MINUTES Access to Justice Board

June 7, 2002
Access to Justice Conference
Yakima, Washington

Present: ATJ Board members Chair Michele Jones, Judge Greg Tripp, Christine Crowell, Pam Feinstein, Dwight Williams, Scott Smith, Pete Dewell; ATJ Board committee chairs and members Judge Paul Bastine, Pat McIntyre, Jim Bamberger, Donald Horowitz, Val Carlson, Judge Marlin Appelwick, Lonnie Davis, Dan Ford, Ada Shen-Jaffe; Liaisons Jan Grant (Office of Administrative Hearings); Staff Joan Fairbanks and Pam Inglesby.

Minutes from May 16-17, 2002 Retreat

The Minutes were approved as written

“Ask Me” buttons

ATJ Board members found buttons at their places with “Ask Me” superimposed on a purple cow when they arrived for the meeting. Michele Jones asked people to wear them and explained they were a “teaser” to encourage conference attendees to attend the Saturday workshop on Sharing the Equal Justice Message. This workshop is a first step to obtaining buy-in for the development of a statewide communications plan under the auspices of the ATJ Board’s Communications Committee.

Discussion of proposed 2002-03 Goals developed at the May 16-17, 2002 ATJ Board retreat

The goals (attached) were adopted with a number of changes.

ATJ Board Leadership Succession

ATJ Board member Christine Crowell stepped forward to volunteer to serve as ATJ Board Chair-Elect. All ATJ Board members enthusiastically endorsed her decision.

Civil Legal Needs Study: A Call for Volunteers

Nicolaas Groeneveld-Meijer, Legal Needs Study Coordinator, provided an update on the status of the study and, in particular, his efforts to identify cluster group members that are the subjects of the study and recruit and train volunteers to administer the study. The target date for completion of the data collection is September 1. He distributed a request for participation which details the volunteer tasks and which is being widely distributed at the conference. Interested volunteers should contact him directly (meijer7@attbi.com).

ATJ Board Family Law Committee: Status Report and Recommendations

Chair Judge Paul Bastine provided an overview of the history to date of the efforts of the ATJ Board to address access issues in family law. The Family Law Task Force (now a permanent ATJ Board Family Law Committee) produced a Report and Recommendations, whose implementation is being overseen by the Committee. He described the work of the Committee as one of facilitator between the ATJ Board and the family law community – the Committee brings groups together with similar goals and attempts to reach consensus on approaches to common issues. The ATJ Board should view the Committee as a resource for family law issues. Judge Bastine asked the ATJ Board for input on its activities and for suggestions for members. The Committee meets the second Friday of each month at noon by conference call.

Columbia Legal Services Board Appointment

The ATJ Board voted to appoint Linda Strout, who was nominated by the King County Bar Association, to the Columbia Legal Services Board of Directors.

Who is a “member” of the ATJ Network?

The ATJ Board had a lengthy discussion at its May 2002 retreat regarding this topic and concluded that it should appoint a small committee to explore it further. Suggestions included Debi Perluss, a former ATJ Board member, and representation from the EJC and the Legal Foundation of Washington. Since there are parallel issues to what is being addressed by the ATJ Board’s Communications Committee, Michele Jones agreed to bring this issue to the attention of that Committee prior to appointing an additional committee to address this question.

ATJ-TBOR Annual Report

Chair Donald Horowitz provided the ATJ Board with an overview and status report of the Access to Justice Technology Bill of Rights Project. He distributed ATJ-TBOR’s first Annual Report and encouraged the ATJ Board members to visit the new ATJ-TBOR web site that features an on-line newsletter. He reported that the project is proceeding extremely well and on schedule, and that there are a large number of very active members who are donating a great deal of time to the effort. ATJ-TBOR is collaborating closely with the civil legal needs study through its focus groups and because it has contracted with Michael Dale -- already under contract with AOC to provide assistance with the state legal needs study – to conduct the focus groups. He anticipates the project will run through December 2003. He will be calling on the ATJ Board for assistance as the project gets closer to actual implementation.

ATJ Board Annual Report to the Board of Governors

The ATJ Board concluded its meeting early so as to make its annual presentation to the WSBA Board of Governors.

*ACTION ITEMS*

Principles & Goals: (deadline: asap) Staff will circulate to ATJ Board suggested list of ATJ Board Network members to whom the draft will be sent for comment.

WACLSP Plan: Please contact Pam Feinstein with comments

(deadline 9-13-02)

ATJ Web Site: Please visit web site (www.waaccesstojustice.org) and contact Rebecca Elder with your comments/suggestions

Family Law Committee: Please contact Judge Paul Bastine with suggestions on committee scope and function and with the names of potential members.

ATJ Network “Membership”: (deadline: asap) The ATJ Board will appoint a committee to study this issue after input from the ATJ Board Communications Committee.

Respectfully submitted,

Joan E. Fairbanks
Justice Programs Manager