May 13, 2005

Access to Justice Commission

Minutes of Meeting Held

May 13, 2005

The Access to Justice Commission met on May 13, 2005 at the office of the Colorado Bar Association beginning at 12:00 noon.  Present in Person were Judge JoAnn Vogt (chair), Judge Barney Iuppa, James Peters, Ryan Call, Ilene Bloom, Elizabeth Steele, Constance Talmage, John Zakhem, Darla Benford, Justice Gregory Hobbs, and Judge Daniel Taubman.  Present by telephone were William Alexander, Lynne Sholler, Jonathan Asher, and Judge Angela Arkin.  Present as guests were Kathleen Schoen, Michelle Miller, Greg Martin and Sarah Quicksall.

1. Introductions.  The Chair introduced and welcomed a new member of the Commission, Ryan Call.  Governor Owens appointed Ryan.  He is a third year law student at University of Denver School of Law.  The other members and guests briefly introduced themselves.

2. Minutes of the Last Prior Meeting.  The Minutes of the Meeting held March 11, 2005 were approved.

3. Committee Reports.

            a.         Revised Descriptions.  The committee chairs provided the new committee descriptions.  They will be posted on the website.

            b.         Renaming the Pro Bono Committee.  Many of the local ATJ committees feel their mission is larger than providing pro bono services.  Their projects facilitate access to justice in a variety of ways.  The current “Pro Bono Committee” name may create a limited perception of the goal of the Pro Bono Committee.  Renaming the Pro Bono Committee to reflect the larger access to justice mission might encourage more communities to participate.  The Pro Bono Committee will discuss changing the committee name at their next meeting and report back to the Commission.

            c.         Committee Reports.

                        Education. 

·         Ilene Bloom reported that the committee had reached a decision on the recipients of the Bar Refresher Award.  The two awards will be given to Kelly Murphy at CU and Leslie Ann Fairweather at DU. JoAnn Vogt, as chair of the Commission, wrote a thank you letter to Bar-Bri for sponsoring the awards.  Bar-Bri’s contribution will be acknowledged in the June Colorado Lawyer.  The committee has ideas for improving the marketing and increasing the number of applications for next time. 

·         The committee is re-evaluating the in-house council pro bono project based on the ad-hoc committee’s activities.  (See below.)

·         The committee is still researching the Justice Corps Project in California to see if it is something they would like to try in Colorado.

                        Resource Development. 

·         Meredith McBirney, Elizabeth Steele and Jon Asher put together materials for the recent ABA law day in Washington D.C. Roger Clark (president elect of the CBA) and Chuck Turner (CBA Executive Director) discussed the funding of legal services and the need for legal services with Colorado’s Congressional Delegation. 

·         The $500,000 Family Violence Fund, deleted from last year’s Colorado state budget, was restored in this past legislative session. 

·         The committee was asked to provide Michelle Miller with a committee update for the ATJ website.

·         The resource committee is looking for additional membership and would like to have a meeting in June.

Pro bono.  Lynne Sholler reported on the Pro Bono committee for Aaron Clay. 

·         The committee has been concentrating on expanding the local committees.  There is interest in Weld County, La Junta and Fort Collins, Summit County, and the San Luis Valley.

·         The Commission requested that the membership roster for each local committee be placed on the website. 

                        Courthouse.  Barney Iuppa reported that the committee is working closely with SCAO on several issues. 

·         They are working with Melinda Gonzales-Hibner at SCAO to compile a list of what interpreter services are available throughout the state for civil cases.  As soon as that list is complete they will have an idea of what is needed. 

·         Greg Hobbs’ Ad Hoc committee is looking into the e-filing fees issue.  (See below.)

                        Ad Hoc Committee. 

·         Greg Hobbs reported that SCAO is negotiating a contract with Lexis-Nexis for e-filing in Colorado.  The goal of the Ad Hoc Committee is to get e-filing fees waived for all indigent parties, including, legal services cases, pro se and cases handled by pro bono attorneys.  The first priority is the waiver of Colorado Legal Service’s e-filing fees.  Kathleen Schoen is collecting numbers from pro bono coordinators in the state to see how many cases private attorneys file.  The committee is also working on a statewide provision that has a built in fee waiver.  Greg Hobbs presented the commission with a draft of the provision.  Connie Talmage, Jon Asher, Manuel Ramos and Greg Hobbs will modify the indigent qualification criteria.  The Commission voted to support the document and when the appropriate changes are made JoAnn Vogt will write a letter of support to Chief Justice Mullarkey asking that she incorporate the recommendation within a chief justice directive. 

·         The committee presented a model pro bono policy for Colorado law firms to the Commission.  The goal is to get firms to recognize pro bono as billable time.  The policy encourages firm attorneys to take pro bono cases and provides the firms with guidelines and recommendations on how to implement such a program.  The group decided to hold focus groups to receive comments on the language and implementation of the policy.  The Commission discussed possible law firms to participate in the focus groups.  The Commission voted to approve the model with JoAnn Vogt’s proposed modification of paragraph 6A and support the program.

4.  Chair’s Report. 

·         The Commission discussed the modification to the ATJC endorsement policy.  The change would require the entity requesting endorsement to report back on the success of the project in one year’s time.  The Commission approved the modification. 

·         JoAnn Vogt, Dan Taubman, and Ilene Bloom all gave brief overviews of the Texas Equal Justice Conference/meeting of state Access to Justice chairs.

5.  Other Business.  The CBA’s Availability of Legal Services committee is holding a legal aid reunion June 11, 2005.  Go to www.cobar.org for more details.  A list of legal clinics being held around the state has been posted on the Colorado Legal Services website.  www.coloradolegalservices.org.

            The meeting adjourned at 1:30 pm.  The next meeting will be July 8, 2005 at noon at the CBA.