Equal Justice Works Blog

This entry is re-posted from the National Center for Access to Justice at Cordozo Law School. It was originally posted by David Udell on May 17, 2013. See the original post here. 

A working group appointed by the NJ Supreme Court released on May 16, 2013 a report and recommendations dated April 30,2013 in which it urges adoption of a 50 hour law-related pro bono service requirement as a condition of admission to the NJ Bar.  The proposed rule is modeled on New York’s rule, but differs in various respects, as described below.  NJ is the third state, after California and Connecticut in which a recommendation to adopt a pro bono service requirement inspired by the NY model is now awaiting final approval.  The  NJ Court has invited submission of comments on the proposed rule by June 21, 2013.

Too complex, poorly targeted, too arbitrary: These are some of the criticisms The Institute for College Access and Success levels against the federal student loan program in a comprehensive white paper, "Aligning the Means and the Ends: How to Improve Federal Student Aid and Increase College Access and Success."

As a 2009 Equal Justice Works Fellow at the Transgender Law Center (TLC) in San Francisco, Danny Kirchoff implemented Project Access, a program to provide legal services to low-income transgender Californians.  Working with social service providers, Danny sought to decrease the barriers to economic self-sufficiency of the transgender community, and increase the legal community's capacity to represent low-income transgender clients by providing trainings and formalizing TLC's network of cooperating attorneys.

The estimated $1 trillion in student loan debt affects individuals from all walks of life. However, according to two studies, women and minorities are two groups experiencing some of the greatest repercussions of student debt. So, how deep is the disparate impact on these groups, why does it exist and what can be done?

Medical Legal Partnerships continue to thrive in Arkansas

Kevin Robert de Liban is an Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps Legal Fellow at Legal Aid of Arkansas. To address the legal needs of people living in the more rural parts of the state, Kevin and his host site have developed Medical Legal Partnerships with community health clinics throughout the state, including Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, and rural health clinics in the Mississippi River Delta region. Attorneys from Legal Aid of Arkansas travel all across the region to bring legal assistance to patients of the medical clinics. One of the clinics, Lee County Cooperative Clinic in Marianna, AR, has a history itself rooted in the service of AmeriCorps VISTA workers during the late 1960s. Today, the clinic is a trusted community institution dedicated to serving all the residents of the surrounding areas. The community network required to sustain Medical Legal Partnerships is thriving thanks to the great work of Kevin and Legal Aid of Arkansas.

A combination of rising law school tuition, underemployment and the work done by policy organization Law School Transparency, authors and educators Paul Campos and Brian Tamanaha and many others – coupled with a marked decline in law school applications – is slowly forcing legal education to change.

This blog is republished with permission from Equal Justice Works Fellows Esha Bhandari and Carmen Iguina. It originally appeared on the ACLU blog on April 24, 2013. In two weeks, our May newsletter will feature Carmen and Esha, and more about this case, so stay tuned! 

In a landmark ruling yesterday, Federal District Judge Dolly M. Gee ordered the federal government to provide legal representation for immigrant detainees in California, Arizona and Washington who have serious mental disabilities and are unable to represent themselves in immigration court. This is a historic decision — it is the first ever to recognize a right to appointed counsel in immigration proceedings for a group of immigrants. Unlike the criminal justice system, where judges are generally required to appoint counsel for defendants who cannot afford a lawyer, there are no safeguards in the immigration enforcement system to ensure the basic fairness of having legal representation for immigrants. As a result, over half of all individuals in immigration court — including 84% of detained individuals — must face the complex legal proceedings alone and unrepresented, while the government is always represented by a lawyer.

The Gulf Coast continues to recover from Hurricane Katrina

Reilly Morse was already working as a private attorney in the Mississippi Gulf Coast when Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005. After the storm, all that was left of his practice was his shingle – a single piece of wood that read “Reilly Morse, Attorney.” As soon as he could, Reilly went back to work helping to rebuild his town by assisting Katrina survivors with FEMA benefits claims and evictions and restoring affordable housing. As an Equal Justice Works Katrina Fellow, he was able to make a huge impact on the lives of many Katrina survivors through his work with the Mississippi Center for Justice. (Watch “Survivors of the Storm,” an Equal Justice Works video about Katrina Fellows, here.)

President Barack Obama submitted his budget proposal for the 2014 fiscal year to Congress recently and, once again, he suggests a number of reforms that would affect grants and student loans. While all aspects of the president's proposal will remain just that – a proposal – unless and until Congress approves the budget, here's a rundown of some of his major recommendations regarding student debt.

This is a guest post by 2012 Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps Legal Fellow Marcy Wehling.

When Superstorm Sandy hit at the end of October last year, I was very concerned for my friends in New York City. I attended law school in Queens and lived in Brooklyn, so New York City was home to me for several years. I began following the legal developments closely, and before long felt moved to get involved. I contacted Equal Justice Works to see if AmeriCorps would deploy any of the legal Fellows to do disaster relief legal work. Almost immediately, I found out that AmeriCorps said yes (“Godspeed” wrote the AmeriCorps official who approved the request.), and that I should start researching placement options. With Equal Justice Works’ guidance and Legal Assistance of Western New York, my regular AmeriCorps service site in Rochester, I found the need greatest at Staten Island Legal Services (SILS), an office of Legal Services New York City (NYC).