Our March 12 Public Interest News Bulletin contained a Baltimore Sun article reporting on a proposal in the state General Assembly to replenish legal services coffers by increasing a range of court filing fees.  The Sun’s editorial blog backed the proposal last week.  Today, the Washington Post’s editorial board chimes in, outlining the problems confronting the legal services community…

For the past 30 years, Maryland LSC has relied on interest from lawyer trust accounts for the bulk of its funding; in turn, it distributes the money to roughly 35 legal aid organizations throughout the state. In 2008, the group received some $6.7 million from this source, but because of historically low interest rates Maryland LSC projects that income will shrink to about $2 million in the coming year — a 70 percent decrease over 18 months. At the same time, some legal aid providers in the state report a 60 percent increase in the number of clients seeking help. While criminal defendants are guaranteed lawyers, those with civil issues do not have the same right and either must pay for their own lawyers or, if unable to do so, rely on legal aid organizations.

…and calling for the proposal’s passage:

This shortfall must be addressed immediately to provide poor Marylanders much-needed assistance. The Senate has passed a bill authorizing modest increases in filing fees on civil cases to benefit the legal aid groups; the House will soon take up the bill and should follow suit…. These relatively small increases could bring in as much as $9 million per year for legal aid and could make a world of difference to struggling families throughout the state.

• 3.11.10 – National Law Journal – budget cuts, hearing delays and staff constrictions in the Massachusetts court system are emblematic of serious fiscal problems confronting state judiciaries throughout the country, including: New York, where the governor’s recommendation to cut $130 million from the judiciary’s budget has drawn opposition from the state’s top judge; a handful of Midwestern states, like Michigan and Illinois, which are also facing budget cuts; and California, where a range of austerity measures is in place in courthouses up and down the state.  Link to article.

• 3.11.10 – Associated Press – “Georgia’s public defender system is still trying to recover its financial footing five years after a courthouse gunman racked up a $3 million taxpayer-funded defense tab on the way to his conviction.   The state’s ailing system to defend the poor has struggled almost since its start in 2005, hamstrung not just by the costly Brian Nichols case but also because of the lukewarm support from legislators and a dismal economy.”  The statewide system was created in 2005 to help counties that were struggling to support indigent defense programs on their own.  Since its inception, though, it has experienced financial strains and endured criticism (and legal challenges) concerning its administration.  Death penalty cases can be especially problematic because they are so costly and time-consuming.  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: below, see Atlanta Journal-Constitution coverage of a recent Georgia Supreme Court argument concerning funding for an indigent defendant charged with a capital crime.]

• 3.11.10 – National Law Journal – “Despite opposition from the American Bar Association and a coalition of more than 70 civil rights, fair housing, consumer and other legal groups, a Senate committee on Wednesday approved the nomination of Sharon Browne of the Pacific Legal Foundation to the board of directors of the Legal Services Corp.”  Browne works with the Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit law office that supports conservative/libertarian causes.  According to critics, both the Foundation and Browne have in the past supported causes and advocacy that were in opposition to the mission of LSC.  Link to article. [Ed Note: the PSLawNet Blog covered both the initial opposition to Ms. Browne’s nomination and the Senate HELP Committee’s approval of her nomination in a post yesterday, including links to past coverage and a 3.10.10 LSC press release. ]

• 3.10.10 – Baltimore Sun (“Second Opinion” Online Editorial Page) – “At a time when record numbers of Marylanders are struggling with foreclosure, eviction or loss of health and unemployment benefits, non-profit legal aid groups that help people pursue their rights in court are increasingly unable to do their job.”  IOLTA funding has fallen from $6.7 million in 2008 to a current $2 million.  This is one of the main reasons that the Maryland Legal Services Corporation, a funder of legal services statewide, “has seen its own funding drop 70 percent over the last 18 months.”  A proposal in the state General Assembly seeks to replenish legal services coffers by increasing a range of court filing fees, resulting in an anticipated $9 million in revenue.  Lawmakers should promote access to justice for the state’s poor by supporting this proposal.   Link to post.  [Ed. Note – the 3/11/10 edition of the Baltimore Sun contains in article on the state legislature’s consideration of these filing-fee increase proposals in order to shore up the legal and social services network.  Chief Judge Robert M. Bell supports measures to ramp up legal aid funding, but also cautioned about going too far with court filing fee hikes, noting that these efforts to improve access to justice for poor clients – through legal aid lawyers – can’t also be allowed to deny access to the courts to others on account of steep fees.  Link to article. ]

• 3.10.10 – New York Times (Editorial) – Attorney General Holder was wise to tap Laurence Tribe as the head of a Department of Justice initiative to “look at ways indigent legal services can be improved, including by creating incentives for states to make better use of pro bono legal assistance, and help the growing number of people who represent themselves navigate the courts.”  Link to editorial.  [Ed. Note: this piece, while focusing mainly on the indigent criminal defense arena, also references the difficulties confronting civil legal services programs, implying that perhaps the DOJ initiative will focus on both.  Past reporting (NPR, Washington Post) suggests that indigent defense programs are the focus.  But based on our conversations with folks in the public interest community, it appears that the program’s scope is not as yet fully defined, and thus it could end up looking at access-to-justice issues in both the criminal and civil arenas.] 

• 3.9.10 – Atlanta Journal-Constitution – a lawyer appointed to represent an accused double murderer urged the Georgia Supreme Court to either dismiss the charges or prohibit the prosecution from seeking the death penalty because the state’s indigent defense fund has “been unable to pay for attorneys fees, investigators, or expert witnesses.”  The Gwinnett County district attorney agreed that the state’s public defense system, which was created by the legislature in 2003, is broken, and went so far as to argue that “the indigent defense statute violates the separation of powers because it transfer[s] control of funding capital cases from trial judges to the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council.” But, the prosecuting attorney contended that the matter should be sent back to trial as a capital case.  Link to article.

• 3.9.10 – Dover Post –  a brief Q&A with Delaware Public Defender Brendan O’Neill touches upon the public perception of defenders “trying to get the bad guy off the hook” as opposed to being guardians of all citizens’ rights, the overwhelming caseloads which many defenders are carrying, and his motivation for the career path he’s chosen.  Link to article.

• 3.9.10 – Philadelphia Inquirer – “Alarmed at a Philadelphia court system plagued by low conviction rates, entrenched witness fear, and a high number of fugitives, the state Supreme Court has appointed a blue-ribbon panel of legal experts to help craft a reform agenda.”  The Inquirer’s investigative reporting had earlier found “that nearly two-thirds of all violent-crime cases in the city end without a conviction on any charge.”  Also, Philadelphia has one of the nation’s highest fugitive rates, and courts have “made almost no effort” to collect forfeited bail funds.  Link to article.   [Ed. Note: Also see a 3.7.10 Inquirer story suggesting that Philadelphia’s Municipal Court reform efforts may be informed by the practices of local suburban courts.]

• 3.9.10 – Blog of the Legal Times – the ABA’s Death Penalty Representation Project has been struggling in the recent past to recruit pro bono counsel at precisely the time when public defense appellate offices are feeling the strains of budget cuts.  Link to post.

• 3.8.10 – Newark Advocate (Ohio) – in Licking County, Ohio, “defense attorneys representing indigent criminals billed for almost $1.4 million in fees in 2009,” 72% of which was paid with county funds, with the rest paid by state funds.  Nevertheless, court-appointed attorneys in Licking County are among the lowest paid appointed counsel in the state.  Over the years, fewer funds have flowed from state coffers to finance indigent defense programs, putting a strain on Ohio counties.  This has led to continuous questioning about whether an appointed counsel model is still preferable to creating a public defender’s office.  Link to article.

• 3.8.10 – National Law Journal – “At least 10 states are considering bills that would require drug testing for various government benefits.  Some want to screen welfare and food stamp recipients, while others want to test the jobless seeking unemployment benefits.  Some want to hit all three.”  A 6th Circuit decision emanating from a Michigan case held in 2002 that a state law requiring drug testing of welfare applicants violated the 4th Amendment.  Now, though, an Arizona law takes a slightly different tack.  Welfare applicants are required to complete a questionnaire about drug use.  “If any red flags go up, the person is required to take a drug test.”  The “red flags” give state authorities “reasonable cause” to test for drugs, which is required by the statute, and which proponents of drug-testing for public benefits think may pass constitutional muster.  Proposals in various states come in different shapes in sizes.  [Ed. note: they are surveyed in the story.]  The ACLU has emerged as the chief opponent of tying public benefit eligibility to drug testing.  Link to article. Note: access to article restricted

• 3.8.10 – New York Law Journal –  In a report issued last week, the New York City Bar and the City Bar Justice Center detailed progress made through their Deferred Associate Law Extern Support Project, which took form in 2009 to connect deferred associates to the public interest community and to provide ongoing support to help ensure that their public-service placements were fruitful both for them and their host organizations.  Surveys of deferred associates were illuminating.  They expressed broad-based satisfaction with their placements overall – “[n]early 92 percent said they would recommend their placement to deferred associates in the future” – but gave lower ratings on measures of their integration into their host organization’s culture.  Associates also expressed frustration with lack of communication from their law firms.  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: the report itself is available here.] 

• 3.7.10 – National Public Radio – “Increasingly, [in Massachusetts,] companies that plead guilty to crimes that harm the community – polluting, for example – are being required to publish an apology as part of their punishment.”  Shaming has for years been used in punishing individuals for any number of offenses, and in the legal community the debate about whether this form of punishment serves retribution or deterrence goals is alive in the context of shaming business entities.  Shaming may still lead to ostracizing just as it may with individual people, but, as one criminal law professor notes, a corporation does not feel and can not be emotionally scarred as a person may be.  Link to story (audio and print).  

• 3.7.10 – Boston Globe – “Nationally, 43 of the top 100 [law] firms have delayed the start dates of new associates hired last year … and almost all large commercial law firms in Boston deferred the contracts of new recruits.”  Some firms have helped facilitate their deferred associates’ placements in nonprofit or public sector organizations.  Goodwin Procter’s “Make a Difference” program attracted 86 of the firms deferred associates to work for a year in public service settings.  Ropes & Gray’s “New Alternatives” program is similar.  Not all deferred associates are using public service placements for personal development; one newly minted lawyer who was deferred from Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge competed in the Iditarod race in Alaska.  Link to article.

• 3.7.10 – Dayton Daily News – The Ohio 2nd District Court of Appeals has reversed six cases, presided over by one Montgomery County District Court judge, in which “defendants facing possible jail time were being run through the system without attorneys.”  In those cases, there was not sufficient evidence that the defendants had waived their right to counsel.  In some hearings, an appellate judge noted, there was not even evidence that a prosecutor was there.  One local law professor who also has worked as an acting judge, thinks this problem is “a symptom of a massive docket overload … There is a temptation to cut corners.  There’s a lot of incentive to move cases through the system.”  Link to article.

• Albany Times Union (New York) – “[S]tate funding cuts threaten to slash Albany County’s homelessness prevention funding … Housing advocates warn the cuts not only will cause a surge in the already rising number of people forced from their homes amid the nation’s worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, but will also cost taxpayers more in the end” because of the financial burdens associated with social services that the newly homeless will use.”   Link to article.

• 3.5.10 – WDSU Television Station Website (New Orleans) – New Orleans Parish’s chief public defender “said in the next two months half his staff will have to refuse new felony cases because the…office is saddled with more than it can handle. Lawyers are handling an average of 300 felony cases a year. That’s twice the amount for state and national standards.  The reason: the public defender’s office needs more money.”  In addition to underfunding, another strain on the defender’s office is the district attorney’s practice of accepting a high percentage (90%) of cases for prosecution.   Link to story (text and video report).  [Ed. Note: The PSLawNet Blog interviewed Chief Defender Derwyn Bunton earlier this year, and asked him about funding issues in the long-term.  Mr. Bunton expressed cautious optimism, but of course the bar is pretty low because indigent defense funding in Louisiana has historically been weak.]   

• 3.6.10 – NJ.com Website (New Jersey) – Cumberland County’s new top prosecutor plans to cut some costs in light of a county government budget crisis, and reducing a backlog of criminal cases on the courthouse’s docket, which contributes to strains on the jail system as defendants, as well as crime victims and their families, wait extended periods of time for their day in court.  The county prosecutor, Jennifer Webb-McRae, also recognizes that making plea deals, while perhaps not fitting the public’s expectations about being tough on crime, is necessary to keep the wheels of justice turning.  Link to article.    

• 3.6.10 – Palm Beach Post (Florida) – State Attorney Michael MCAuliffe, Palm Beach County’s chief prosecutor for the past year, has shaken up his office’s traditional practices by taking an “aggressive tack on exacting higher penalties for offenders,” engaging directly (and frequently) with the media, forging a stronger relationship with law enforcement, and paring down on attorneys and staff, which included “ordering them out of the office on the same day.”  Some in the legal community are concerned that line prosecutors’ morale is low, and that they feel constrained in handling their docket because of McAuliffe’s emphasis on getting convictions instead of plea-bargaining.  McAuliffe is unapologetic, and does not entertain questions about whether he has future political aspirations.  Link to article.

• 3.5.10 – New York Times “City Room” Blog – new guidelines from NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg on how cases will be assigned to indigent defense organizations have stirred debate about whether “the new rules will take work from experienced lawyers and overburden less experienced ones.”  Previously, the Legal Aid Society or other nonprofit defender services accepted what cases they could, and other case divvied our through an assigned counsel system.  The new guidelines could funnel more cases to the Legal Aid Society and counterpart organizations, and also lawyers who participate in the assigned counsel program “will be expected to provide a larger network of services [for indigent defense cases], such as social workers, paralegals and investigators.”  Attorneys who have served in the assigned counsel program question whether they have the resources to meet such expectations.  Link to blog post.  

The National Law Journal today has an article summarizing many of the budget cuts state courts have faced(link requires free subscription) over the past year, and are planned through 2010 and 2011. Due to budget struggles, courts have been losing staff and thus have become slower at processing cases just at a time when more people are becoming involved in the legal system. As Access to Justice commissions across the country are exploring ways of improving access to attorneys for low-income individuals, determining ways to shore up state court systems is an absolutely necessary goal as well.

The National Jurist reports that, largely on account of expanding faculty sizes, tuition at both private and public law schools has risen sharply. 

Tuition increased by 74 percent at private schools and a 102 percent at public institutions from 1998 to 2008.

A Cause: according to the story, U.S. News and World Report rankings are a big driver.  Schools bolster their faculty ranks in order to promote scholarship and lower student-to-professor ratios.

An Effect: the PSLawNet Blog has posted before about how rapidly rising tuitions lead to more borrowing by students, making lower-paying public interest careers less viable options.  Those students who are committed to pursuing public service career paths and who are paying their own way must be knowledgeable, savvy and prudent in managing their borrowing and plugging into loan repayment options.

• Here’s a post where we examine the problem of debt loads weighing upon public interest attorneys, and offer some solutions.
• Here’s a post about the College Cost Reduction & Access Act’s Income Based Repayment (IBR) program, and tax consequences for married couples. 

Jonathan Smith, Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, and Peter Edelman, Georgetown Law professor and chair of the D.C. Access to Justice Commission, co-authored an article in this month’s Washington Lawyer on the impact falling funding and rising demand is having on legal aid providers. The article talks about the importance of legal aid in the lives of low-income clients, the shifts in government funding during the economic crisis, the importance of pro bono support, and more.

Also new on the Legal Aid Society blog is a link to a recent interview Smith gave with the Meyer Foundation after winning an award for non-profit leadership. In it he talks about some of the challenges his organization has faced in the economic downturn.

While there is no formal count out there, the Big Apple is very likely home to the most deferred associates engaged in public service placements during their deferral periods.   In a report issued last week, the City Bar and its public interest arm, the City Bar Justice Center, detailed progress made through their Deferred Associate Law Extern Support Project, which took form in 2009 to connect deferred associates to the public interest community and to provide ongoing support to help ensure that their public-service placements were fruitful both for them and their host organizations.  This is the most robust infrastructure that has been built to promote success in deferral public-service placements (which is no surprise, given the relative size of the market).  Indeed, the Deferred Associate Law Extern Support Project was funded in large part through a grant from the New York Community Trust, which allowed for the creation of a project director position.  Here are some interesting findings from the report:

• Among deferred associates who responded to survey efforts, “more than three-quarters of the respondents were in placements of more than nine months with 25% on deferrals of 12-24 months. Over 90% reported they were receiving a financial stipend, 50% had health insurance and over 60% received a bar exam stipend.”
• “[O]ur data shows that many of the deferred associates went to more well-known larger public interest legal organizations and to those that had long-standing relationships with the law firms. As a result, there were smaller organizations still seeking deferred associates at the start of the fall 2009 training program (and many continue to seek them today).”  [A chart in the report shows that the Legal Aid Society is hosting or did host 37 deferred associates, the Kings County District Attorney’s Office 35, and the NYC Law Department 13.   A piece in the New York Law Journal last year noted that the Brooklyn D.A.’s office was hosting 35 deferred associates.]
• “Almost 92% of those responding would recommend their placement to a future deferred associate; 89% thought the skills they had acquired in their placement would be helpful to them in their future career; and 73% responded that their interest in pro bono had increased as a result of their placement.”
• “Interestingly, when asked to rate satisfaction with placement, “Office Space and Resources,” “Training,” “Clients” and “Supervision” were the areas of greatest satisfaction [among deferred associates] while “Colleagues,” “Integration within the Office” and “Legal Work” received lower ratings.”

Check out the whole report to learn about the professional development curriculum and networking opportunities made available to deferred associates through the project, as well as recommendations and lessons learned from the project’s first few months of operation in dealing with an unprecedented employment phenomenon.

UPDATE: the New York Law Journal is running an article about the report today.  Also, for those following deferred-associates-in-public-service-placements news and developments over the longer term, 1) a previous post of ours had collected news accounts from last fall, and 2) like us, you need to find some hobbies.

The WDSU television station reports:

The chief public defender said in the next two months half his staff will have to refuse new felony cases because the New Orleans office is saddled with more than it can handle. Lawyers are handling an average of 300 felony cases a year. That’s twice the amount for state and national standards. The reason: the public defender’s office needs more money.

In addition to underfunding, another strain on the defender’s office is the district attorney’s practice of accepting a high percentage (90%) of cases for prosecution.

Related:

• The New Orleans Times-Picayune had reported on previous funding shortfalls at the defender’s office last December.
• The PSLawNet Blog interviewed Chief Defender Derwyn Bunton earlier this year, and asked him about funding issues in the long-term.  Mr. Bunton expressed cautious optimism, but of course the bar is pretty low because indigent defense funding in Louisiana has historically been weak.

 We begin this week’s Bulletin with a whole lot of news from Minnesota…

• 3.4.10 – MinnPost Website (Minnesota) – Mid-Minnesota Legal Assistance is seeking an order to restrain the state government from terminating the General Assistance Medical Care program, which provides healthcare for low-income adults without children.  The GAMC program’s termination was taken as an austerity measure as the state government tried to cut spending.  The legislature had attempted to restore the program, but that effort was vetoed by Gov. Pawlenty and an override attempt came up short.  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: the GAMC program had been scheduled for termination on March 1, but was extended through the month after another legal services organization  had threatened legal action.  Previous coverage of those developments is available here.]     

• 3.3.10 – Mankato Free Press (Minnesota) – the public defense system in Minnesota is facing serious cuts in state funding.  “Statewide, the Board of Public Defense [could lose, under a current funding proposal,] $3.3 million in funding in 2010-11 and another $4.8 million in 2012-13.”  The chief public defender for the state’s 5th Judicial Circuit worries that additional cuts to an already strained system would be “drastic” and would effectively prohibit defenders from giving their clients the time needed to properly defend a case.  “A study completed by Minnesota’s legislative auditor supports [this] argument.  The study found the state’s public defenders are handling too many cases.  Many have double the caseload recommended by state and national guidelines.”  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: the report referenced in the article was issued on 2/16/10 by the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor.  It is available here.]

• 3.2.10 – MinnPost Website – with fewer than three months left in the Minnesota state legislature’s session, both the state bar association and the legal services community are pushing their agendas.  The Minnesota State Bar Association is seeking funding to shore up a strained court system, while Mid-Minnesota Legal Assistance’s legislative arm is pushing for borrower/consumer protection legislation.  Link to article.

 And now, let’s turn to news from places that are not Minnesota:

• 3.2.10 – San Jose Mercury News (California) – Santa Clary County officials have authorized $1 million to flow to the county public defender’s office in order to staff misdemeanor arraignment hearings.  “The lawyers’ presence in thousands of misdemeanor arraignments a year will end an unusual system that has for decades barred many indigent defendants from easy access to legal advice … Public Defender Mary Greenwood said she will immediately hire three additional lawyers and support staff to represent jailed misdemeanor suspects and those first facing misdemeanor domestic violence charges. The new lawyers would staff the county’s busiest misdemeanor arraignment sessions.”  Link to article. 

• 3.2.10 – Philadelphia Inquirer  – among local nonprofits sharing in $331,000 in grant money from the Philadelphia Foundation are Community Legal Services and Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania, both of which received funding to support their foreclosure prevention programs.  Link to article. 

• 3.1.10 – Herald News (Massachusetts) – Richard McMahon, a longtime legal services attorney and manager in Massachusetts, has been appointed executive director of South Coastal Counties Legal Services.  Link to article.

• 3.1.10 – Detroit News – while divorce rates in the Detroit metro region have slightly declined during the recession, among those that are filed the number of parties going pro se has risen notably.  “These do-it-yourself divorces are crowding legal aid offices and court dockets and slowing proceedings with incomplete paperwork and tutorials judges must deliver from the bench. And as more couples represent themselves, many are losing out on property and custody claims that are legally theirs, judges and attorneys say.”  Thomas M. Cooley Law School’s Family Law Legal Aid Clinic saw requests for help from low-income clients jump from 57 in 2008 to 104 in 2009.  Family law advocates are exploring solutions, which range from making filing forms more accessible to allowing limited scope representation in order to lower legal fees.  Link to article.

• 3.1.10 – The Hill’s “Congress Blog” (Op-ed) – Low-income tenants across the country face evictions and harassment from landlords and developers.  This is partly the result of the recession’s effect on the housing market.  “Too often, when landlords find themselves in foreclosure, their tenants are forced onto the street with little or no notice.”  A key to protecting tenants’ housing rights is for Congress to reauthorize the Legal Services Corporation by passing the Civil Access to Justice Act.  The bill, which has the support of many social justice advocates, would 1) increase LSC’s annual budget appropriation to $750 million from the current $420 million (at present, 1 in every 2 people who seek help from LSC grantees are turned away due to lack of program resources), 2) do away with a restriction on LSC grantees from filing class action lawsuits on behalf of their clients, and 3) eliminate restrictions on how grantees use non-LSC funds to carry out their missions.  Link to op-ed written by Emily Savner of the Brennan Center for Justice.  [Ed. Note: the op-ed references a Brennan Center report called Foreclosures: A Crisis in Legal Representation and, while not explicitly naming it, appears also to reference LSC’s Documenting the Justice Gap in America report, which was updated in 2009.]

• 2.28.10 – Florida Times-Union (Editorial) – the Florida Bar has launched a “One Client, One Attorney, One Promise” campaign in order to bolster pro bono by encouraging lawyers to take at least one pro bono case this year.   “There’s no shortage of people who need legal help in this age of high unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcies. Clients who need legal help of some kind are first screened by legal aid agencies before being referred to attorneys who agree to take on the cases without charge….Lawyers take a lot of flak on the joke circuit, but they also do a lot of charity work that goes unrecognized.  The Bar’s campaign is a good way for more lawyers to cast their profession in a positive light.”  Link to editorial.

• 2.27.10 – North Platte Telegraph (Nebraska) – Lincoln County Public Defender Robert Lindemeier joined, at the invitation of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, a Department of Justice Symposium aimed at addressing resource gaps in indigent defense programs across the country.  Lindemeier noted that poor clients not having access to effective counsel is a problem in Nebraska and nationally.  He was “impressed with Holder’s goals, saying that the U.S. Attorney General appears to believe that if the justice system is going to have a strong law enforcement and prosecution system in place, then to ensure justice is served means to make sure that the indigent criminal defense system is equally strong.”  Link to article.  Ed. Note: additional coverage on the DOJ’s Access to Justice Initiative from National Public Radio is available here. 

• 2.27.10 – Billings Gazette – the new Billings Adult Mental Health Court, a diversionary program intended to help defendants with mental disabilities or disorders, makes a priority of helping participants to “creat[e] new bonds to the community through education, employment or volunteer service and treatment programs…”  For court officers who facilitate the program, some of the traditional adversarial edges are dulled as prosecutors, public defenders, judges and others review cases and review participants’ treatment options.  Link to story.  [Ed. Note: not explicitly mentioned in the article is that, aside from providing participants with the best resources to remain integrated with society and avoid the criminal justice system, the mental health court could promote financial efficiencies for courts and detention facilities.  According to a chart accompanying the story, “[b]etween 50 and 70 percent of the [Yellowstone County Detention Facility’s] population suffers from a mental illness or co-occuring disorder, such as addiction.  Further, “[a]s much as 40 percent of the general housing costs at the jail are spent on mentally ill people incarcerated on misdemeanors.”]

• 2.26.10 – New Orleans Times-Picayune – New Orleans District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro and Chief Public Defender Derwyn Bunton agree on a proposal to change the way that cases are assigned to courtrooms in the parish’s criminal court system.  During a City Council hearing, both the top prosecutor and defender spoke in favor of making the change, but noted that the courthouse’s judges, who retain ultimate authority for the case assignemnt system, have been cool to the proposal.  Cannizzaro and Bunton believe that changes would increase efficiency by allowing attorneys to stay with cases from beginning to end, rather than having to pass them off to colleagues and jump from courtroom to courtroom to keep up with their dockets.  One reason they support a change: It may open doors to federal dollars.  Some federal grants require that “the same defense attorney or prosecutor stay on [a] case from beginning to end.”  Link to article.  [Ed. Note: late-January Times-Picayune coverage of the issue is found here.  Also, the PSLawNet Blog conducted a short interview with Mr. Bunton (on unrelated matters) in January.]

• 2.26.10 – Boston Globe – in Massachusetts, a group of legal immigrants is suing the entity that administers the state’s healthcare program, charging that the state’s decision to deny health coverage on account of their immigrant status violates state and federal equal protection principles.  The move to exclude or limit coverage options for legal immigrants under the Massachusetts landmark Commonwealth Care health plan was a budget-cutting measure.  The executive director of Health Law Advocates, which sued the state on behalf of legal immigrant clients, contends that, “You can’t violate people’s constitutional rights just because you don’t have the funds.”  Link to article.

We blogged earlier about the state of Connecticut taking steps to prevent renters from being wrongfully evicted when their landlords are foreclosed upon. Yesterday, Emily Savner of the Brennan Center for Justice contributed a guest post on the Congress Blog over at The Hill making the argument that the reauthorization and expanded funding of the Legal Services Corporation (which we talked about as well) is critical to ensure that there are sufficient affordable lawyers to assist tenants facing improper eviction. Even as more states step up like Connecticut, the majority of tenants facing eviction will require legal assistance to keep their apartments as long as they legally can. Additionally, the reauthorization statute would change some outdated rules, including one that prevents legal aid clients from participating in class action cases, which could be particularly powerful in getting banks, developers, and landlords to follow state and federal law.

We will keep you updated on the progress of the bill, called the Civil Access to Justice Act, as it makes its way through Congress.

• 2.26.10 – Washington Post – Laurence Tribe, prominent Harvard Law School professor and Supreme Court advocate, is joining the Justice Department to focus on bolstering indigent defense programs throughout the nation.  Attorney General Holder and senior DOJ officials recently lamented the poor funding of public defense programs, and the consequent barriers to the justice system confronting indigent defendants.  Link to article.

• 2.24.10 – Los Angeles Times (Editorial) – opponents of Sharon Browne’s nomination to the board of the Legal Services Corporation, in particular the Alliance for Justice and the ABA’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants, “haven’t made a persuasive case.”  Some of the Alliance’s criticisms of Ms. Browne’s record “smack of guilt by association.”  The process used by ABA SCLAID in reviewing Ms. Browne’s qualifications to serve on the board is confidential.  So the Senate should hold open hearings to discuss criticisms of Ms. Browne and afford her a chance to reply.  Link to editorial.

• 2.24.10 –National Law Journal – two decisions by the Supreme Court this week have limited lower courts’ interpretations of Miranda.  First, in Florida v. Powell, the Court “said that Florida’s alternative wording of the Miranda warning is acceptable, even though it does not explicitly state that a suspect has a right to have a lawyer present during questioning.”  One day later, in Maryland v. Shatzer, the Court established “more permissive rules for police who want to question a suspect for a second time after the suspect invokes Miranda‘s right to remain silent.”  Link to article.

Keep reading the rest of the news from this week!