February 2001 ATJ Board Report

February 28, 2001

Chief Justice Gerry L. Alexander Temple of Justice P.O. Box 40929 Olympia, WA 98504-0929

Jan Eric Peterson, President Washington State Bar Association 2800 Century Square 1501 Fourth Avenue Seattle, WA 98101-1609

RE: Annual Report of the Access to Justice Board

Dear Chief Justice Alexander and President Peterson:

On May 18, 1994, the Supreme Court entered an Order establishing the Access to Justice (ATJ) Board for an initial evaluation period of two years. The formal work of the ATJ Board began in November 1994. On November 21, 1996, the Court, on the recommendation of the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Board of Governors (BOG), reauthorized the ATJ Board for an additional five years, having found that it had successfully completed its initial evaluation period. On November 2, 2000, the Court, on the recommendation of the BOG, entered an Order (Exhibit 1) reauthorizing the ATJ Board. The Order includes the following significant amendments: (1) The Board is reauthorized for an indefinite period of time. (2) Non-attorneys will be added to the Board. (3) The Board will file an annual report to the Supreme Court and the Board of Governors (currently reports are semi-annual). (4) Duties and responsibilities of the Board are fairly specific, reflecting the directives to the Board identified in the Plan for Delivery of Civil Legal Services to Low Income People in Washington State, recommendations from the Access to Justice Conferences, and related initiatives.

This Report and the attached Exhibits constitute the first annual report under the new Order and document the ATJ Board's activities since the last formal Report to the Court and the BOG on August 31, 2000. The publication of this annual Report will coincide with the ATJ Board's annual March meetings with the Supreme Court.

I. BACKGROUND

A. ATJ Board Mission, Members, Structure, and Staffing: Mission: Promote and facilitate equal access to justice in Washington state for low and moderate income people through high-quality legal services. The ATJ Board continues to track and evaluate its progress under the directives of this Court's Order, and continues to refine its mission through the mechanisms it has established to do so: the Revised Plan for the Delivery of Civil Legal Services to Low Income People in Washington State (Revised State Plan), the annual Access to Justice Conference Recommendations and the annual ATJ Board retreat.

Attached is a current list of ATJ Board members and ATJ Board Committee chairs (Exhibit 2). Nearly 250 volunteers serve on the ATJ Board's eleven permanent committees and four interim committees (described in detail below). They include state and federal judges, administrative law judges, private and government attorneys, law librarians, court clerks, courthouse facilitators, paralegals, legal services and volunteer attorney legal services staff, pro bono attorneys, law students and faculty, paralegal students, mediators, LAW Fund and Legal Foundation of Washington representatives, staff from the Office of the Administrator for the Courts and the Washington State Bar Association, state agency staff, and representatives from the media. The new Council on Public Legal Education was established through the collaboration of a broad-based group of stakeholders convened by the ATJ Board, and the ATJ Board is collaborating closely with the Council. The ATJ Board also continues to work closely with WSBA's Pro Bono and Legal Aid Committee (PBLAC) on efforts to promote and support pro bono work by lawyers, and to secure additional funding for this state's civil legal services providers. Representatives from the ATJ Board and the Access to Justice community served on the BJA's Project 2001 subcommittees.

The Access to Justice Programs at WSBA (ATJ Board, PBLAC, the Greater Access and Assistance Program – GAAP, the Emeritus Program and state support functions) fall under the umbrella of "Justice Programs" within the Office of the Executive Director. The staff and administration of the Council on Public Legal Education also fall under the Justice Programs umbrella. Justice Programs staff include: Joan Fairbanks, Justice Programs Manager; Sharlene Steele, Access to Justice Programs Liaison; Joyce Raby, Justice Programs Technology Specialist; Pam Inglesby, Public Legal Education Manager; and Leslie Johnson, Justice Programs Coordinator.

B. Meetings: The ATJ Board met four times since its last Report. Attached are the agendas from the September 14, November 3, 2000, and January 12 and February 23, 2001 meetings (Exhibit 3).

C. Web Site: This Report and most of the attached exhibits, including ATJ Board meeting minutes, can now be found on the ATJ page of the WSBA web site: www.wsba.org/atj/board.htm.

II. ATJ BOARD ACTIVITIES

A. Overview: At its annual retreat on June 22 and 23, 2000 the ATJ Board reviewed a detailed analysis of the progress on the implementation of the Board's priorities for 2000, which had been approved at its September 1999 retreat. Based largely on the enormous number of tasks delegated to the Board in the Revised State Plan (adopted September 1999), the Board necessarily revised its 2001 priorities to address these responsibilities (Exhibit 4).

At the national level, the ATJ Board and many of its initiatives continue to be showcased as models.

• The ATJ Board has completed its Open Society Institute-funded handbook: Equal Justice . . . The Noblest Common Denominator: A Road Map for Building an Equal Justice Community. The handbook is a training module based on the Washington State experience that will be used by equal justice community leaders throughout the country to assist in building and enhancing their own state and local equal justice communities. The publication is dedicated to Retired Chief Justice Richard Guy for his leadership in creating and supporting many of Washington State's equal justice initiatives. A copy of the handbook is included with this Report.
• ATJ Board staff initiated and staffed a national project to secure the adoption by the National Conference of Chief Justices of a resolution, Leadership to Promote Equal Justice (Exhibit 5). Retired Chief Justice Richard Guy introduced the resolution at the July 2000 meeting; it was adopted by the Conference on January 25, 2001.
• The annual Access to Justice Conference, held as part of Celebration 2000 in September 2000 in Spokane, attracted representatives from equal justice communities in Massachusetts and Texas, including Texas Supreme Court Justice Deborah Hankinson, who is spearheading the establishment of an Access to Justice Board in her state.
• SPAN (ABA/NLADA State Planning Assistance Network) invited Equal Justice Coalition Chair Wayne Blair to discuss Washington State's access to justice initiatives on a panel at the Mountain States Regional Meeting on Improving Legal Services for the Poor in Salt Lake City on November 3, 2000.
• Alan Bromberger, Director of Power of Attorney (POA), a New York-based foundation, met with ATJ Network representatives and attended the November 2000 ATJ Board meeting for the purpose of exploring the establishment of a pro bono business law program in Washington State.
• As a first step in that process, the ATJ Board has been asked to assist in the establishment of an ABA/NLADA-sponsored "ABC" (A Business Commitment) Program in Washington State.
• Members of Washington State's Access to Justice Network were asked to serve as panelists at a number of national conferences (e.g., National Legal Aid and Defender Association Annual Conference; State Justice Institute/Legal Services Corporation/Open Society Institute-sponsored conference on "Collaborations"; ABA Mid-Year Meeting).
• ATJ Network members continue to provide assistance to those in other states on an as-needed basis who are interested in learning about Washington's initiatives.

Within Washington State, there continues to be a growing recognition that the ATJ Board is a mechanism for "coordinating, improving and advancing civil access to justice for low and moderate income residents," as contemplated by this Court's Order. Increasingly, organizations, committees and individuals are contacting the ATJ Board and its committees for assistance, counsel and input on a wide variety of topics and issues. Examples of these (since August 31, 2000) include the following:

• The WSBA BOG's Committee to Define the Practice of Law invited four ATJ Board members to join its committee for the purpose of defining criteria and developing a framework for regulating the practice of non-lawyers in Washington State. The expanded committee proposed a slightly amended Definition of the Practice of Law (GR 22) and a Practice of Law Board (GR 23). Both proposed rules were approved unanimously by the BOG and have been published for comment by the Supreme Court.
• At the request of the ATJ Board, the Board for Judicial Administration added representatives from the Access to Justice community to its Project 2001 subcommittees. Several significant proposals were put forth by these committees which will enhance equal justice in Washington State, including periodic assessments of unmet legal needs, simplification of mandatory forms and a rule defining the role of the courthouse facilitator.
• The President of the Washington State Bar Association asked the ATJ Board to review and recommend action on, a proposed resolution from ABA's Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants (SCLAID) opposing legislation that would give funding sources access to confidential/privileged client records. The ATJ Board has established a small committee to develop a draft resolution for consideration by the BOG.
• The ATJ Board responded to a request to oppose the proposed closure of state prison law libraries (Exhibit 6).
• The ATJ Board is actively supporting proposed legislation to establish a Loan Repayment Assistance Program for public interest lawyers.
• The ATJ Board is actively supporting proposed legislation to amend the Equal Access to Justice Act to award attorney's fees in administrative proceedings.

Additionally, the ATJ Board continues to work to institutionalize a variety of methods to increase awareness of, and appreciation for, the important work being done in Washington to improve the justice system:

• annual presentation to the Board of Governors (Exhibit 7);
• ATJ Board presence at all BOG meetings;
• ATJ Board presentations at semi-annual WSBA section and committee chair meetings;
• annual meeting with the Supreme Court;
• letters to every new WSBA member about the role of the legal profession in preserving and expanding access to the justice system (Exhibit 8);
• use of WSBA's Bar News and other media, including a new Access to Justice Department in the Bar News;
• nomination/support of key individuals/organizations for awards and recognition;
• annual briefing on access to justice for WSBA presidential candidates;
• annual briefing on access to justice for new BOG members (Exhibit 9); and
• continuing to reach beyond the "usual suspects" to involve new people on the ATJ Board committees and as liaisons at the ATJ Board meetings.

  B. ATJ-Coordinated State Planning Process: The ATJ Board's first significant project was the development in 1995 of its Plan for the Delivery of Civil Legal Services to Low Income Persons in Washington State (State Plan), at the request of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC). Using the guidelines set out in the Hallmarks of an Effective Statewide Civil Legal Services Delivery System (Hallmarks), the ATJ Board developed 18 recommendations for reconfiguring and supporting Washington's delivery system so as to preserve access for low-income clients to a full range of advocacy and services. Although the state's civil legal services providers have been responsible for much of the State Plan's actual implementation, the ATJ Board and its committees continue to perform critical coordination and oversight functions (see below), as contemplated by this Court's Order, and in accordance with the vision of a statewide civil legal services delivery system articulated in the Hallmarks. Additionally, the ATJ Board, through its annual Access to Justice Conferences (see below), has created a mechanism for institutionalizing an ongoing statewide planning process that involves the entire Access to Justice Network.

  In mid-1998, the ATJ Board, through its State Plan Evaluation Committee, began a process to determine how well the State Plan was working and to consider which aspects, if any, should be rethought. After an extensive and inclusive process, documented in the April 1999 Report to this Court, the Board presented its draft Revised State Plan and recommendations to the participants at the June 25-27, 1999 Access to Justice Conference in Wenatchee. The ATJ Board adopted its final Revised Plan for the Delivery of Civil Legal Services to Low Income People in Washington State at its annual retreat on September 16, 1999. The following day the Revised State Plan was formally submitted to the Legal Services Corporation Board of Directors at its meeting in Seattle. The ATJ Board has developed a detailed plan for the implementation of the new and revised recommendations.

  Following is the status of the implementation of key aspects of the Revised State Plan since the ATJ Board's August 31, 2000 Report:

  • Two statewide staffed legal services programs have now been in operation for four years:
  • Columbia Legal Services (CLS) is a full-service, statewide legal services program dedicated to ensuring that a full range of legal services is available to all of Washington's low income population, in particular, vulnerable and hard-to-serve special needs populations that face unique barriers to the justice system. CLS operates out of seven regional offices around the state. Its primary funding sources include the State of Washington, the Legal Foundation of Washington and LAW Fund donations.
  • The Northwest Justice Project (NJP) is the federal partner in the statewide Access to Justice Network. NJP's goal is to assist as many eligible low income clients as possible, either directly or through efficient and effective referrals. NJP operates out of seven regional offices throughout the state. Principal funding is from Congress through the Legal Services Corporation, which regulates the types of cases that may be handled and the types of representation that may be provided.
  • The state's Volunteer Attorney Legal Services Programs continue to enjoy stable financial support. Under the Revised State Plan, underwriting for a portion of these programs' operating funds has been transferred from the Northwest Justice Project to Columbia Legal Services. The Legal Foundation of Washington will continue to provide funding support. The ATJ Board and the Washington State Bar Association continue to devote significant resources to provide support for these programs. In addition to the technology staffing and support described below (see ComTech Committee, below), ATJ Board staff directs WSBA's new Emeritus Program and the activities of WSBA's Pro Bono and Legal Aid Committee, and the ATJ Board provides support for legislation and rule-making that provide incentives for attorneys to volunteer.
  • The clear message from ATJ "stakeholders" to the 1999 evaluation of the 1995 State Plan was that, while the architecture of the statewide delivery system is sound, the implementation at the local and regional levels in some areas of the state is less than uniform. In response, the Revised State Plan recommends Phase II Planning, which is focusing on enhancing integrated local and regional civil equal justice delivery networks. The planning process is well underway through a both a formal process and through Access to Justice Conferences in the Southwest and Northwest Regions of the state. Regional planning contemplates a role for ATJ Board members (Exhibit 10).
  • A key component of the Revised State Plan is to utilize, wherever possible, available and emerging technologies to establish intake and referral systems. This has been accomplished through NJP's CLEAR Project (Coordinated Legal Education, Advice and Referral), that now serves as the primary point of access for low income clients to speak with an attorney or advocate in every county in the state, with limited assistance available in King County. NJP has developed a very extensive web site (www.nwjustice.org), featuring the Law Center that provides hundreds of legal education brochures for online reading and downloading. CLEAR and the web site are viewed as national models. The ATJ Board has been awarded $10,000 by the Legal Services Corporation to conduct an assessment of CLEAR, focusing on the quality of service and the results for clients, which results can in turn assist in the state and regional planning and resource allocation efforts.
  • Another key component of the Revised State Plan is to utilize existing and emerging technologies to provide expansive geographic coverage and maximize local legal services delivery capacity and presence outside of principal urban centers. In addition to the services provided through CLEAR, the ATJ Board's Communications and Technology Committee (ComTech), in cooperation with NJP, CLS, the Legal Foundation of Washington, the Office of the Administrator for the Courts, and others, has made major strides toward implementing Washington State's Equal Justice Communications and Technology Vision (see ComTech Committee, below). The Revised State Plan significantly expands the recommendations for ongoing and prospective technology initiatives, many of which are being pursued currently by the ComTech Committee, the legal services providers, the Office of the Administrator for the Courts, and WSBA's Pro Bono and Legal Aid Committee. Additionally, discussions are underway for the collaboration by members of the ATJ Network and the Council on Public Legal Education for a "gateway" web site for Washington State.
  • The Revised State Plan recommends a significant role for the ATJ Board to coordinate statewide training, in partnership with CLS, and expand the reach of training beyond staff attorneys to volunteer attorneys and non-attorney advocates. Although the ATJ Board currently lacks staff to fully partner in this effort, ATJ Board staff and WSBA's Pro Bono and Legal Aid Committee are videotaping training events throughout the state and compiling a CLE videotape library for legal services provider staff and volunteers.
  • The Revised State Plan provides that legal services-related entities that engage in fundraising activities do so cooperatively so as to maximize the total number of dollars raised and made available in the delivery system. The Revised State Plan establishes a resource investment protocol, to ensure that all major civil equal justice fundraisers strategically invest new resources, and allocate funding reductions, in accordance with the protocol. The ATJ Board's Resource Development Committee is reorganizing for the purpose of supporting the implementation of those recommendations (see Resource Development Committee, below).
  • The Revised State Plan includes a significant new set of initiatives to encourage private attorney involvement, and formally acknowledges that volunteer attorney programs and volunteer attorneys can and must be full partners in the effort to meet the unmet civil legal needs of low income people in this state. The list of proposed initiatives includes the completion of the implementation of the Volunteer Attorney Legal Services Action Plan (VALS Action Plan), the establishment of targeted statewide volunteer attorney panels, and assistance from the Supreme Court in recruiting volunteer attorneys. WSBA's Pro Bono and Legal Aid Committee (PBLAC) is taking primary responsibility for implementation of the VALS Action Plan, in cooperation with the ATJ Board. Current initiatives include: (1) establishing a CLE videotape library; (2) surveying WSBA membership about market incentives for volunteering; (3) revisiting the adoption of ABA amendments to Rule 6.1 regarding pro bono service; (4) publicizing the "good works" of attorneys and the new MCLE Pro Bono rule, which awards CLE credits for pro bono work; (5) soliciting pro bono recruitment support from the state Supreme Court; (6) implementing a pilot project in Skamania County to connect Seattle-based corporate counsel with low income clients through videophone technology; and (7) contacting professional associations of legal support professionals to encourage them to establish pro bono panels.
  • The Revised State Plan includes a new section on access to the courts, self-help and preventive legal education to build on the initiatives of several ATJ Board committees (Education, Impediments, Courthouse Facilitator, ComTech, Law Related Services, Unbundled Legal Services), NJP's CLEAR program and web site, and the new Council on Public Legal Education. The recommendations include new and expanded roles for courthouse facilitators, lay domestic violence advocates and other non-lawyers. See ATJ Board Committees, below, for summaries of relevant initiatives.

    C. ATJ Board Committees: The ATJ Board now has eleven permanent and four interim active working committees (Exhibit 2) that are addressing the priorities established by the Supreme Court's Order. Attached are the rosters for each committee (Exhibit 11).

    1. Access to Justice Conference Planning Committee (permanent): (Colleen Kinerk, Chair) Mission: Organize and coordinate the annual Access to Justice Conferences. The fifth annual Access to Justice Conference was held jointly with the Washington State Bar Association, the Washington State Judiciary, the annual Bar Leaders Conference, and other groups, as part of "Celebration 2000" on September 13-16, 2000 in Spokane (Exhibit 12). The ATJ Conference included 12 sessions: Making the Courthouse Work for Pro Ses; Legislative Advocacy; Technology Training: Introduction to Microsoft Access 97; Will Access to Justice in the 21st Century Resuscitate, Shun or Re-toll Its Historic Fundamental Rights Jurisprudence?; Working for the Public Good No Matter Where You Work; Some Contemporary Issues of Children and the Law; Paralegal Utilization in Access to Justice; The Digital Divide and Digital Justice: Do Clients Need a Technology Bill of Rights?; Disabilities: A Barrier to Access; Barriers Facing Battered Women from Hard-to-Reach Communities. Two companion workshops, Beyond Political Correctness: Understanding Difference & Tackling Bias, Sessions A and B, focused on the need to address, in a statewide and coordinated way, the issues of diversity, inclusion and multiculturalism in the legal system and legal profession (Exhibit 13). The Moderately Talented (Yet Plucky) Repertory Theatre of Justice, presented its biggest production yet: The State's Greatest Superheroes: the Justice League of Washington vs. Supervillain Status Quo, "When Indifference Strikes" (Exhibit 14).

    2. Accountability Standards Committee (permanent): (Jim Bamberger, Chair) Mission: Develop a statewide institutional accountability system. In October 1999 the ATJ Board adopted the Civil Equal Justice Performance Standards, which are designed to measure grant performance for all providers in a way that will be meaningful to all funding entities, including the Legal Services Corporation, Legal Foundation of Washington, the State of Washington and others. There are six standards which encompass the benchmarks needed for a quality program and which are responsive to the Hallmarks and the Revised State Plan. The committee has been studying how other states are handling the process of overseeing and enforcing performance standards, and is considering what role the ATJ Board should play.

    3. Communications and Technology (ComTech) Committee (permanent): (Robin Lester, Chair) Mission: coordinate, implement and oversee statewide access to justice-related technology initiatives. This committee's work has focused on major initiatives developed in response to the Washington State Equal Justice Communications and Technology Vision, the Revised State Plan, ATJ Conference recommendations and recommendations from the Pro Bono and Legal Aid Committee. The following has been accomplished since the ATJ Board's August 31, 2000 Report:

    • Technology Bill of Rights: Retired King County Superior Court Judge Don Horowitz is chairing a Technology Bill of Rights Subcommittee of ComTech which is finalizing a three-year plan for the development and formal adoption of a technology bill of rights for Washington State (Exhibit 15). It was the focus of a workshop at the Access to Justice Conference at Celebration 2000, "The Digital Divide and Digital Justice: Do Clients Need a Technology Bill of Rights?" and was show-cased at a Seattle University School of Law Access to Justice Institute Colloquium in January 2001. Additionally, Judge Horowitz made presentations at the ABA Mid-Year Meeting in February 2001 and to numbers of potential funders and partners. The Access to Justice Board will be receiving $20,000- $25,000 annually for two years from the Horowitz Foundation, to be matched by a grant from the Open Society Institute, for support of this project.
    • Online Interactive Forms Project: This project enables pro se litigants to create their own documents online to obtain domestic violence protection orders. This "document assembly" software prompts the pro se litigant with a series of questions that, when answered, result in the production of pleadings which meet the mandatory form requirements, and which can be filed immediately. The Office of the Administrator for the Courts developed the software in partnership with the ATJ Board's ComTech Committee and the state's domestic violence community. The project currently is being piloted in King and Chelan Counties. After the project has been evaluated, the goal is to put these forms on the Internet for the benefit of pro se litigants and their advocates throughout the state.
    • Statewide Technology Upgrade: Since completing the task of securing hardware, software and Internet access for every program in the legal services provider network, the committee has been working to develop a software standard with a common data definition statewide. The goal is to be able to track and maintain every client record in the same way, thereby facilitating the compilation and analysis of statewide statistical information gathered from every program. This data definition standard is essential because the two statewide staffed legal services providers found it necessary to abandon Kemps Caseworks (used statewide) to develop a separate case management system (CASS) that could better accommodate their unique reporting requirements. Currently under discussion is a statewide upgrade for the volunteer attorney programs who currently use Kemps Caseworks. Options include upgrading Kemps or converting to CASS.
    • Gateway Web Site: The Council on Public Legal Education is taking the lead on developing a "gateway" web site for Washington State: www.lawforwashington.com. Members of the ComTech Committee, WSBA staff, and other interested advocacy groups are working closely with the Council to determine how all needs and interests of the Access to Justice Network can be met through a single web site.
    • Videophone Project: (Andy Guy, Chair) The ComTech Committee is working closely with WSBA's Pro Bono and Legal Aid Committee and the Northwest Justice Project on a pilot project, "Corporate Counsel Partnership for Justice" (Exhibit 16) that will link corporate legal departments with rural volunteer attorney legal services programs utilizing videoconferencing technology. The goal is to enable and encourage volunteers in attorney-rich Seattle to represent low income clients in rural parts of the state where there are few attorneys. The pilot project site will be Skamania County, which lacks both a legal services and a volunteer attorney legal services office. Boeing's Corporate Law Department will provide the legal services; CLEAR will provide the referrals; and the Skamania County Council on Sexual Abuse and Domestic Violence will provide the on-site client assistance.
    • Access to Justice Web Page: The WSBA Web Site now hosts an Access to Justice page (www@wsba.org/atj). There are two entry points: for the public looking for legal assistance and for WSBA members and others looking for volunteer opportunities and information about access to justice-related initiatives and activities. The goal is to serve as a host site for all members of the Access to Justice Network who do not have their own sites, and who wish to post notices of training events or meetings, and available services.
    • Listservs: To improve communication and facilitate the dissemination of access to justice-related information, WSBA hosts listservs for the volunteer attorney legal services programs, specialized legal services providers, the ATJ Board, each of the ATJ Board's committees, and WSBA's Pro Bono and Legal Aid Committee

    4. Courthouse Facilitator Committee (interim): (Michele Jones, Chair) Mission: Develop a courthouse facilitator rule for adoption by the Supreme Court. Early in 2000 this committee had circulated a draft courthouse facilitator rule (GR 21) for comment. However, it recently reviewed the proposed rule (GR 25) developed by the Board for Judicial Administration (BJA) and agreed to abandon its earlier draft in favor of supporting and promoting the BJA draft. The committee is seeking additional members from BJA's Domestic Violence Commission and, with leave from the BJA, will work to obtain community consensus about the draft rule and, ultimately, adoption by the Supreme Court.

    5. Editorial Advisory Committee (permanent): Mission: Plan the content for the Access to Justice Department in the WSBA Bar News and to look for additional publication opportunities. The committee has plans to meet with WSBA's recently hired Bar News Editor, to discuss long-range plans for publication of access to justice-related articles.

    6. Education Committee (permanent): (Hon. Linda Tompkins, Interim Chair; Hon. Jim Murphy, Chair beginning June 1, 2001) Mission: Coordinate justice-related educational initiatives for lawyers, law schools, the judiciary, the public and elected officials. The committee recently reviewed its previous goals and accomplishments and concluded that its current focus will be on educating judges and court personnel on access to justice. It will finalize key strategies at its April meeting.

    7. Equal Justice Coalition (EJC) (permanent): (Wayne Blair, Chair; Travis Sines, Vice Chair) Mission: Educate elected officials and the public about the importance of legal services to our community and to advocate for continued and increased support for civil legal services in Washington State. The Equal Justice Coalition was established by the ATJ Board in January 1995 at the request of the WSBA, legal services providers and members of the private bar, to respond to threats by Congress and the Washington State Legislature to cut funding for civil legal services. The EJC continues to work to develop a broad-based nonpartisan network of equal justice supporters around the state who understand and support the need for permanent and stable funding for civil legal services. Former EJC Chair and Seattle attorney John McKay is serving in his third year as President of the Legal Services Corporation. The Legal Foundation of Washington provides staff and support for the EJC.

    The recent focus of the EJC has been to work in concert with WSBA to develop a strategy for the 2001 state legislative session. At its June 2000 meeting the WSBA BOG unanimously adopted a resolution, Reaffirming a Civil Equal Justice Crisis and Calling upon the Judicial Branch to Assume a Leadership Role in its Resolution (Exhibit 17). A proposed companion resolution, Civil Equal Justice, was adopted by the Board for Judicial Administration in October 2000 (Exhibit 18), calling on the judicial branch to take a strong leadership role in increasing funding for civil legal services.

    "Summer of Justice," a four-month 32 county educational campaign designed to raise public awareness of, and support for, the need for civil legal services, culminated at Celebration 2000 in Spokane in September 2000, with the EJC sponsoring a workshop, "Legislative Advocacy 101." To date, more than 1,000 postcards have been signed by constituents urging their legislators to support an increase in funding. The "Summer of Justice" campaign has been featured at two national conferences, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA) and the National Association of IOLTA Programs (NAIP).

    Since the ATJ Board's August 31, 2000 Report, the EJC has published one issue of its newsletter, Justice at Work (Exhibit 19), which is mailed to more than 3,500 supporters. The EJC currently is revising of JAWS (Justice at Work), a publication designed to educate elected officials and others about the civil equal justice crisis in Washington State.

    8. Family Law Task Force (interim): (Hon. Paul Bastine and Alden Garrett, Co-Chairs) Mission: Recommend improvements to the availability and delivery of family law legal services, assistance and information in Washington State for low and moderate income people, including pro se litigants. The ATJ Board has concluded that the current systems for providing family law legal services, assistance and information in Washington State are inadequate to ensure meaningful access to the justice system for many low and moderate-income clients, including those proceeding pro se. Recognizing there have been other efforts to address these problems through committees, task forces, and the like, the ATJ Board nonetheless determined that little had been accomplished, and that significant changes to the system itself needed to be explored. The ATJ Board appointed a Family Law Access to Justice Task Force in early 2000 to recommend improvements. After spending six months studying readily available information and identifying the issues, problems and barriers that impede the availability and delivery of family law legal services, assistance and information, the Task Force issued a preliminary report with six major recommendations. The report was introduced at Celebration 2000 and has been mailed to over 700 interested parties seeking comment. A final report currently is being drafted.

    9. ATJ/YLD GAAP (Greater Access and Assistance Project) Committee (permanent): (Susan Daniel and Brian Born, Co-Chairs) Mission: Establish a structure to support viable moderate means panels in Washington State. A joint committee of the ATJ Board and the Washington Young Lawyers Division (YLD), the project has the support of the WSBA BOG in the form of funding for staff support. Formerly the ATJ Board Telephone Access Committee, the committee's focus has shifted from establishing a for-profit legal advice and referral hotline for moderate income people to establishing moderate means panels of attorneys throughout the state. The committee is supporting pilots in Spokane and Thurston Counties, which will utilize the services of CLEAR to screen and refer clients. Local bar associations and young lawyers groups will recruit lawyers to serve on panels which will offer moderate income clients reduced fees for designated legal services. The committee has developed guidelines for establishing GAAP panels in anticipation of the start-up of the pilots.

    Despite this shift in focus, the ATJ Board and the greater Access to Justice Network are exploring the possibility of establishing a not-for-profit legal information, advice and referral hotline, the income from which would support civil legal services providers. LAW Fund has provided seed money for a statewide feasibility study and business plan to determine how a not-for-profit hotline could be run in Washington State, whether it would generate adequate revenues to make it worth doing, and whether it is realistic given the goals of this community. The feasibility study and business plan are nearing completion.

    10. Impediments to Access to Justice Committee (permanent): (Hon. Anne Ellington, Chair) Mission: Identify and remove impediments to the justice system, including physical and language barriers, ineffectual and unworkable rules and procedures, disparate treatment and other obstacles that may serve as barriers to equal justice. The ATJ Board has combined its Systems and Status Impediments to Access to Justice Committees into an Impediments Committee. The committee met at Celebration 2000 to refine its goals:

    • Definition of "Impediment": In recognition of a need to define the potential scope of the committee's work, committee members will contact all relevant agencies, the courts and key organizations to identify whether they have in the past or are currently addressing issues of status impediments to access to justice and , if so, how. The goal is to discover what's being done around the state, both to catalogue the initiatives and to uncover issues that are not being addressed. Once this information is gathered, this Committee will develop a set of recommendations and a plan to implement them. The letter will be patterned on that used by the former Systems Impediments Committee to gather and catalogue information on existing or current studies, reports and initiatives.
    • Diversity, Inclusion and Multiculturalism: A key recommendation from the 2000 Access to Justice Conference was to develop a "Diversity/Inclusion/Multiculturalism Work Plan" for the statewide justice community. As a first step in this process, committee members will be serving on a justice community-wide workgroup to develop guidelines, language and criteria to foster justice system inclusion, diversity and multicultural competency, and to eliminate unfair bias. The workgroup's goal is to present a draft guidelines document to the justice community at the Access to Justice Conference in Wenatchee on June 8-10, 2001.
    • Attorneys Fees Legislation: The committee, along with WSBA will, for the third year offer proposed state legislation to amend the Equal Access to Justice Act to award payment of attorneys' fees for successful representation of persons in administrative hearings who are recipients of state services.
    • Identification of Administrative Procedural Barriers: The committee is continuing its analysis of current administrative procedures from an access to justice perspective to determine whether changes are appropriate. Responses from its initial questionnaire, Impediments in the Administrative Process of Public Programs that Appear to Deprive Low and Moderate Income Persons of Meaningful Access to Justice, were minimal. The committee has re-worked and simplified the language in the questionnaire, and is redistributing it to advocates.

      11. Jurisprudence of Access to Justice Committee (permanent): (Leonard Schroeter, Chair) Mission: Enhance understanding of the jurisprudential foundations of access to justice. Its initiatives are broad-based, and include publishing significant law review and other articles; assisting the courts in identifying significant access to justice issues; convening forums to discuss these issues; and providing assistance to ATJ Board committees and other groups in identifying constitutional bases for their proposals/activities.

      Central to the committee's activities is a workshop at the annual Access to Justice Conference. "Will Access to Justice in the 21st Century Resuscitate, Shun or Re-tool Its Historic Fundamental Rights Jurisprudence?" was this year's program.

      The law firm of Stritmatter Kessler Whelan Withey Coluccio recently established the Schroeter Constitutional Justice Center, a non-profit public interest organization. The SCJC was founded to promote and protect the constitutional integrity of the civil justice system, and to create a jurisprudential think tank for generating ideas and strategies to advance and broaden discussion of our constitutional rights.

      12. Law-Related Services Committee (interim): (Hon. T.W. Small and Scott Smith, Co-Chairs) Mission: Assist the Supreme Court and WSBA in determining under what circumstances non lawyers could be authorized to provide legal and law-related services. At its annual meeting with the Supreme Court on March 2, 2000, the Court asked the ATJ Board for assistance in defining the criteria and developing a framework for regulating the practice of non lawyers in Washington State. Subsequent to that meeting, WSBA BOG's Committee to Define the Practice of Law invited four members of the ATJ Board to join its committee for a similar purpose. The BOG unanimously adopted amendments to its proposed definition(GR 22) and a companion rule (GR 23) to establish a Practice of Law Board. Both proposed rules are before the Supreme Court.

      13. ATJ/PLE Media Committee (permanent): (Ruth Walsh McIntyre and Hugh Spitzer, Co-Chairs) Mission: Develop and implement a coordinated plan to invigorate, empower and educate the media and the public about issues pertaining to the law, the justice system, and the need for legal services. Given the similar and over-lapping media-related goals of the ATJ Board and the PLE Council, the two groups agreed a joint committee was appropriate. Although committee members are still being identified, the following initiatives are anticipated: improving the quality, accuracy and frequency of media coverage with regard to the law, the justice system and the need for legal services; educating the media about the justice system, the legal "experts" and issues of access/legal services; educating the public vis-à-vis the media about the law, the justice system and issues of access/legal services; and coordinating communications within and between the ATJ and PLE networks. The committee currently is completing the development of a Media Resource Guide to enable members of media to contact the appropriate individuals/organizations for specific information.

      14. Resource Development Committee (permanent): (Greg Dallaire, Chair) Mission: Implement the resource development protocol in the Revised State Plan and serve as a resource/facilitator regarding funding issues and initiatives. Originally established to raise funds for the ATJ Board, this committee is being reconfigured to address statewide resource development needs. The ATJ Board and Chair Greg Dallaire are finalizing a set of goals for the committee. The committee members have not yet been selected.

      15. Unbundled Legal Services Committee (interim): (Barrie Althoff, Chair) Mission: Develop a rule on unbundled legal services for adoption by the Supreme Court. This committee is being established in response to a recommendation from the Access to Justice Conference. A preliminary draft rule is being circulated for comment.

      III. NUMBER ONE PRIORITY IS ADEQUATE FUNDING

      The ATJ Board is pleased to have received a unanimous vote of confidence from both the BOG and the Supreme Court to be made a permanent entity in Washington State. Unfortunately, it is unlikely in our lifetimes that the battle for equal access to our justice system will be won, but that doesn't mean we won't continue to fight the good fight.

      Despite the progress that has been made in leveraging the limited resources that are available to assist the low and moderate income persons in our state with their legal needs, we are acutely aware of how limited those resources are and how fragile they are. If, for example, the federal court ultimately determines that our IOLTA program for Limited Practice Officers is unconstitutional and must be enjoined, then the funding for Columbia Legal Services will be severely reduced. If the state legislature, under severe fiscal pressures, reduces or eliminates funding for legal services, then additional reductions will be required. And, if appropriations to the Legal Services Corporation are reduced by Congress, then the Northwest Justice Project will have its funding reduced. The ATJ Board, along with the leadership of this Court, WSBA and many others, must make it our number one priority to seek expanded and stable funding for our civil legal services provider network.

      The ATJ Board welcomes your feedback on, and involvement in, our initiatives. Partnerships with the judiciary and the bar are critical to our success. Thank you for your vote of confidence in our work, and for your continued support of access to justice in Washington State. On a personal note, since my term on the ATJ Board ends in May, I want to sincerely thank the Court for allowing me this opportunity to serve. It has been particularly rewarding for me to work with such a distinguished and dedicated group of professionals. I only wish I could have done more. Thank you.

      Very truly yours,

      Judge T.W. Small, Chair
      Access to Justice Board

      Cc: Justice Bobbe Bridge
      Justice Tom Chambers
      Justice Faith Ireland
      Justice Charles W. Johnson
      Justice Barbara A. Madsen
      Justice Susan J. Owens
      Justice Richard B. Sanders
      Justice Charles Z. Smith
      OAC Administrator Mary McQueen
      WSBA President-Elect Dale L. Carlisle
      WSBA Governor Kenneth H. Davidson
      WSBA Governor James E. Deno
      WSBA Governor Jenny A. Durkan
      WSBA Governor Daryl L. Graves
      WSBA Governor Stephen John Henderson
      WSBA Governor William D. Hyslop
      WSBA Governor Lucy Isaki
      WSBA Governor Stephen T. Osborne
      WSBA Governor Brooke S. Taylor
      WSBA Governor Lindsay T. Thompson
      WSBA Governor Victoria L. Vreeland
      WSBA Executive Director M. Janice Michels