"ATTACKING BARRIERS TO EMPLOYMENT"

ARTICLE BY CESAR TORRES

The Alliance for Equal Justice daily confronts the challenge of responding to overwhelming demand for legal assistance to address fundamental needs with very limited resources.  As a community committed to equal justice, we have a responsibility to reflect on our work to ensure that our limited resources are being used most effectively to improve the lives of our clients as they struggle to provide for and protect their families and to live with basic human dignity.

 

NJP's most recent effort to strategically reflect on our work began after adoption of new vision and mission statements in late 2009.  NJP used these as the foundation to undertake a thorough review of all aspects of our work to ensure that we were best organized to promote "the long-term well-being" of our clients and their communities.  This review was designed as a strategic planning exercise which we completed with the adoption of our 2012-2017 Strategic Plan at the end of 2011.

The Washington State Access to Justice Board's Pro Se Project is now running at full speed. Thanks to the generous support and grant from the Washington State Bar Association, the significant in-kind gift from the Northwest Justice Project of Laurie Garber's services as convener of our Forms Reviews Work Groups, and the volunteer efforts of some 70 people from a variety of stakeholder groups, we are well on our way to completing the translation of all of Washington State's family law court forms into readable plain language.

 

In December 2012, the Washington State Supreme Court approved a Memorandum of Understanding between its Pattern Forms Committee (PFC) and the Access to Justice (ATJ) Board, whereupon the forms will be made available for public comment without first having to be vetted by the PFC. After the forms receive public comment, the Pro Se Project's Forms Review Work Groups will revise them as necessary into final form. We hope to complete that process by the end of 2013 and implemented as Washington State's mandatory forms as of March 1, 2014, presuming no delays.

 

Simultaneous to the public comment process, the Pro Se Project's Forms Testing Work Group is testing the forms with the general public to check for their ease of comprehension and to uncover any vagueness or ambiguity in the forms.  These results are also being sent back to the Forms Review Work Groups for assessment and corrections found necessary.

 

The two-month period after finalization will enable Superior Courts, Court Clerks, Courthouse Facilitators, legal services organizations, and law libraries throughout Washington State time to make such last minute changes as are necessary to prepare for the changeover.  To prepare for that, the Pro Se Project is looking into creating templates for local instructions to forms packets. The King County Superior Court is creating plain language instructions with Transcend as their consultant, which will greatly aid that process.

 

Public Comment

Anyone interested in seeing the new forms will find them posted at www.courts.wa.gov/forms. Look for the special link to the plain language forms. You can also sign up to be notified by email when new forms are posted.  All forms will be posted at least for 90 days before they are given final review and adjusted as needed.

 

Lastly, the Seattle Journal for Social Justice will be publishing a scholarly article on the Washington State plain language forms in May 2013. Eight members of the Pro Se Project authored the article.  We recommend the article as a good review of the process and underlying values of fairness and access to justice embodied in the Pro Se Project.

The Alliance for Equal Justice is a network of organizations working collaboratively to ensure all people have access to justice in Washington State.

  

Have stories or upcoming events? Please send info to equalj@ejc.org.