ADAMS PRO BONO PUBLICO AWARDS AND PRO BONO RECOGNITION PROGRAM
The SJC’s Adams Pro Bono Publico Awards will be given out and the Court’s new Pro Bono Attorney Recognition Program will be inaugurated at a ceremony in the Adams Courthouse on Wednesday, October 26 at 4:00 p.m. All are invited to attend and congratulate the award winners and honored firms. If you plan to come, contact Carol Lev at 6175571074 6175571074 617557
1074 or at carol.lev@sjc.state.ma.us.
Receiving the Adams Pro Bono Publico Awareds are:
- Kerry Elizabeth Doyle
- Donal Eoin Reilly
- Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, PC
The new SJC Pro Bono Recognition Program, proposed by Commission CoChair Justice Ralph Gants and to be administered by the SJC’s Standing Committee on Pro Bono, honors firms which certify that they more than met the pro bono standard set in Rule 6.1. The firms being honored, and the details of the program, can be found at http://www.mass.gov/courts/sjc/probonorecognition.html.
COMMISSIONER TRANSITIONS
Several members of the Access to Justice Commission have made important changes recently.
- Robert B. Foster has been nominated by Governor Patrick to serve as an Associate Justice on the Land Court.
- Jacquelynne J. Bowman has been appointed Executive Director of Greater Boston Legal Services, succeeding Bob Sable, who has retired.
- Navjeet K. Bal has left her position as Commissioner of Revenue and is now at Nixon Peabody LLP.
CHIEF JUSTICE IRELAND SPEAKS ABOUT ACCESS TO JUSTICE
In his first annual address to the Massachusetts Bar Association on October 13, 2011, Chief Justice Roderick L. Ireland had some very supportive things to say about the work of the Commission and the commissioners. Analogizing to creation of the Business Litigation Session to meet the needs of business, he declared it a duty of the judicial branch to make courts more welcoming to those who have been historically underserved “people of color, immigrants, the poor and the disabled:.” He tasked the Commission to provide “leadership to the many entities involved in expanding access to justice” under the leadership of cochairs Justice Ralph Gants and Attorney David Rosenberg.
Among the access to justice initiatives he cited favorably were:
- Innovative pro bono programs,
- Limited assistance representation,
- Justice Fein and the access to justice initiative, Courthouse information desks,
- Trial Court law libraries.
- SJI grant to the Trial Court to translate small claims court forms,
- Probate and Family Court financial statement now in Spanish and Portuguese,
- Judicial Institute Training for court staff on serving unrepresented litigants, and
- A judicial conference convened by Justice Cynthia Cohen on managing cases involving unrepresented parties
SECOND INTERIM REPORT OF THE SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE
The Second Interim Report of the Special Planning Committee was approved by the Commission at its meeting September 15, 2011. The Committee issued its First Interim Report in May and took comments over the summer. The Second Interim Report is the revised version and can be downloaded here.
The Report recommends:
That a Commission goal be that ongoing, careful and comprehensive planning become a regular feature of the delivery system.
That the intake, screening and hotline functions in each region be examined, that best practices be developed and that resources be shifted to extended advocacy. The providers’ intake system task force is asked to undertake this examination and to report its plans within six months.
That there be a concerted statewide effort among the providers to assess steps that can be taken to increase systemic advocacy. Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and the providers’ Advocacy Coordination Committee are asked to undertake this effort and to report on their plans within six months.
That each region determine its allocation of regional resources among a range of extents of service, the spectrum of substantive areas and the variety of population groups, and then question whether that allocation maximizes impact on basic human needs, on escaping from poverty or on the quality of individual lives.
That providers utilize volunteer resources and allied professionals more effectively. That technological innovations be more effectively employed.
That evaluation of program practices and initiatives be improved and that the results of evaluations be shared.
That the providers and the Commission continue to pursue new resources through the Commission’s Revenue Enhancement Committee.
That the Planning Committee follow up on developments in the regions and in the delivery system as a whole.
The comments to the First Interim Report are also available. The first eleven are here.
PRO BONO OPPORTUNITIES
The Commission sponsored a Forum in the spring of 2011 to encourage lawyers not working in private law firms to become involved in providing pro bono services. The brochure prepared for that Forum lists a number of providers who are seeking pro bono volunteers from the ranks of inhouse counsel, government and academic lawyers and others.
The brochure is available here. We will try to keep the listing up to date. LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION FUNDING UPDATE
Funding for Legal Services Corporation grantees for 2012 (the federal fiscal year 2012 began October 1, 2011) continues to be uncertain. The House Appropriations Committee endorsed a plan in July that would cut LSC by 26% (to $300 million). The appropriations subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Committee adopted a proposal for a 2% cut (to $396 million). Neither house has finished the relevant appropriations bill, however, and the federal government is once again running on a continuing resolution. It seems likely that final appropriation decisions will not be made until the debt ceiling supercommittee process has determined whether agencies like LSC are to be cut for FY 2012.
POVERTY IN AMERICA IS ON THE RISE
In September, the United States Census Bureau released official poverty figures for 2010. The report on income, poverty and health reported that 46.2 million people lived under the federal poverty level. That’s 15.1 percent. LSC promptly noted that at the 125% of poverty level which most LSC grantees use for eligibility, the same report finds 60.4 million Americans eligible for services, up 3.6 million over 2009. (The 125% level is $13,613 for an individual and $27,938 for a family of four.) That means that one in five Americans is eligible for legal assistance from an LSC program.
Of course, those programs can’t begin to serve that many people. LSC grantees close less than a million cases a year, and their funding is going down (see above). Legal Aid programs in Massachusetts, and across the country, are laying attorneys off and cutting expenses to make ends meet.
IT HAPPENED IN TEXAS
This summer the Texas legislature did the unexpected for the second time in three years the Legislature made a special appropriation to civil legal aid to make up for the dramatic decline in IOLTA revenues since interest rates declined. The bill provided $17.5 million. Governor Rick Perry signed the bill, including the civil legal services funding, on July 19.
WORKING GROUPS
The Commission does much of its work through its six Working Groups.
UPDATES
Updates regarding access to justice in Massachusetts will be posted on this website periodically.
OTHER COMMISSIONS
For information about the growing number of access to justice commissions, visit the ABA’s Access to Justice Support Project at www.ATJsupport.org.