Funding Injustice

Welcome to the Web site of the Task Force on Preservation of the Justice System.  ABA President Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III has made the work of the Task Force on Preservation of the Justice System one of his primary areas of focus for the 2011-2012 year.  The Task Force is addressing some of the most critical issues facing the legal profession today: the severe underfunding of our justice system, depletion of resources, and the courts’ struggle to render their constitutional function and provide access to justice for countless Americans.  The Co-Chairs of the Task Force are David Boies and Theodore B. Olson, and it is comprised of distinguished attorneys and judges from across the nation.  William K. Weisenberg and Mary C. McQueen serve as Vice Chairs. 

Press Conference: Access to Justice in the Wake of Budget Cuts

ABA Task Force on Preservation of the Justice System Co-Chairs David Boies and Theodore B. Olson Will Share National Perspective on the Crisis in State Court Underfunding

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 13, 2012 — American Bar Association Task Force on Preservation of the Justice System co-chairs David Boies and Theodore B. Olson will join Sen. Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa), California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Sen. Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), and State Bar of California President Jon Streeter at a Monday, April 16 press conference at California’s State Capitol to discuss the crisis of state court underfunding and the decline in the public’s access to the justice system following years of budget cuts to the judicial branch in California.  Boies and Olson will provide a national perspective on the crisis.

This event comes at a critical time.  Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye says California has “closed” signs on courtrooms and clerks’ offices in 24 counties around the state after four successive years of budget cuts totaling $653 million.  Despite these cuts, and increasing caseloads, the California judicial budget is on the brink of facing an additional $100 million in cuts if Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.’s current budget is approved as proposed.

These budget cuts have resulted in reduced availability or elimination of court self-help services, and other cost cutting measures that directly impact the ability of the courts to adequately serve the public. California is not alone, however; 42 states cut funding for their judiciaries in 2011, reducing access to justice for thousands of Americans, according to the National Center for State Courts.

The press event precedes a joint informational hearing on “Public Access to Justice in the Wake of Budget Cutbacks” of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, Subcommittee No. 5 on Corrections, Public Safety and the Judiciary, where Boies and Olson will once again provide a national perspective of the crisis of state court underfunding. Watch the hearing live from Sen. Evans’ website beginning at 3 p.m. PST.

 WHO:David Boies and Theodore B. Olson, co-chairs, ABA Task Force on Preservation of the Justice System;
Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, California Supreme Court;
Sen. Noreen Evans, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee;
Sen. Loni Hancock, chair of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, Subcommittee No. 5 on Corrections, Public Safety and the Judiciary;
Jon Streeter, president, State Bar of California

WHAT:Press conference on public access to justice in the wake of budget cuts

WHERE:California State Capitol — South Steps (N Street and 11^th side) OR Capitol Room 115 if raining

WHEN:Monday, April 16, 1:30 – 2 p.m.

To arrange an interview with Boies or Olson, please contact Alexandra Buller at (202) 662-1508 orAlexandra.Buller@Americanbar.org.

The Task Force on Preservation of the Justice System was founded in 2010 to address the issue of declining budgets and increasing workloads in our state court systems.  It is comprised of distinguished attorneys and judges from across the nation.  William K. Weisenberg and Mary C. McQueen serve as vice chairs.

With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world.  As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.

New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct Annual Budget

The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct released its annual report for 2011 today, and while there were fewer investigations conducted this year, the ones that were done prompted 15 judges to resign from office.

The resignations made up less than one-half of 1 percent of the roughly 3,500 judges and justices in the New York State courts. Last year, 14 judges resigned from offices after becoming targets of the commission’s investigators.

The commission reported that it processed 1,818 new complaints in 2011, which is fewer than the record number of 2,025 in 2010 but still the fourth highest in its 34-year history. Every one of the 1,818 complaints was reviewed by staff members, but only 172 investigations were launched—the lowest number of new investigations in the past 10 years. Those 172 cases were added to the 195 investigations that rolled into 2011 from the previous year.

Of the 15 judges that left the bench, 10 of them resigned while complaints were pending, and the others left while under formal charges. Only two upstate town justices were recommended for removal by the commission. Others were publicly censured.

None of the judges who resigned were from Westchester, Rockland or Putnam counties. How many judges in the tri-county area were investigated is unknown, because the Judicial Conduct Commission does not reveal the names of those judges unless they are censured or recommended for dismissal.

To read the full report, go to www.cjc.ny.gov

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