orange Counties in the immediate future.  By the end of the year it should be rolled out throughout the state.

Read the rest of this entry »

Civil Gideon!  Kind of!  The New York Times reports on civil-right-to-counsel program being unveiled in New York State foreclosure proceedings: “New York court officials outlined procedures Tuesday aimed at assuring that all homeowners facing foreclosure were represented by a lawyer, a shift that could give tens of thousands of families a better chance at saving their homes.  Criminal defendants are guaranteed a lawyer, but New York will be the first state to try to extend that pledge to foreclosures, which are civil matters. There are about 80,000 active foreclosure cases in New York courts. In more than half of them, only the banks have lawyers.”  The program is going to launch in Queens and Orange Counties in the immediate future.  By the end of the year it should be rolled out throughout the state.

For those interested in learning more about the civil-right-to-counsel, or “Civil Gideon”, movement, visit the National Coalition for a Civil to Counsel’s website.

[EDIT: we had some math wrong in our initial blog post, so we wish to clarify that the House Appropriations Committee had proposed a global budget cut of $75 billion, within which there was a proposed $75 million cut to the LSC.  Subsequent to that proposal, the Appropriations Committee raised its global budget cut to $100 billion, which risks raising the LSC cut even more.  (Depending on how you read the numbers, we understand that the new proposal may include an LSC budget cut that is slightly higher than $75 million.)  Sorry if our confusion caused any on your end.]

LSC took a blow last week.  First, the House Appropriations Committee proposed slashing $75 million from LSC’s budget in a larger $75 billion federal budget-cutting measure.   Then, as reported by the National Law Journal: (article may be password-protected)

The Legal Services Corp. has survived any number of near-death experiences in its 34-year history. But the agency that funds civil legal services for the poor may be facing its biggest challenge yet at the hands of congressional budget cutters.

On Feb. 9, the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee included a $75 million cut for the LSC in its plan for eliminating $74 billion from the federal budget. The next day, after demands for more cuts from Tea Party adherents, the committee upped its goal to $100 billion in cuts.

[Emphasis by PSLawNet Blog].  The $75 billion proposed cut would have been bad enough.  We wonder how much more may come out of LSC’s appropriation with the committee’s new proposal.    When the proposal was announced last week, LSC got quickly into gear spreading word about the damage it could do to legal services providers and the client communities they serve:

A congressional proposal to cut $75 million from the Legal Services Corporation’s (LSC) budget would decimate civil legal aid to low-income Americans at a time when it is most needed by the tens of millions suffering economic hardship.The proposed $75 million funding cut would represent a 17 percent reduction from the White House’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget request of $435 million for LSC and a 14 percent decline from LSC’s current funding level, $420 million.

And in a separate statement, LSC’s Board Chair and immediate past chair expressed what’s at stake in terms of a budget cut:

At a time when more Americans are eligible for civil legal assistance than ever before in the Corporation’s history, the House Appropriations Committee unfortunately has proposed an extraordinary and immediate cut of $75 million – or 17 percent – from the White House’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget request for LSC.

As Chairman and immediate past Chairman of the Board of an organization charged with being one of the keepers of the flame of equal justice in this country, it is our responsibility to let the country know when that flame is flickering far too low. We do not know how a budget cut of this magnitude allows us to keep faith with the founding values of our great country. Regardless of fiscal pressures, we must never lose sight of our primary responsibility – to support the values of our Constitution and to provide equal access to justice for all Americans.

LSC has its budget-battle work cut out for it.  According to the NLJ piece, the ABA is already coming to the aid of the equal justice community:

Stephen Zack, president of the American Bar Association, which is a longtime supporter of the LSC, said in a written statement, “Hard choices loom as to priorities for federal spending, but let’s be smart about where reductions are made.…Slashing funds that keep working class and poor people from falling into a legal and financial tailspin is not the right decision in this economy.”

If they go through, budget cuts are bound to hit LSC grantee organizations, which serve low-income individuals and families throughout the U.S., very hard.  And grantees are already struggling.  As the PSLawNet Blog noted a few days ago, more and more news is surfacing about staff layoffs and office closures:

• Rhode Island Legal Services was contemplating a layoff of 13 paralegals. (Providence Journal)
• New Mexico Legal Aid shut down a branch office. (El Defensor Chieftain)
• Officials in Arizona were scrambling to reverse an office closure at Southern Arizona Legal Aid. (Nogales International)

UPDATE: this is what happens when we queue up a blog post the night before to publish the next morning.  The Blog of the Legal Times reports on the Obama Administration’s budget proposal, formally released yesterday, which call for an increase in LSC’s budget, by $30 million.  If nothing else, this will buck up some support for LSC when budget negotiators on Capitol Hill get down to brass tacks.

The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law announced the release of its Poverty Scorecard yesterday:

There were 43.6 million Americans living in poverty in 2009, an astounding 17 percent increase in the two years since the Great Recession began in 2007. Never has it been more important for our elected representatives to take effective action to fight poverty.

Each year the Shriver Center publishes its Poverty Scorecard, which grades the performance of every Member of Congress on the most important poverty-related votes of the year. The Scorecard’s purpose is to hold our Senators and Representatives accountable – every single one of them – for their efforts to advance economic justice, or their failure to do so.