November 2009

Justice in Jeopardy and Civil Legal Aid: Real Progress Achieved, a Long Way to Go

by Jim Bamberger

"The provision of civil legal aid services to indigent persons is an important component of the state's responsibility to provide for the proper and effective administration of civil and criminal justice." RCW 2.53.005.

The 2003 Civil Legal Needs Study said it all: 75 percent of all low-income households experience an important civil legal problem each year. Of these, nearly nine in ten are unable to get the legal help they need to resolve their problems. Those households that experience a civil legal problem have, on average, more than three such problems. The greatest areas of legal need relate to:

• Housing
• Family law
• Employment
• Consumer issues
• Access to governmental and health benefits and services

Women and children experience legal problems far more often and in far greater numbers than others, especially on matters relating to family law and domestic violence.[1]

In 2004, the facts were these: State-funded civil legal aid services were present on a hit-or-miss basis. If you were poor and lived near the larger population centers, you might have had a chance of getting legal help. But if you were poor and lived in rural and remote parts of the state, your access to the legal aid system was generally limited to the Coordinated Legal Education, Advice, and Referral System (CLEAR) legal aid hotline operated by the Northwest Justice Project (NJP).

The state of Washington was a significant, but minority, contributor to the civil legal aid system in 2004, providing about $4.9 million per year for civil legal aid. In its Final Report,[2] the Supreme Court's Task Force on Civil Equal Justice Funding determined that an additional $18.25 million per year was needed to address the legal problems of the poor in areas for which the Legislature had statutorily authorized funding.[3] This included matters affecting the most basic personal and family needs such as housing preservation; family safety; access to essential health, income, nutritional, and other governmental assistance; and protection against home foreclosures.[4]

The crisis documented in the Civil Legal Needs Study and the findings and recommendations outlined by the Task Force on Civil Equal Justice Funding became part of the overall effort to address critical justice system failures in Washington state — an effort that has become known as the Justice in Jeopardy Initiative.

Institutionalizing Civil Legal Aid as a Nonpartisan Judicial Branch Function

For too many years, civil legal aid was viewed as a social-service program, one remnant of a war on poverty grounded in a philosophy of liberal social activism. Year in and year out, pitched partisan battles raged over the level of service and rules relating to state and federal civil legal aid funding.

In 2004, the Supreme Court's Task Force on Civil Equal Justice Funding offered a different vision of civil legal aid, one grounded in the state's nonpartisan commitment to the fair and impartial administration of justice. The Task Force recommended that all civil legal aid appropriations be administered by a separate judicial branch agency (until then, legal aid had been administered through the executive branch) and that all legislation relating to the use of state-appropriated legal aid funding be recodified into a new chapter within Title 2 of the RCW that covers the judicial branch.

In 2005, the first year of the Justice in Jeopardy Initiative, the Legislature agreed. With unanimous votes in the House and wide margins in the Senate, it passed landmark legislation (HB 1747) moving administration and oversight for civil legal aid to the judicial branch, establishing the Office of Civil Legal Aid as an independent judicial branch agency to administer and oversee state-funded civil legal aid services and creating the bipartisan Civil Legal Aid Oversight Committee.
Senator Linda Evans Parlette (R-Chelan County) is a legislative veteran who hails from a region that has seen its share of concern about legal aid. Currently serving on the bipartisan Civil Legal Aid Oversight Committee, she observed:

For many years the idea of taxpayers funding civil legal aid was very controversial in some legislative districts, and was the subject of significant partisan concern in my caucus. Over the past decade, and most recently through the Justice in Jeopardy Initiative, we have achieved bipartisan consensus regarding the role that state-funded civil legal aid should play and put the pieces in place to ensure that the state-funded civil legal aid system is well-managed and accountable to the clients it serves and the taxpayers. Today, the state-funded Northwest Justice Project is a well-respected part of our community's justice system. NJP attorneys are viewed as effective advocates for their low-income clients, many of whom have nowhere else to turn when faced with important legal problems. They are respected as problem solvers on matters of significant community concern and respected members of our local bar.

2005–2009: Expanding the State Civil Legal Aid Footprint

From the outset, the principal focus of the Justice in Jeopardy Initiative has been to achieve greater statewide investment in trial courts and related judicial-branch functions. In the area of civil legal aid, appropriations have increased by $6.9 million per year, and significant gains have been made in expanding client service capacity throughout the state.

Beginning in 2005, NJP has used increased appropriations to expand into areas that had not seen a legal aid office for years or even decades: Walla Walla (2005), Pasco (2006), Port Angeles (2007), Aberdeen (2007), Longview (2007), and Colville (2008). NJP was able to increase staff capacity in other offices serving rural and remote client populations and extend legal aid hotline service into King County. The number of full-time attorneys grew from 75 in 2004 to 113 today. Across the state, more clients are able to access the state-funded legal aid system, and the difference is being noted by civic, judicial, and social services leaders.

Christina Pegg, executive director of the Longview Housing Authority, notes: "The Northwest Justice Project has become a valuable partner in assuring that scarce subsidized housing resources are targeted to those with the greatest need and that they are utilized thoughtfully and fairly. NJP provides a crucial voice to insure equal treatment for the low-income families and individuals served by our important safety net programs."

Commenting on the impact of the new legal aid office in Aberdeen, Tom Brown, a partner with the law firm of Brown, Lewis, Janhunen & Spencer, says: "The arrival of the Northwest Justice Project has been a breath of fresh justice to Grays Harbor and Pacific counties. We know that we still have to do our share as volunteers; but we now have trained, savvy professionals — backed by a sophisticated statewide program — to walk beside us."

Former WSBA President and Clallam County Superior Court Judge Brooke Taylor observes that "restoration of a permanent legal aid office on the Olympic Peninsula nearly 25 years after the last one closed has made a great difference to the low-income residents of our region, and to the courts. The Northwest Justice Project's attorneys provide effective assistance to individuals in crisis and help support our local pro bono efforts. Further, the mere presence of NJP serves as a deterrent to those who might otherwise take advantage of unrepresented individuals or abuse the legal process."

Justice in Jeopardy and Legal Aid: The Urgency Continues

Over the four years of the Justice in Jeopardy Initiative, the civil legal aid system has seen remarkable growth. But we have a long way to go before we can the system is meaningfully available to those who need it.

The current "great recession" has wreaked havoc on the poor and near-poor. As of the writing of this article, 336,000 people in Washington state are out of work and the unemployment rate stands at 9.3 percent. Homes are being foreclosed upon in record numbers; tenants are being evicted from foreclosed houses and apartment buildings. Essential governmental services are being eliminated due to governmental budget cuts, and low-income people increasingly find themselves preyed upon by payday lenders, foreclosure rescue scam artists, and predatory lenders. Family conflict continues to result in high numbers of women and children being victimized by violence, with nowhere to turn for safety and security. Our courthouses are clogged with pro se family law and housing litigants who desperately need legal assistance. Despite the gains realized over the past four years, the Justice Gap chronicled in the 2003 Civil Legal Needs Study continues to grow.

In the coming years, we will continue to work as one branch, with one voice and with a clear sense of where we are going. We must ensure that our trial courts, indigent defense services, and civil legal aid programs have the resources they need — our common commitment to the fair and impartial administration of civil and criminal justice in Washington demands it.

We will do so until justice is no longer in jeopardy. 

Jim Bamberger is the director of the Washington State Office of Civil Legal Aid and a long-time legal aid advocate.

NOTES
 1.  Washington State Supreme Court, Task Force on Civil Equal Justice Funding, Civil Legal Needs Study (September 2003), www.courts.wa.gov/newsinfo/content/taskforce/civillegalneeds.pdf.
 2.  Washington State Supreme Court, Task Force on Civil Equal Justice Funding Final Report, (May 2004) at 3.
 3.  See RCW 2.53.030(2)(a)-(k).
4. Washington State Supreme Court, Task Force on  Civil Equal Justice Funding, Final Report (May 2004) at 2.