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Access Commission Comments on Reduced Availability of Court Reporters in California Courts
By Lisa Jaskol
In response to significant budget cuts, California's superior courts have eliminated or reduced court-provided court reporters in unlimited civil and family law cases. Prior to 2011, superior courts employed court reporters to record the oral proceedings in these cases (as they continue to do in criminal and juvenile cases). Litigants could then obtain the reporter's transcripts of these hearings in the event of an appeal.
Starting in 2011, budget cuts led to large reductions in the staffs of California's trial courts, including the elimination of court-provided court reporters for many proceedings. The elimination of court-provided court reporters is "widespread throughout California, but varies from county to county." (Anne Grignon & Ilana Herscovitz, "Why You Need A Court Reporter To Set The Record Straight," Newsletter of Women Lawyers Association Of Los Angeles (Sept. 2014) ("Grignon & Herscovitz").) "Half of California's ten largest state court systems have stopped providing court reporters for civil proceedings, including family and probate hearings and trials; in those counties, staff court reporters now record only criminal, juvenile, dependency, and mental health proceedings." (Laura Impellizzeri, "BYO Court Reporter," California Lawyer (Sept. 2013).) "Statewide, more than 80 percent of civil court systems had reduced or eliminated court reporter services by 2012." (Ibid.)
As a result, "[p]rivately arranging and paying for court reporters is now the new normal" (Grignon & Herscovitz, supra) - at least for litigants and lawyers with the sophistication and resources to retain a private court reporter and comply with the requirements for bringing him or her to court. For low- and moderate-income litigants who are representing themselves, however, it may be difficult, and sometimes impossible, to retain a private court reporter.
Yet a record of the oral proceedings often is essential to obtaining equal access to the courts. For example, "[a]ccess to the record in family law is a serious access-to-justice issue" which can affect whether the parties "understand and can finalize the court's orders . . . ." (Elkins Family Law Task Force, Final Report and Recommendations (Apr. 2010) ("Elkins Report"), p. 80.) In appellate matters, a record of the oral proceedings often is necessary to obtain review on the merits. (See Cal. Rules of Court, rule 8.120(b). The absence of a record of the oral proceedings, where one is required, can doom the appeal.
The Access Commission submitted comments about the severely reduced availability of court reporters to the Commission on the Future of California's Court System (also known as the Futures Commission). The Chief Justice created the Futures Commission to study the current operations of California's courts and recommend initiatives to enhance access to justice for California's diverse and dynamic population. In its comments, the Access Commission stressed the need for a record of the proceedings as a matter of equal access to the courts, both at the trial and appellate level. The Access Commission recommended that the Futures Commission consider the costs and benefits of electronic recording of proceedings.
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Improving Funding for Rural Legal Services Programs
Thanks to a grant generously provided by the California Bar Foundation, the Office of Legal Services convened twenty representatives from thirteen statewide, regional and local rural legal services organizations in Sacramento on March 5th for a meeting focused on ways to increase funding. The California Endowment, which focuses on underserved individuals and communities, graciously provided space for the meeting at its Sacramento facilities.
Professor Lisa Pruitt of UC Davis gave the introductory remarks regarding access to justice for rural areas. Jim Richardson, founder of the National Rural Funders Collaborative, presented information on the current state of fundraising and provided information on foundations that might fund California's rural legal services programs. Mr. Richardson also led discussions on challenges and best practices. He had surveyed the attendees prior to the conference, which enabled him to tailor the information to the participants. He will also be doing follow-up phone conferences with the participants and a report and recommendations will be published.
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Access Commission Annual Planning Meeting
The Access Commission held its annual planning meeting in February. This was an opportunity to review its progress on recent access to justice initiatives, determine priorities, and plan strategies for the near future. The Commissioners focused on several priority areas: legal services funding, language access, technology, rural justice, and court funding.
California Supreme Court Associate Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar joined the Commission for a stimulating lunchtime conversation which included a discussion of the court's implementation of the new statewide language access plan.
The meeting was also an opportunity to welcome new commissioners Justice Martin Jenkins, with the First Appellate District in San Francisco and Judge Erica Yew, with the Santa Clara County Superior Court. They are both Judicial Council appointees.
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Trust Fund Program Marks 30 Years
of High-Impact Support 1985 was a year of big stories. Calvin & Hobbes appeared in newspapers for the very first time, leaded gas was finally banned, and Mikhail Gorbachev became Premier of the Soviet Union. And one more thing: with little fanfare, the Legal Services Trust Fund Program began to support legal services in California. Calvin and Mikhail gave up their daily newspaper appearances long ago, but for thirty years now the California State Bar's Trust Fund Program has been quietly working to make legal services accessible to millions of people in need. A lawyer must, by law, hold client funds in a trust account. If those funds won't earn enough interest on their own to be put into a separate bank account, they go into a pooled trust account. Legal visionaries in Canada and Australia realized half a century ago that the interest on these lawyers' trust accounts ("IOLTA") could change the face of justice for people who cannot afford legal counsel. They combined the tiny bits of interest earned by hundreds of thousands of small deposits into a meaningful stream of support for legal services for the indigent, piloting the first IOLTA programs in the 1960s. Florida became the first U.S. state to implement IOLTA in 1981, and three years after that the State Bar of California began distributing IOLTA grants through its new Legal Services Trust Fund Program. (Business & Professions Code sec. 6210 et seq.) This year, California's IOLTA program celebrates 30 years of support for legal nonprofits, having distributed over $360 million in grants since it began operations. This year the program is stepping into the 21st century with a comprehensive "reboot" that includes a new cloud-based grants management system to streamline applications, administration, and oversight, as well as new protocols to capture better information about how the services supported by these grants improve lives and enhance communities. These technical advances, however, call for one old-school improvement as well: along with a new grantmaking portal and better evaluation protocols, California's IOLTA program needs new sources of revenue. The program has faced dire straits since 2008, when the Federal Reserve slashed the Federal Funds Rate to, essentially, zero. As a result, California's annual IOLTA revenue - which had peaked at $22 million per year in 2008 - was, by 2014, barely clearing $5 million. With about $3.3 billion of client funds on deposit in California, that's a rate of return of about 0.0015%, or one two-thousandths of a single percentage point. For the nearly 100 nonprofits that rely on IOLTA funding to keep doors open and services flowing, this is simply not enough money. They can barely meet even one-quarter of the legal needs of the poor due as it is. California's legislature and legal community have come together to sustain IOLTA funding. The Campaign for Justice, authorized in 2008 by Business & Professions Code Sec. 6033, makes it easy for members of the private bar and all caring people to make individual gifts to support IOLTA grants. Every dollar of each donation goes in full to the nonprofit programs, with no administrative expenses or diversions. The statutory funding process ensures that grantees are qualified and closely monitored, and that grants support services in each of our 58 counties. It's a smart system that has made a meaningful difference in millions of lives. It can do even more going forward, if you lend your support too. Help us celebrate the 30th anniversary of IOLTA in California, by making a gift to the Campaign for Justice at our web site, www.CAforJustice.org. While you're there you can also learn more about where the funding goes and what it accomplishes. In 2014, only about 5% percent of California attorneys made contributions to the campaign. If we all made a modest gift, we could make "justice for all" a reality statewide. Now that would be a nice birthday present, wouldn't it?
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Pathways to Justice 2015 - Registration is Now Open
Pathways to Justice 2015, a training and networking conference co-sponsored by the State Bar, Legal Aid Association of California, and the Equal Access Project of the Judicial Council for California's access to justice community has opened registration at: www.calbar.org/pathwaystojustice. The venue is The California Endowment in downtown Los Angeles. This conference is designed to help advocates identify and learn best practices and innovative and practical approaches for using the legal system to advance justice for low-income clients. The conference is attended by approximately 350 legal services lawyers, pro bono attorneys, court staff and judges, law professors, court interpreters, paralegals, and other justice partners. The programming is extremely diverse and will include several topics related to language access this year. |
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