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September 26, 2003

Minutes of the Meeting of the
Access to Justice Commission
September 26, 2003

The Access to Justice (ATJ) Commission meeting was held at the Colorado Bar Association (CBA) conference room on Friday, September 26, 2003. Lunch was provided by the CBA. Chair David Butler called the meeting to order at 12:08

Members present in person were Jon Asher, Darla Benford, Dave Butler, Greg Hobbs, Barney Iuppa, Meredith McBurney, Rick Mishkin, Sue Parenteau, Connie Talmage, and JoAnn Vogt. Present by telephone were Aaron Clay and Lynne Scholler.

Also present were Greg Martin, Jim Rooney and Jo Ann Salazar. Ilene Bloom joined us later in the meeting.

 

  1. The Commission approved the minutes of the July 31, 2003, meeting.

  2. Chair’s report

    3. The Chair discussed the terms of office set to expire on December 31, 2003. Butler indicated he asked Colorado Legal Services, the Supreme Court, and the Colorado Bar Association to re-appoint the following members: Asher, Iuppa, Clay, Gagel and Talmage.

    The Chair asked Asher to update the Commission regarding the status of the LSC technology grants. Asher reported that Colorado Legal Service (CLS) has received two grants for a total of $165,000. The first grant is to continue the development of the CLS website. The second grant, which is receiving the most publicity, will allow the development of kiosks in limited judicial districts to work with Lexis-Nexis in order to offer electronic filing. Asher reports that California has moved forward with using kiosks while Colorado has previously moved toward greater use of e-filing. This grant will put the two ideas together for greater access by the public. Several questions were raised and the group discussed the potential problems with responsive pleading.

  3. Committee Reports

    1. Pro Bono

      Aaron Clay reported the committee met by telephone on July 15th. The Mesa County program is situated and has been encouraged to expand. The 7th JD is up and doing well. Clay reported there have been some frustrations in getting the committees up and running and encouraged Commission members to participate in the local Presidential visits to promote the formation of local ATJ committees. Butler indicated he participated in the Presidential visit in Steamboat Springs and learned that while people were active in pro bono, they had not yet started organizing a local committee. He indicated he would be asking local ATJ committees for a yearly report, starting with 2004 activities.

    2. Education Committee

      Vogt reported the committee has been very active and distributed minutes from their August 26, 2003, meeting. The committee has formed several subcommittees.
      • The Law School Subcommittee is currently looking into the possibility of obtaining scholarships for lawyers entering public interest law.

      • The Education Programs Subcommittee is discussing ways it can centralize pro bono and public service information, possibly using the CLS website which is already operational. The committee is looking into the possibility of a DU Law School student as an intern for this purpose.

      • The final subcommittee, the In-House Council Initiative is working on a list of in-house legal departments and has reviewed a draft of a Model In-House Pro Bono Policy. The committee hopes to host a meeting with in-house counsel to promote this idea.

      Discussion followed regarding the structure for approval of committee and Commission policies. The general consensus from members that it was not necessary to go back to the appointing Boards for permission but that approval by those Boards or the Board of Governors could give credibility to any action taken. The Chair indicated he would draft a year-end report to the appointing Boards and write an article for the Colorado Lawyer detailing our progress. The Chair also suggested that this be a topic for discussion at our final meeting of the year.

    3. Resources

      The committee met and set first-year goals regarding potential activities to seek funding. Research is being done regarding success and failures here and in other states. The committee has focused its efforts on funding for Legal Services with specific attention to Legal Service Corporation Funding (LSC) and State Legislative Funding.

      • With regard to LSC funding, the committee’s goal is to develop and maintain a presence with Colorado’s congressional representatives. McBurney described President Bush as "not antagonistic to Legal Services." The committee will work with LSC board member, Rob Dieter, to work toward these efforts.

      • The second focus of the committee will be to maintain State funding for victims of domestic violence. The current level of funding is $500,000, most of which is allocated to Colorado Legal Services by county. The funding had recently been targeted for elimination but Jefferson County Representative Sherry Johns, was instrumental in the effort to maintain the funding, using tobacco settlement funds. Colorado is one of only three states without general fund money to protect victims of domestic violence. The committee identified several steps in securing future funding from the State of Colorado including:

        1. Identify new, committed "champions." Term-limits have eliminated past supporters. The committee is looking for suggestions in this area.

        2. Develop a long-term strategy to educate legislators at the local level about the need for funding for domestic violence.

        3. Identify supporters who are members of the Joint Budget Committee, and appropriations committee.

        4. Track successes of individual clients who are referred from legislators’ offices to legal service programs.

        5. Provide a clipping service to legislators about the need to fund projects assisting victims of domestic violence.

      Members of the Commission discussed that this is a difficult area for legislators to understand, particularly since not many of them are lawyers. Support from non-attorneys is needed. The suggestion was made to add the D.A.’s Council and local chiefs of police to the list of supporters. The commission discussed other funding options including federal grants for domestic violence.

      The Commission questioned the Resource Committee about the limited focus on CLS funding. Mishkin asked if the committee considered broadening the scope to fund other activities or programs. McBurney indicated that they decided to direct efforts toward funding CLS at this time for several reasons, including the likelihood that success for other projects could be diminished by competing for money at this time and the fact that some of the other activities considered would require action by the courts. 

      • Courthouse Committee

        • No Report.

    4. The next meeting will be held Saturday November 22nd, 2003. from 9:30 to 2:00.

    5. The Chair adjourned the meeting at 1:35.

    Respectfully submitted,

    Sue Parenteau
    Secretary

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