Community

New Delays Loom As Court Interpreters Seek New Deal

October 27, 2015 By CCM Staff

Less than 15 percent of U.S. Immigration Court proceedings are conducted entirely in English, meaning that interpreters are vital to getting things done. Now, already facing more than 450,000 cases backlogged for years, the immigration justice system may lose many of those language assets. BuzzFeed News is reporting that “… interpreters across the country are refusing to sign on to a new contract to service U.S. immigration courts, citing what they call unacceptably low pay and poor working conditions.

The background in the report: “Immigration courts are part of the executive branch and administered by the Department of Justice. DoJ uses a combination of 67 staff and 1,650 freelance interpreters to ensure that immigrants facing deportation understand the proceedings against them. In July, the Justice Department switched contractors, awarding a new contract for more than $12 million annually to SOSi, according to a database of federal contracts. The contract can be extended five years for a total of about $58 million.

“The contract was initially slated to kick in on September 21, according to DOJ. However, emails to the interpreters from from Lionbridge, the company that currently holds the contract, state that the switch had been deferred to November. Interpreters around the country refused to agree to SOSi’s terms under the new contract because of low pay and ungenerous travel reimbursement and cancellation policies, according to several interpreters interviewed by BuzzFeed News. Because the interpreters are organizing informally, the precise number refusing to sign on is unclear. However, two interpreters in different regions told BuzzFeed News they were each in direct contact with more than 100 interpreters who had refused. On any given day, there are about 300 contract interpreters working for the immigration courts, according to a spokesperson for the courts. That means that about a third of interpreters could be unavailable once the new contract kicks in.”

Read the in-depth story here: Immigration Courts Could Lose A Third Of Their Interpreters

Filed Under: Border Kids, Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: Border Kids, family detention centers, immigration

CNN Notes FBI Director Blaming ‘Ferguson Effect’ For Crime Increase

October 26, 2015 By CCM Staff

Has a “chilling effect” on police activity, sparked by increased scrutiny by cellphone cameras and media attention in the wake of Ferguson, Mo. controversy, caused an uptick in crime? That’s a theory apparently getting traction with FBI Director James Comey, who CNN reports “… has thrown his weight behind the idea that restraint by cops in the wake of criticism is at least partly to blame for a surge in violent crime in some cities.”

The important CNN report outlines that violent crime is actually at historic lows but certainly has increased when compared year-to-year in some cities. The report also notes that the increase comes just as various political factions seem to agree that reduced criminalization and incarceration rates should be a civic goal.

Read the report here: http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/26/politics/fbi-comey-crime-police/

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: Black Lives Matter, chilling effect, crime, crime spike, crime spree, FBI, Ferguson, First Amendment, Police, police brutality, police scrutiny

Big Asbestos-Related Trial Set For Nov. 2

October 22, 2015 By CCM Staff

The federal corruption trial of a former New York State Assembly Speaker is set to begin Nov. 2 with authorities saying that the eventual jury might see up to 1,500 exhibits. The case has asbestos litigation ties because the defendant, Sheldon Silver, is accused of funneling state government money to a particular mesothelioma clinic that then sent cancer victims to his law firm.

Prosecutors say Silver made millions off the scheme.

The Wall Street Journal reported that, “… during the [pre-trial] conference in Manhattan federal court, prosecutors from the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office also said they planned to call as a witness Robert Taub, who headed a Columbia University center for mesothelioma research.”

Read an overview of the case here: Sheldon Silver Trial Set to Begin Nov. 2

Filed Under: Cases, Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: asbestos, litigation, mesothelioma, New York Assembly, New York Speaker, political corruption, Sheldon Silver

NY Times Opinion Piece Makes ‘Civil Gideon’ Argument

October 19, 2015 By CCM Staff

Image published as part of a New York Times OpEd, “How to Fight Homelessness” published 10/19.

A New York Times op-ed piece by a NY City Council member and a homeless advocate is making the case for legal representation for some civil cases. It is an argument about reducing the homeless population. They note that something like 80 percent of people facing eviction remain in their home if they have an attorney. They say that the advantage of legal representation is such that some landlords just don’t bother following through if the tenant has an attorney.

Council Member Mark D. Levine, representing the city’s Seventh District and Mary Brosnahan, who is president and chief executive of the Coalition for the Homeless, continue making a financial argument: “It costs about $2,500 to provide a tenant with an attorney for an eviction proceeding, while we spend on average over $45,000 to shelter a homeless family.”

Read their argument here: How to Fight Homelessness

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget, National Tagged With: access to justice, Civil gideon, civil law, eviction, homelessness, landlord tenant law, tenant

Google Wins Appeal Decision On Scanning Copyrighted Books

October 16, 2015 By CCM Staff

Google has won an appeals decision on its controversial book-scanning practice. New York based U.S. Circuit Court Judge Denny Chin ruled that the practice is “transformative” and does not violate copyright. The Google case hinges on not making the books totally available online. Rather, it allows the material to be searched and provides “snippets.” Thus, the argument goes, the practice is protected by the same “fair use” provisions that allow a book reviewer to use snippets in their reports.

NPR’s report on the decision notes that “… Google began scanning books back in 2004. Many of the works were by living authors. The Authors Guild took legal action against Google, demanding $750 for each book it scanned. Google estimated that it would have cost the company $3 billion.” Google also predicts the service could make older and out-of-print books more relevant.

An appeal to the U.S. Supreme court is promised by the authors and others seeking to protect their work. They argue that, because Google sells ads next to those “snippets” of books, it profits from their work without compensating the copyright holders. See the NPR report here: Judge: Google’s Book Copying Doesn’t Violate Copyright Law

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget, National Tagged With: copyright, Google, NPR, US Circuit Court

Texas To Rule On Civil Fees Issue

October 13, 2015 By CCM Staff

The Texas Supreme Court is expected to hear a case this week that might clarify when local courts can force poor plaintiffs to pay fees. The Texas Tribune news website explains that”… in 2012, six plaintiffs from Tarrant County sued the local district court clerk for charging them court fees even after they filed affidavits of their indigent status — also known as ‘pauper petitions’ — when they filed for divorce. But the clerk says final divorce decrees require that each party pay its share of the court costs.”

The Tribune report also placed the issue in some context: “… court costs and fines surfaced as one of the more pressing criminal justice issues in the aftermath of the police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. While a grand jury cleared the officer, Darren Wilson, of criminal wrongdoing, a subsequent U.S. Department of Justice report revealed how the police department in Ferguson wrote more tickets for mostly poor African Americans than any other ethnic group. Following the shooting of Brown, federal investigators found that Ferguson relied on municipal ticketing and fines as a revenue generator for the city’s budget.”

Read the Tribune’s fine report here: Indigent Court Fee Case Goes Before Supreme Court, by Terri Langford

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget, National Tagged With: access to justice, Civil gideon, court budget, court costs, court fees, Ferguson, indigent legal services, Michael Brown, minority rights, municipal fees, Texas Supreme Court

Florida Is Facing Its Civil Justice Challenges

October 7, 2015 By CCM Staff

Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Jorge Labarga (Photo: floridasupremecourt.org)

When Florida Chief Justice Jorge Labarga organized a statewide commission to study civil justice access issues, it was suspected that one benefit might be to at least create conversation around the issue. While other progress might be slow in coming, you can at least point to ongoing discussion as a success. A case in point is a recent Gainesville Sun newspaper editorial getting picked up around the state.

The piece notes that when “… someone faces a legal problem with a landlord, a family law issue or other civil disputes, finding and affording the right lawyer can be a challenge. The World Justice Project ranked the United States 65th out of 99 countries in accessibility and affordability of civil justice… the problem is particularly bad in Florida. An estimated 60 percent of residents can’t afford an attorney to address their legal need, but don’t qualify for legal aid, according to officials with The Florida Bar.”

The editorial addresses the idea of matching young lawyers with clients via technology and reports on a bar association push-back on using a dues increase to fund improvements. Clearly, it continues the civil justice conversation that other states should be having. Read more here.

Filed Under: Community Tagged With: Chief Justice Jorge Labarga, civil court, civil justice, florida supreme court, rationing justice, World Justice Project

Huffington Post Documents How Bad Civil Courts Rationing Is

October 1, 2015 By CCM Staff

Rationing justice, civil and criminal, begins with overburdened courts. And Huffington Post just released well-researched report on just how bad it’s become on a federal level, with more than 60 judgeships going unfilled and pleas for more help being ignored by the U.S. Congress. In some cases, judges are handling hundreds more cases than “normal” while pushing cases further and further away, threatening anyone’s hopes of achieving justice.

The report explains: “The Huffington Post talked to half a dozen federal judges about how court vacancies and the lack of new judgeships affect their workloads. All of them said they feel like they’re underwater and desperately need more judges, but at the same time, they aren’t comfortable calling out Congress for failing to do its job. Many didn’t feel it appropriate for a judge to weigh in on legislative or political matters. So their situations don’t change.”

It includes: “For the most part, we’ve just resigned ourselves that this is our fate and there’s nothing we can do about it,” said Judge Morrison England Jr., the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, which includes O’Neill’s Fresno division. “We’ve complained. We’ve begged. We’ve cajoled. We’ve done everything you can humanly do to try to get additional judgeships.” Yahoo adds that the Fresno division is among the hardest hit in the country, and even getting the allotted judges would not meet caseload demand.

Brace yourself and read the story.

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget, National Tagged With: Article III Judges, Federal Judges, Judicial Nominations, Judicial Vacancies, Must Reads, Obama Judges, Obama Judicial Nominations, Senate Confirmations, Senate Judicial Nominations, Senate Nominations

Charter Schools Efforts Play Out In Courts

September 29, 2015 By CCM Staff

Dan Walters, the Sacramento Bee columnist who is picked up by other papers statewide, has noted the ongoing school reform battles that usually end up in civil court. In the context of state officials handing off to local jurisdictions, he noted that they “… haven’t succeeded in persuading judges that they can wash their hands of responsibility, most recently in a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of high-risk students, alleging that they hadn’t received the attention state and federal law require.”

“A state cannot abdicate its supervisory responsibilities by ignoring credible evidence of persistent or significant district noncompliance,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant declared in a recent 45-page decision. “If districts fail to provide services and the state has notice of this failure, the state has a duty … to take reasonable action.”

Faced with that, writes Walters, state officials backed down and agreed to monitor what districts are doing for high-risk kids. The writer does not make this point, but the column offers an example of how much civil courts have become policy-setting bodies. Read the story here.

Filed Under: Cases, Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: California politics, charter schools, Civil Courts, Los Angeles, school reform

As Government Delays, Civil Lawsuits Set Pot Policies

September 28, 2015 By CCM Staff

As California considers a sweeping regulatory changes in how it handles marijuana use, the civil courts continue to define how laws will actually be applied. A good recent example, covered by NBC in San Diego, involves a “… couple whose home was raided by agents with guns drawn” who has filed a lawsuit against San Diego law enforcement, alleging their rights as medical marijuana patients were violated.

The report points out that “… the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court is the latest example of the ongoing debate over the rights of medical marijuana patients in California – how their treatment is regulated and how, according to their attorney, these type of cases are perceived by law enforcement.” This particular couple had previously arrested and put on trial for marijuana infractions, but found innocent.

Filed Under: Cannabis in the Courts, Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: California, Civil Courts, court, marijuana, medical marijuana, pot