Page 9 - Impact: Collected Essays on Expanding Access to Justice

legal services through government-mandated Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts, or IOLTA .8 Civil legal service providers attract some additional private and public money .9 In 2015, the New York State Senate and Assembly passed a joint resolution reaffirming their commitment to access to justice and the state’s obligation to ensure that all New York residents have adequate and effective legal representation for matters pertaining to the essentials of life . Recently, members of the U .S . Congress from the two major parties came together to launch an Access to Justice Caucus, recognizing that access to justice is a bipartisan issue .10 And judges, lawyers, academics, and elected officials in states around the country have individually and in groups spoken out on the importance of this issue . But, in the best of times, the funding for civil legal services cannot meet the vast demand . Moreover, current funding streams are vulnerable to congressional cuts, the vagaries of interest rates, and times of recession and budget constraints .11
At the same time, the demand continues to be great . Our lives are shaped by laws . Legal problems arise for people regardless of their station in life . While those with means can afford help, many cannot . We in the court system see this first hand . In New York alone, as recently as 2010, 2 .3 million unrepresented people passed through our courts .12 Legal service providers turn away many more litigants in civil cases than they are able to represent .13
In spite of the scale of the problem there is much that can be done to help unrepresented litigants and increase access to civil legal services . As Chief Judge, I made access to justice a central mission of my tenure . I believe that judicial leadership is critical to closing the justice gap . The judiciary is in the unique position to articulate the pressing need for legal assistance and to bring people together to confront that need . There is no institution for whom equal justice is more important than the judiciary . If we do not speak up, how can we expect others to do so? Yet the judiciary cannot succeed on its own . Legal service providers, the private bar, academia, the executive and legislative branches of government, social service providers, and the business community are all essential to productive solutions . New York has benefitted greatly from collaboration among people and organizations with a shared concern for the welfare of our justice system .
Over the past seven years, we in New York have implemented a wide array of programs and initiatives aimed at increasing access to justice in our state . First, and most importantly, we
8 See National Association of IOLTA Programs & ABA Commission on IOLTA, What is IOLTA?, IOLTA.ORG, http:// www.iolta.org/.
9 See Civil Legal Aid Funding, naTional legal aid and defender associaTion, http://www.nlada.org/tools-and-technical- assistance/civil-resources/civil-legal-aid-funding.
10 Press Release, Congressman Joe Kennedy III, Kennedy and Brook Launch Congressional Access to Legal Services Caucus (Dec. 1. 2015), available at https://kennedy.house.gov/media/press-releases/kennedy-brooks-launch- congressional-access-to-civil-legal-services-caucus.
11 See Robert J. Derocher, The IOLTA crash: Fallout for Foundations, bar leader, Vol. 37 No. 1 (Sep.-Oct. 2012), http://www.americanbar.org/publications/bar_leader/2012_13/september_october/iolta_crash_fallout_foundations. html); Editorial, Penny and Pound Foolish; Slashing Civil Legal Aid, n.y. Times, Mar. 11, 2011, http://query.nytimes. com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E0DA1F3FF93AA35750C0A9679D8B63; Stephen Labaton, Back From the Brink, the Legal Services Corporation Discovers It’s in Danger Again, n.y. Times, Mar. 31, 1995, http://www.nytimes. com/1995/03/31/us/back-brink-legal-services-corporation-discovers-it-s-danger-again.html?pagewanted=all.
12 Task force To exPand access To ciVil legal serVs. in new york, rePorT To The chief Judge of The sTaTe of new york 4 (2010), available at https://www.nycourts.gov/accesstojusticecommission/PDF/CLS-TaskForceREPORT.pdf.
13 See Anne Barnard, Top Judge Makes Free Legal Work Mandatory for Joining State Bar, new york Times, May 1, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/nyregion/new-lawyers-in-new-york-to-be-required-to-do-some- work-free.html?_r=0; legal serVices corPoraTion, documenTing The JusTice gaP in america: The currenT unmeT ciVil legal needs of low-income americans (2009), available at http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/migrated/ marketresearch/PublicDocuments/JusticeGaInAmerica2009.authcheckdam.pdf.
Justice, Justice Shall Ye Pursue
7