March 2, 2007

March 2, 2007
Minutes

Present: Connie Talmage, Fred Baumann, Hon. Dan Taubman, Jim Peters, Ilene Bloom, Jon Asher, Janet Price, Hon. Simon Mole, Hon. JoAnn Vogt, Karen DuWalt, and Hon. Bill Alexander (phone)

Staff: Greg Martin, Kathleen Schoen, Monique Westfall

Meeting was called to order at approximately 12:05pm.The Commission approved the minutes of the January 12, 2007 meeting.

CHAIR’S REPORT:

• The Ad Hoc Committee has changed its name to the Supreme Court Pro Bono Initiative Committee.
• A new committee, Second Season of Service, chaired by JoAnn Vogt, will work with Colorado Bar Association Availability of Legal Services and others to draft rules to allow retired lawyers to handle pro bono cases.
• Ilene Bloom resigned as the chair of the Public Information Committee.   Any commission member interested in the position should contact Connie Talmage.  Applicants from the general legal community can apply for a co-chair position.

AMENDMENT TO BYLAWS:

• The commission amended the Access to Justice Bylaws to clarify the current terms of office.  The current term for the commissioner appointed by the Speaker of the House will expire on December 31, 2007.  The term for the commissioner appointed by Legal Aid Foundation will expire on December 31, 2008.  The approved amendment is attached.  The full text of the Amended Bylaws is available on the website, www.coloradojustice.org.

ABA EQUAL JUSTICE CONFERENCE, MARCH 22-24, 2007:

• Governor Bill Ritter will present the welcoming speech on Thursday, March 22; Chief Justice Mullarkey will welcome attendees of the Access to Justice Chairs meeting on Saturday March 24.
• Twenty-seven members from the Colorado Bar Association and fifteen members from Colorado Legal Services will attend the Equal Justice Conference.
• Committee chairpersons are to identify relevant workshops and coordinate with their committee members to cover as many of these workshops as possible.  If the Committee needs help covering relevant sessions, let Connie Talmage know.
• Any Commission member who wants to attend the ATJ Chairs meeting on Saturday March 24 and has not RSVP’d, please notify Kathleen Schoen and she will RSVP for you.
• The Commission discussed holding a reception for Colorado attendees.  The law firm of Rothgerber, Johnson & Lyons LLP generously offered to host the reception.  The Commission was concerned about the number of events at the conference.  Kathleen Schoen will survey the Commission and local ATJ committee members regarding their availability during the conference.  She will notify the Commission and local committee members of the final decision on whether to hold a reception.  [Postscript:  the reception was cancelled because there are a number of other events being held that evening.]

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

• Supreme Court Pro Bono Initiative Committee
  • Thirty-four law firms met the Supreme Court’s fifty-hour pro bono initiative (and reported they spent an average of 50 hours per attorney on pro bono work primarily for the indigent and organizations serving the indigent) and will be recognized for their contributions to the legal community at a reception to be held at the Colorado Supreme Court on March 16th at 4pm.  All commission members are invited to attend.
  • The committee will focus on recruiting more law firms for the Pro Bono initiative and on assisting the law firms, who signed the initiative but did not meet the goal, in achieving the fifty-hour goal. 
• Second Season of Service
  • JoAnn Vogt, chairperson, introduced the members of the committee:  Greg Hobbs, Jon Asher, Ilene Bloom, Kath Schoen, Gina Weitzenkorn, and Monique Westfall.
  • The committee has had one meeting to date.  Its next meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 12th.
• Courthouse
  • Simon Mole reported on the current efforts of the courthouse committee.
    • The committee is reviewing the “Best Practices for Pro Se Clients” website, provided by Ilene Bloom, to determine what can be adapted by Colorado.
    • Angie Arkin is canvassing judicial administrators as to what is available to pro se clients in each judicial district.
• Local ATJ Support
  • Dan Taubman distributed copies of Local ATJ minutes from their most recent meeting (link to minutes: http://www.cobar.org/group/display.cfm?GenID=10098&EntityID=dpwaj).
  • Dan Taubman will participate in two panels at the Equal Justice Conference: 
    • “Going Local – Further Access to Justice and Pro Bono in State Judicial Districts” is scheduled for Thursday, March 22, 2007 from 1:30pm to 3:00 pm; and
    • “Growing and Facilitating a Pro Bono Culture” is scheduled for Friday, March 23, 2007 from 8:45am to 10:15am.
  • Local ATJ Projects
    • 1st Judicial District (Golden):  Magistrate John Livingston is leading the committee in Jefferson County.
    • 19th Judicial District (Greeley): They are exploring developing a “Do Your Own Divorce” clinics and DVD.
    • 5th Judicial District: They are creating a Landlord-Tenant video.
    • Twelve out of 22 Judicial Districts have a Local ATJ committee.
• Public Information
  • Ilene Bloom tendered her resignation as the Chairperson of the Public Information Committee after four years.  Thank you Ilene for your great work.  The committee is actively seeking a replacement chair.  If you’re interested, please contact Connie Talmage.
  • The Committee is announcing to the law school students that they are awarding BarBri scholarships to one University of Denver and one University of Colorado third year law student who intend to practice public interest law.  Applications will be due in the near future.
• Resource
  • Connie Talmage, Jon Asher, and Fred Baumann met with Chief Justice Malarkey, Justice Hobbs and State Court Administrator Gerry Marroney about ways to increase funding for civil legal services.  Chief Justice Malarkey and State Court Administrator Marroney are willing to work with Access to Justice in reviewing options.
  • Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (IOLTA) Comparability – Colorado Lawyer’s Trust Account Foundation (COLTAF) will propose amendments to rules governing attorney trust accounts to the Colorado Supreme Court in the next two months to require that these IOLTA accounts pay interest rates at least as high as those paid on non-IOLTA accounts of comparable size.  The ATJ Commission will review the proposed changes and make a decision on official support of the amendments. 
  • The State Court Administrator’s Office is willing to discuss seeking a modest increase in the current $500,ooo allocation by the Colorado Legislature for the Domestic Violence Legal Services Fund.

OTHER BUSINESS

• Monique Westfall reported on the new design plan for the Access to Justice website and on a civil Gideon article that she is authoring for The Colorado Lawyer.

Meeting was adjourned at 1:20pm
Next meeting: May 4th, 2007

PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO BYLAWS

TO:Members of the Colorado Access to Justice Commission
RE: Proposed Amendment to Bylaws
FROM: David Butler
DATE: February 20, 2007

Attached is the text of a proposed Bylaw amendment to be discussed and voted upon at the March 2 meeting of the ATJ. The trigger for considering the amendment was the fact that Jim Peters’ current term of office was shown on the website as 12/31/07, when under the Bylaws it should have been 12/31/06. Because this may have been at least a partial cause of Speaker Romanoff’s decision not to reappoint him as of the requested January 1, 2007 date, we propose changing his term to fit what the website said it was. But review of the existing term expiration language showed that it should be updated in two other respects:

1. The names of the initial commissioners are out of date, being four years old with an overlap of only about 50%.

2. The identity of both the current Commissioners and their appointing entities should be shown together to clarify the intent that there be "seats" filled by successors of Commissioners when they resign or when their terms expire. The lack of clarity on this point was the probable cause of erroneous website term expirations for Jim Peters (appointed one year into the three year term for the Speaker's appointee), for Janet Price (appointed to fill Darla Benford's seat with a term expiring in one year) and for Ryan Call (appointed by the Governor for a term expiring 12/31/2008. The attached amendment reaffirms and, we hope clarifies, the correct dates.

Questions left open by this explanation will be entertained at the meeting.

COLORADO ACCESS TO JUSTICE COMMISSION

ARTICLE II, Section 3 of the Bylaws of the Commission is hereby amended to provide as follows:

"Section 3. Terms of Office. Terms of office shall be three years commencing on the first day of each calendar year, and each appointing entity may reappoint members for up to two additional terms. In order to provide continuity in the membership of the Commission, the Commission’s initial members were appointed for terms of one, two and three years. The table below sets out the term expiration dates, the names of the Commissioners in office as of March 2, 2007, and the name of the entity or person who appointed each of them: