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March 2002 ATJ Board ReportMarch 1, 2002 Chief Justice Gerry L. Alexander Dale L. Carlisle, President RE: Annual Report of the Access to Justice Board Dear Chief Justice Alexander and President Carlisle: On May 18, 1994, the Supreme Court entered an Order establishing the Access to Justice (ATJ) Board for an initial evaluation period of two years. The formal work of the ATJ Board began in November 1994. On November 21, 1996, the Court, on the recommendation of the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Board of Governors (BOG), reauthorized the ATJ Board for an additional five years, having found that it had successfully completed its initial evaluation period. On November 2, 2000, the Court, on the recommendation of the BOG, entered an Order reauthorizing the ATJ Board for an indefinite period of time. This attached Report and attached Exhibits constitute the second annual report under the new Order and document the ATJ Board’s activities since the last formal Report to the Court and the BOG on February 28, 2001. The publication of this annual Report will coincide with the ATJ Board’s annual March meeting with the Supreme Court. In the ATJ Board’s 2001 Report to this Court and WSBA, then Chair Judge Chip Small wrote: “Despite the progress that has been made in leveraging the limited resources that are available to assist the low and moderate income persons in our state with their legal needs, we are acutely aware of how limited those resources are and how fragile they are. The ATJ Board, along with the leadership of this Court, WSBA and many others, must make it our number one priority to seek expanded and stable funding for our civil legal services provider network.” One year later this prophecy has become reality as we fight in the state legislature for the very survival of our delivery network and for the promise of equal access to justice for all. The leadership of the Supreme Court and the Washington State Bar Association during these difficult times has been nothing short of inspirational. The commitment of the Supreme Court to establishing the Civil Equal Justice Funding Task Force and the Thank you for your support of the ATJ Board and its important work. It is a privilege to work with each and every one of you on the quest for equal justice. Very truly yours,
Michele E. Jones, Chair enclosures Cc: Justice Bobbe Bridge
Contents I. ATJ Board Structure II. ATJ Board Initiatives III. Task Force on Civil Equal Justice Funding IV. Next Steps
I. ATJ BOARD STRUCTURE F. Staff: The Access to Justice Programs at WSBA (ATJ Board, PBLAC, the Emeritus Program and state support functions, Council on Public Legal Education) fall under the umbrella of Justice Programs at the Washington State Bar Association. Justice Programs staff include: Joan Fairbanks, Justice Programs Manager; Sharlene Steele, Access to Justice Programs Liaison; Rebecca Elder, Justice Programs Technology Specialist; James Kim, ATJ Technology Bill of Rights Coordinator; Pam Inglesby, Public Legal Education Manager; and Leslie Johnson, Justice Programs Coordinator. A. Overview: 1. Goals for 2001-02: At its annual retreat on May 10-1, 2001, the ATJ Board reviewed a detailed analysis of the progress on the implementation of the Board’s 2002-01 priorities. Based on this analysis, it adopted a new set of goals for 2001-02 (see Next Steps, below) • In recognition of the close connection between the goals of the ATJ Board’s technology initiatives and those of the Judicial Information System Committee, JIS Chair Justice Bobbe Bridge asked the ATJ Board to appoint a liaison to the JIS Committee. ATJ Board member Dwight Williams and ATJ Technology Bill of Rights Chair Donald Horowitz will share that responsibility. • The WSBA Legal Services to the Armed Forces Committee sought the ATJ Board’s endorsement of a proposed amendment to Admission to Practice Rule 8 to provide a limited license to practice law for lawyers from other jurisdictions serving as Judge Advocates General in Washington. • The ATJ Board works to enhance collaboration and communication with the Board of Governors and WSBA bar leaders in the following ways: (1) annual ATJ Board presentations to the BOG; (2) presentations at the semi-annual WSBA section and committee chair meetings; (3) annual orientation of the new members of the Board of Governors; (4) annual briefing of WSBA presidential candidates; and (4) ATJ Board liaison participation at all BOG meetings. • The ATJ Board works to enhance collaboration and communication with the Judiciary in the following ways: (1) annual meeting with the Supreme Court; (2) active recruitment of judges from all levels of state courts and administrative law judges for participation in all ATJ Board committees; (3) establishment of formal liaisons to the ATJ Board from the Superior Court Judges Association (Judge Glenna Hall), the District and Municipal Court Judges Association (Judge Janet Garrow) and the Office of Administrative Hearings (Jan Grant); and (4) Judge Greg Tripp serves as ATJ Board liaison to the Board for Judicial Administration. • The ATJ Board continues to participate in opportunities to publicize the ATJ Network’s initiatives. Of note are the following: (1) Washington Journal reporter Laura Cutland researched and wrote an eight-part series on access to justice over the course of nine months (Tab 5). (2) With the assistance of the Washington State Bar Association, King5 TV in Seattle has developed a program called “Legally Speaking” which airs every Thursday evening at 6:30 p.m. and during the week on Northwest Cable News. ATJ Board Chair Michele Jones and other members of the ATJ Network have participated in segments that highlight the civil legal needs of low-income people in Washington State. (3) The ATJ Board participated in a press conference on August 22, 2001 to announce Legal Services Technology Assistance Grants to the Northwest Justice Project. Senator Maria Cantwell, Immediate Past WSBA President Jan Eric Peterson, ATJ Board Chair Michele Jones and Northwest Justice Project Director Pat McIntyre were featured speakers. • Non-judicial members of the ATJ Board participate in the Seattle University Law School Access to Justice Institute Civil Gideon Work Group, which is explored a litigation-based approach to establishing a civil right to counsel. • The ATJ Board has been invited to participate as a stakeholder in the Washington Juvenile Justice Assessment Project. • Chief Justice Gerry Alexander invited the ATJ Board to submit a training proposal for the Fall 2002 Judicial Conference. • The ATJ Board continues to reach beyond the “usual suspects” to involve new people on the ATJ Board committees and as liaisons at the ATJ Board meetings. • The ATJ Board adopted a Resolution regarding the events of September 11, and has posted it on its web site (Tab 6).
3. National Participation: At the national level, the ATJ Board and many of its initiatives continue to be showcased as models. • The ATJ Board’s new ATJ Technology Bill of Rights project received substantial financial support from the Legal Services Corporation and two national foundations, the Open Society Institute and the Markle Foundation, in recognition of the ATJ Board’s ability to develop successful new initiatives that can be replicated in other states and on a national level • The ATJ Board’s Open Society Institute-funded handbook: Equal Justice . . . The Noblest Common Denominator: A Road Map for Building an Equal Justice Community, published one year ago, has been widely distributed throughout the country. The handbook is being used by many states in a variety of ways to build and enhance their own state and local equal justice communities. • Texas launched a new Access to Justice Commission, patterned in large part on the Washington State ATJ Board. Two ATJ Board alumni, Hon. Chip Small and Hon. Paul Bastine, and ATJ Manager Joan Fairbanks, were invited to participate in the training of the new Commission members in Austin in August 2001. • ATJ Board Chair Michele Jones and Civil Equal Justice Funding Task Force Chair Justice Charles Johnson have been invited to participate in the first ever meeting of the access to justice board/commission chairs throughout the country as part of the April 2002 American Bar Association/National Legal Aid and Defender Association Conference Equal Justice Conference. • The Legal Services Corporation has selected Washington as one of two states to be the beneficiary of a formal evaluation of its Revised State Plan by a paid consultant. • Members of Washington State’s Access to Justice Network were asked to serve as panelists at a number of national conferences (e.g., National Legal Aid and Defender Association Annual Conference; American Bar Association/National Legal Aid and Defender Association Annual Conference). • ATJ Network members continue to provide assistance to those in other states that request information about the ATJ Board and its initiatives.
• How an entity performs its duties in service to its constituents and members of the public at large; The draft guidelines are being finalized by a small committee of the ATJ Board in anticipation of a special full-day pre-ATJ Conference session on June 6, 2001 in Yakima to train the trainers on the promotion and use of the guidelines. Dr. Leticia Nieto, a frequent trainer on these issues at previous ATJ Conferences, will run the session, with the goal of training between 25-50 justice system leaders who will be able to assist entities with the successful application of the guidelines.
In mid-1998, the ATJ Board, through its State Plan Evaluation Committee, began a process to determine how well the State Plan was working and to consider which aspects, if any, should be rethought. After an extensive and inclusive process, documented in the April 1999 Report to this Court, the Board presented its draft Revised State Plan and recommendations to the participants at the June 25-27, 1999 Access to Justice Conference in Wenatchee. The ATJ Board adopted its final Revised Plan for the Delivery of Civil Legal Services to Low Income People in Washington State at its annual retreat on September 16, 1999. The following day the Revised State Plan was formally submitted to the Legal Services Corporation Board of Directors at its meeting in Seattle. The ATJ Board has developed a detailed plan for the implementation of the new and revised recommendations. The ATJ Board recently learned that the Legal Services Corporation has selected Washington as one of two states that will receive a formal evaluation of its state plan. The evaluation, expected to be completed by summer 2002, will assist the ATJ Board in identifying key areas of focus for the coming year, as well as provide the Board with an new and valuable perspective on the effectiveness both of the plan itself and its implementation to date. The ATJ Board will provide copies of the evaluation and its recommendations to both the Supreme Court and the WSBA Board of Governors. Following is the status of the implementation of key aspects of the Revised State Plan since the ATJ Board’s February 2001 Report: • Two statewide staffed legal services programs, Columbia Legal Services and the Northwest Justice Project have now been in operation for five years (Tab 8): • A key component of the Revised State Plan is to utilize, wherever possible, available and emerging technologies to establish intake and referral systems. This has been accomplished through NJP’s CLEAR Project (Coordinated Legal Education, Advice and Referral), that now serves as the primary point of access for low income clients to speak with an attorney or advocate in every county in the state, with limited assistance available in King County. NJP has developed a very extensive web site (www.nwjustice.org), featuring the Law Center that provides hundreds of legal education brochures for online reading and downloading. • Another key component of the Revised State Plan is to utilize existing and emerging technologies to provide expansive geographic coverage and maximize local legal services delivery capacity and presence outside of principal urban centers. This past year the Legal Services Corporation awarded the Northwest Justice Project three major technology grants aimed at improving access to justice for low-income Washingtonians who cannot afford legal representation. These grants represent the largest award given to any state in the country for technology in 2001 by LSC. Funded projects include: “WE-CAN” (Washington Expanded Client Access Network), a toll-free help line that allows pro bono attorneys and law students to volunteer their help without leaving the comfort of their homes or offices; an online resource center where pro se litigants can find the tools to help themselves in court; and online video conferencing software to train legal services providers via the Internet. LSC also awarded a small grant to support the Access to Justice Board’s Access to Justice Technology Bill of Rights Project (see Access to Justice Technology Bill of Rights Committee, below). The awards were announced by Senator Maria Cantwell at an August 22, 2001 news conference in Seattle hosted by the Legal Services Corporation. • The Revised State Plan significantly expands the recommendations for ongoing and prospective technology initiatives, many of which are being pursued currently by the ComTech Committee, the legal services providers, the Office of the Administrator for the Courts, and WSBA’s Pro Bono and Legal Aid Committee. Additionally, the Council on Public Legal Education is taking the lead in developing a “gateway” legal web site for Washington State. The concept is to build a web site that will assist people in self-identifying their needs (e.g., consumers looking for legal assistance, consumers looking for legal information, teachers looking for K-12 law-related curriculum, members of the media looking for expertise) and then link them to the appropriate existing resources (e.g., www.nwjustice.org). The ATJ Board’s ATJ-Technology Bill of Rights Project will utilize the developing web site as a “laboratory” for its initiatives and products. • The Revised State Plan recommends a significant role for the ATJ Board to coordinate statewide training, in partnership with CLS, and expand the reach of training beyond staff attorneys to volunteer attorneys and non-attorney advocates. Although the ATJ Board continues to lack staff to fully partner in this effort, ATJ staff have developed an extensive library of CLE-accredited videotapes from training events throughout the state and are making them available to legal services and volunteer attorney programs, as well as to their volunteer attorneys. ATJ Board staff also are responsible for implementing Washington State Board of Continued Legal Education Regulation 103(g), which awards CLE credits for handling pro bono cases. • The Revised State Plan provides that legal services-related entities that engage in fundraising activities do so cooperatively so as to maximize the total number of dollars raised and made available in the delivery system. The Revised State Plan establishes a resource investment protocol, to ensure that all major civil equal justice fundraisers strategically invest new resources, and allocate funding reductions, in accordance with the protocol. The ATJ Board’s Resource Development Committee, chaired by Greg Dallaire, has begun meeting to identify and address the myriad issues involved (see Resource Development Committee, below). Additionally, the Supreme Court established the Task Force on Civil Equal Justice Funding on November 1, 2001 to develop long-term state funding strategies (see Task Force on Civil Equal Justice Funding, below). • The Revised State Plan includes a significant new set of initiatives to encourage private attorney involvement, and formally acknowledges that volunteer attorney programs and volunteer attorneys can and must be full partners in the effort to meet the unmet civil legal needs of low income people in this state. The list of proposed initiatives includes the completion of the implementation of the Volunteer Attorney Legal Services Action Plan (VALS Action Plan), the establishment of targeted statewide volunteer attorney panels, and assistance from the Supreme Court in recruiting volunteer attorneys. WSBA’s Pro Bono and Legal Aid Committee (PBLAC) is taking primary responsibility for implementation of the VALS Action Plan, in cooperation with the ATJ Board. Current initiatives include: (1) surveying WSBA membership about market incentives for volunteering; (2) revisiting the adoption of ABA amendments to Rule 6.1 regarding pro bono service; (3) soliciting pro bono recruitment support from the state Supreme Court; (4) implementing a pilot project in Skamania County to connect Seattle-based corporate counsel with low income clients through videophone technology; (5) contacting professional associations of legal support professionals to encourage them to establish pro bono panels; and (6) proposing a state court rule to provide uniform standards for the application of in forma pauperis petitions. • The Revised State Plan includes a new section on access to the courts, self-help and preventive legal education to build on the initiatives of several ATJ Board committees (Education, Impediments, Courthouse Facilitator, ComTech, Law Related Services, Unbundled Legal Services), NJP’s CLEAR program and web site, and the new Council on Public Legal Education. The recommendations include new and expanded roles for courthouse facilitators, lay domestic violence advocates and other non-lawyers. See ATJ Board Committees, below, for current summaries of relevant initiatives.
1. Access to Justice Conference Planning Committee (permanent): (Colleen Kinerk, Chair) The sixth annual Access to Justice Conference was held jointly with the annual Bar Leaders Conference on June 8-10, 2001 in Wenatchee (Tab 10). The ATJ Conference included 10 sessions: Meeting the Funding Challenges for Civil Legal Services: Opportunities and Strategies; Bringing National Equal Justice Home: How to Deliver Your Story to Your Target Audience; Public Legal Education: Providing Justice Through Knowledge; Strategic Intervention for Anti-Oppression; Who Speaks for the Children; Opening the Courthouse Doors: Access to Justice for Persons with Disabilities; Technology Show & Tell; Paralegal, Legal Assistant and Nonlawyer Roles in the Future Access to Justice System; Emerging Issues in Domestic Violence Civil Representation; and Judicial Selection: Implications for Meaningful Access to the Justice System. The conference plenary session, Strategies for Improvement of the Judicial Selection Process, or "Hey That Name Sounds Familiar, moderated by TV Washington President Denny Heck, engaged a panel in a stimulating and provocative discussion regarding qualifications of judges and how they are selected. The Moderately Talented (Yet Plucky) Repertory Theatre of Justice, performed an original musical, “Alice in Access Land,” accompanied by Func Pro Tunc (Tab 11). Hon. T.W. “Chip” Small received the annual Judicial Leadership Award; the annual Civil Equal Justice Community Partnership Award was presented to Yakima Herald-Republic. The Conference honored Rosa Hernandez and Santiago Rodriguez, two valued ATJ Network members who died within the past year. A copy of the 2001 Access to Justice Conference Report is being provided with this Report. Plans are underway for the June 7-9, 2002 Access to Justice Conference in Yakima, “Access to Peace through Justice.” 2. Access to Justice Technology Bill of Rights Committee (ATJ-TBOR) (permanent): (Donald Horowitz, Chair) Mission: To create a body of enforceable fundamental principles to ensure that current and future technology both increases opportunities and eliminates barriers to access to and effective utilization of the justice system, thereby improving the quality of justice for all persons in Washington State. This initiative sprung from a concept developed in a WSBA Bar News article written by Jean Holcomb, found a home as a subcommittee of the ATJ Board’s ComTech Committee, and now has become a significant state and national project funded by $100,000 in public and private grants. Retired King County Superior Court Judge and Committee Chair Donald Horowitz has raised $25,000 from each of the following for the for the first year of the anticipated two-year project: Markle Foundation, Open Society Institute, Horowitz Foundation and Legal Services Corporation. WSBA administers the grants, which fund a full-time staff coordinator, James Kim. The goal of the project is to develop and implement an Access to Justice Technology Bill of Rights, which will ensure that technology is not a barrier to the effective utilization of the justice system (Tab 12). The methodology is to take full advantage of the availability of legal, technological and other expertise in the state and nationally, and to involve a wide range of individuals, groups and institutions in a thorough, thoughtful and highly inclusive and credible process. Over 70 people currently participate in the project, many serving on one of its Phase I committees: Steering Committee; Outreach and Information Gathering; Opportunities, Barriers and Technology; Judiciary and Court Administration; Jurisprudence and History; Senior Advisory Committee. ATJ-TBOR was formally launched on May 19, 2001, as part of a SU Access to Justice Institute Symposium on the concept. Since its inception, ATJ-TBOR has sponsored three significant events: an ATJ-TBOR All-Committee meeting on September 21, 2001; and November 16, 2001 and January 25, 2002 Steering Committee meetings. ATJ-TBOR has its own extensive web site, www.atjtechbillofrights.org (Tab 13).
Mission: coordinate, implement and oversee statewide access to justice-related technology initiatives. The Access to Justice Board and the Access to Justice Network have made technology a high priority in response to the Washington State Equal Justice Communications and Technology Vision, the Revised State Plan, and the Access to Justice Conference Recommendations. ComTech is one of two ATJ Board committees with full-time staff support. Joyce Raby, the first person to serve in this position, was hired by the Legal Services Corporation in April 2001. Due to fiscal constraints, the position was not refilled until September 2001, when WSBA hired Rebecca Elder. During its initial few years, ComTech focused primarily on ensuring that every program within the civil legal services provider network had adequate hardware and software, Internet access and case management training. Having successfully completed that task, ComTech is now exploring and defining the role it can play in promoting the expanded utilization of technology to improve services to low income clients. This strategic planning process will be completed in April 2002. The following major technology initiatives currently are underway in Washington State, either coordinated by ComTech or with significant participation by ComTech members: Statewide Technology Upgrade: Since completing the task of securing hardware, software and Internet access for every program in the legal services provider network, the committee has been working to develop a software standard with a common data definition statewide. The goal is to be able to track and maintain every client record in the same way, thereby facilitating the compilation and analysis of statewide statistical information gathered from every program. This data definition standard is essential because the two statewide staffed legal services providers found it necessary to abandon Kemps Caseworks (used statewide) to develop a separate case management system (CASS) that could better accommodate their unique reporting requirements. ComTech is working working on a case management software upgrade for the volunteer attorney and specialty provider programs. Online Interactive Forms Project: This project enables pro se litigants to create their own documents online to obtain domestic violence protection orders. This “document assembly” software prompts the pro se litigant with a series of questions that, when answered, result in the production of pleadings which meet the mandatory form requirements, and which can be filed immediately. The Administrative Office of the Courts developed the software in partnership with the ATJ Board’s ComTech Committee and the state’s domestic violence community. The project has been pilot-tested in King and Chelan Counties; domestic violence advocates from all parts of the state have been trained in its use; and ComTech currently is considering how to promote and evaluate the project, and how to approach the next steps in its implementation. Access to Justice Technology Bill of Rights (ATJ-TBoR): ComTech collaborates with the ATJ Board’s Access to Justice Technology Bill of Rights Committee, which is studying how to use existing and emerging technologies to improve access to the justice system, and also how to prevent those technologies from becoming additional justice system barriers. Probono.net/Lawhelp web site: ComTech will assist the Northwest Justice Project with the development of a hosted password-protected web site that will provide information for legal advocates. Gateway Web Site: ComTech collaborates with the Council on Public Legal Education which, in cooperation with the larger Access to Justice community, is developing a "gateway” web site for Washington State that will provide the public with a comprehensive and comprehensible guide to law and government resources. The web site will direct visitors to the best existing law-related web sites, explain how they can find an affordable attorney, provide up-to-date information and commentary on current issues in law and government, and include special resources for teachers, journalists, community leaders and others who educate the public. Corporate Counsel Partnership for Justice: ComTech collaborates with WSBA’s Pro Bono and Legal Aid Committee on a pilot project that will link corporate legal departments with low-income individuals in rural communities in need of legal services. The goal is to enable and encourage volunteers in attorney-rich Seattle to represent low-income clients in rural parts of the state where there are few attorneys. CLEAR (Coordinated Legal Education, Advice and Referral), operated by the Northwest Justice Project, has begun to refer eligible clients to local social services organizations who will in turn link those clients with pro bono corporate counsel. Proposed Integrated Telephone and Internet Portal Project: During the past several years, the ATJ Board has been looking at effective ways to utilize new and existing technologies and networks to increase access to legal advice and assistance for moderate income people. LAW Fund has provided seed money to explore the feasibility of establishing a not-for-profit corporation to provide fees for discrete services over the Internet for moderate income people, with proceeds going to support the civil legal services delivery network. Currently the feasibility study and business plan are being reviewed by counsel.
Mission: Develop a courthouse facilitator rule for adoption by the Supreme Court. The ATJ Board adopted and submitted proposed GR 27, Family Law Courthouse Facilitators, to the Supreme Court on October 15, 2001 (Tab 14). The rule also was adopted formally by the Board for Judicial Administration and the WSBA Board of Governors.
Mission: Plan the content for the Access to Justice Department in the WSBA Bar News and to look for additional publication opportunities. The work of the subcommittee is temporarily on hold pending the appointment of a chair and the availability of staff and other resources.
Mission: To coordinate and support access to justice related educational efforts around the state, in coordination with the Council on Public Legal Education. At its planning session in April 2001, the Education Committee defined its current focus as the selection and education of judges, and education of those working in the courts and administrative systems about access to justice. These goals fall into the following categories. Judicial Selection 7. Equal Justice Coalition (EJC) (permanent): (Wayne Blair, Chair; Michele Radosevich, Vice Chair) Mission: Educate elected officials and the public about the importance of legal services to our community and to advocate for continued and increased support for civil legal services in Washington State. The Equal Justice Coalition is a model public-private partnership working to provide critically needed civil legal assistance to low-income residents of Washington State. A broad-based, bipartisan coalition of nearly 100 community leaders and 50 organizations across the state, EJC was formed in 1994 to educate legislators and the public about the importance of legal services. The Legal Foundation of Washington provides staff and support for the EJC. The recent focus of the EJC has been to work in concert with WSBA to develop a strategy for the 2001 state legislative session. Given this year’s extraordinary state budget crisis and nearly $2 billion budget deficit, the EJC had settled on a strategy to seek continued legislative support at current levels. On February 14, 2002, the Governors announced the state would be terminating its contract with Columbia Legal Services for $2.4 million in TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) funds, which is 50% of the total state funds for civil equal justice. As this Report goes to press, the Equal Justice Coalition, the Washington State Bar Association, and a highly mobilized statewide EJC Network are contacting elected representatives to encourage the state legislature to restore the $2.4 million. The loss of $2.4 will translate into closed offices and will drastically reduce the availability of legal services to low-income clients. The EJC also supports efforts to continue federal Legal Services Corporation funding at adequate levels. Since 1996 the EJC has sent a high level team to Washington, D.C. to meet with Washington State’s congressional delegation. Those participating in this year’s May visit were: immediate past WSBA President Jan Eric Peterson, EJC Chair Wayne Blair, WSBA President Dale Carlisle, BOG member Bill Hyslop, immediate past Legal Foundation of Washington president Judge Cindy Imbrogno, Wenatchee orchardist Jan Mathison, Microsoft Corporation Senior Coroorate Attorney Eric Koenig, and Northwest Justice Project Board Member Chris Pazen and Executive Director Pat McIntyre. Since the ATJ Board’s February 28, 2001 Report, the EJC has published two issues of its newsletter, Justice at Work (Tab 15), which is mailed to more than 3,500 supporters. The EJC annually revises its JAWS (Justice at Work) binder (Tab 16), a publication designed to educate elected officials and others about the civil equal justice crisis in Washington State, and which has been provided to each member of the Supreme Court and the Board of Governors.
The ATJ Board has concluded that the current systems for providing family law legal services, assistance and information in Washington State are inadequate to ensure meaningful access to the justice system for many low and moderate-income clients, including those proceeding pro se. The ATJ Board appointed a Family Law Access to Justice Task Force in early 2000 to recommend improvements. That Report and nine recommendations were circulated widely for comment, including a presentation at the June 2001 Access to Justice Conference, and were adopted by the ATJ Board on June 8, 2001 (Tab 17). The AT Board has established a permanent Family Law Committee to oversee their implementation.
Mission: Establish a structure to support viable moderate means panels in Washington State. A joint committee of the ATJ Board and the Washington Young Lawyers Division (YLD), the project has the support of the WSBA BOG in the form of funding for staff support. Formerly the ATJ Board Telephone Access Committee, the committee’s focus has shifted from establishing a for-profit legal advice and referral hotline for moderate income people to establishing moderate means panels of attorneys throughout the state. During the past year the committee has supported the development of a pilot project in Spokane County under the direction of the Spokane County Young Lawyers and housed at the Spokane County Bar Association. The committee developed guidelines (Tab 18) and a model reduced fee retainer agreement (Tab 19). The Spokane pilot officially kicked off in January 2002 with a panel of more than 80 Spokane-area attorneys willing to represent clients on a reduced fee basis. To date nearly 20 have been provided services at an average of $50.00 per hour. Members of the Spokane Young Lawyers make the referrals to attorneys of clients who are screened for financial eligibility by CLEAR (Coordinated Legal Education, Advice and Referral), run by the Northwest Justice Project. The goal is to replicate this model statewide. Despite this shift in focus, the ATJ Board and the greater Access to Justice Network are exploring the possibility of establishing a not-for-profit legal information, advice and referral hotline, which would provide a referral interface for the GAAP project, and income from which would support the civil equal justice network. LAW Fund has provided seed money for a statewide feasibility study and business plan to determine how a not-for-profit hotline could be run in Washington State, whether it would generate adequate revenues to make it worth doing, and whether it is realistic given the goals of this community. The feasibility study and business plan currently are being reviewed by counsel. 10. Impediments to Access to Justice Committee (permanent) (Hon. Anne Ellington and Howard Graham, Co- Chair) Mission: Identify and remove impediments to the justice system, including physical and language barriers, ineffectual and unworkable rules and procedures, disparate treatment and other obstacles that may serve as barriers to equal justice. The Committee is pursuing the following goals: Defining the Scope of the Committee’s Work: Given the breadth of the charge of this committee, it is necessary to define an overarching framework and goals to which the justice community can be held accountable. The following strategies are being pursued by the Impediments Committee and others in the Access to Justice Network toward this end: - inventory and possess all impediments/barriers/diversity/inclusion efforts which implicate equal justice Administrative Report Recommendations: Committee members are overseeing the completion of the recommendations in the May 1997 Report of the Systems Impediments Committee to the Access to Justice Board, which focused largely on the administrative hearings process. Identification of Administrative Procedural Barriers: The committee is continuing its analysis of current administrative procedures from an access to justice perspective to determine whether changes are appropriate. Responses from its initial questionnaire, Impediments in the Administrative Process of Public Programs that Appear to Deprive Low and Moderate Income Persons of Meaningful Access to Justice, were minimal. The committee has re-worked and simplified the language in the questionnaire, and is redistributing it to advocates.
Mission: Enhance understanding of the jurisprudential foundations of access to justice. Its initiatives are broad-based, and include publishing significant law review and other articles; assisting the courts in identifying significant access to justice issues; convening forums to discuss these issues; and providing assistance to ATJ Board committees and other groups in identifying constitutional bases for their proposals/activities. The Jurisprudence Committee coordinates a workshop at the annual Access to Justice Conference. The June 2001 workshop, Judicial Selection: Implications for Meaningful Access to the Justice System, engaged a panel in addressing critical questions regarding state and federal judicial selection: What about the role of money power? Is popular democracy (voting) and/or representative democracy (politics) a critical criteria? What are the pros and cons of executive appointment of judges with or without bar screening and recommendation? Mission: Assist the Supreme Court and WSBA in determining under what circumstances non lawyers could be authorized to provide legal and law-related services. Members of this committee served on the WSBA BOG’s Committee to Define the Practice of Law and were instrumental in the development of GR 25, a proposed rule to establish a Practice of Law Board, which was approved by the Supreme Court on September 1, 2001. The current focus of this committee is to assist the WSBA Practice of Law Board Implementation Committee in identifying appropriate candidates to serve on the new Board, whose purposes are to: • promote expanded access to affordable and reliable legal and law-related services This committee was in part responsible for a strong turnout at the December 17, 2001 public hearing before the Implementation Committee to solicit views on the composition and process for nominations to the Practice of Law Board. Subsequently this committee spent considerable time and effort identifying and encouraging key individuals to apply. Final recommendations will be made to the Supreme Court by the Board of Governors in April 2002. Co-Chair Scott Smith serves on the Implementation Committee as an ATJ Board representative.
Mission: Develop and implement a coordinated plan to invigorate, empower and educate the media and the public about issues pertaining to the law, the justice system, and the need for legal services. Given the similar and over-lapping media-related goals of the ATJ Board and the PLE Council, the two groups agreed a joint committee was appropriate for the following reasons: improving the quality, accuracy and frequency of media coverage with regard to the law, the justice system and the need for legal services; educating the media about the justice system, the legal “experts” and issues of access/legal services; educating the public vis-à-vis the media about the law, the justice system and issues of access/legal services; and coordinating communications within and between the ATJ and PLE networks. Current projects include: • Creating a Media Resource Guide that will offer journalists a directory of expert sources on specific legal topics as well as general information about the legal system. • Planning "Law School for Media" professional development workshops • Developing background materials on specific law and government-related topics that can be distributed to the media
Mission: Implement the resource development protocol in the Revised State Plan and serve as a resource/facilitator regarding funding issues and initiatives. The Revised State Plan makes reference to the fact that “…natural tensions arise in the resource development area that could undermine [the civil equal justice community’s] success in a wide range of private and public fundraising efforts…opportunities must be found to promote complementary rather than competitive initiatives, and to ensure that, in the end, the system generates more resources in the aggregate than it would if programs continued to operate independently.” The Resource Development Committee is charged with the responsibility of serving as the vehicle for Washington State’s Civil Equal Justice Network to: • address resource development, fundraising coordination and capacity building issues; The Committee has developed a Proposed Definition of the Committee’s Work (Tab 20).
Mission: Develop a rule on unbundled legal services for adoption by the Supreme Court. The ATJ Board adopted, and filed proposed rules with the Supreme Court on January 15, 2002 (Tab 21). These rules were endorsed by the Washington State Bar Association, the Superior Court Judges Association and the District/Municipal Court Judges Association.
A. Background: During the March 2001 joint meeting of the Washington State Supreme Court and the ATJ Board, the Board initially proposed to the Court the need for Supreme Court leadership on developing a long-term solution to the civil equal justice funding “crisis,” as described by the Washington State Bar Association Board of Governors. As a result of those discussions, and by Order dated November 1, 2001, the Supreme Court unanimously approved the establishment of a 19-member Civil Equal Justice Funding Task Force (Tab 22), chaired by Justice Charles Johnson. The Task Force is charged with studying and recommending long-term strategies to secure long-term, sustained, and permanent state funding for civil equal justice in Washington State. The first meeting of the Task Force is March 20, 2002.
To date, $98,000 has been raised for the legal needs study: Supreme Court ($50,000); State Department of Aging and Adult Services ($20,000); State Department of Community Development ($15,000); Legal Services Corporation ($10,000); and WSBA Administrative Law Section ($3,000). CIVIL EQUAL JUSTICE FUNDING -- 2002 This table shows the source and final location of the three primary sources of funding available to Washington State’s civil equal justice delivery system. Source: • Legal Foundation of Washington (IOLTA) • Legal Services Corporation (Federal) • State of Washington Final Recipient (incorporating applicable subcontracts): Columbia Legal Services (statewide delivery, advocacy support and coordination): IOLTA $5.0 Million Northwest Justice Project (statewide delivery, CLEAR and web site operation, support) Legal Services Corporation: $4.8 Million Local Volunteer Attorney Programs (leverage local volunteer client representation): IOLTA: $427,000 Specialty Legal Services Providers (augment services, serve discrete client communities): IOLTA: $884,000
The ATJ Board has established the following goals for 2001-02, which will be reviewed at its May 2002 retreat. • Work toward more and stable resources for all partners in the Access to Justice Network: • Continue to develop and strengthen relationship between ATJ Board and BJA, Supreme Court, judicial associations and OAC • Consider an ATJ Board role in addressing the state of the judiciary, including judicial selection and public education • Continue to strengthen committee structure and function • Provide the ComTech Committee with the support needed to fully explore and implement technology innovations, including WILTIP (Washington Integrated Legal Telephone and Internet Portal) • Establish criteria for the new non-attorney positions on the ATJ Board • Participate actively in every region’s planning initiatives • Establish a role for the ATJ Board in defining/promoting/implementing inclusion, diversity and multiculturalism as a justice imperative • Conduct an annual evaluation of the status of the implementation of the State Plan • Implement the Access to Justice Family Law Task Force Recommendations • Work with the Supreme Court to implement the Practice of Law Board • Develop strategies to anticipate potential loss of TANF funding
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