Florida Civil Legal UPDATE

I have just received the list of ADA coordinators for each program from Sharon Caserta of JALA.  The chart is hard to duplicate here, but click over to the FLS website for the full list.

The Florida Bar Foundation

Leadership & Funding for Justice in Florida:  heady words, no question.  But when combined with decisive and thoughtful action, their promise is fulfilled.  Such was the case last month when a group of seasoned legal aid attorneys met in Orlando to begin The Florida Bar Foundation’s Leadership Development Institute.  In participation with the Center for Legal Aid Education, the Foundation has called together 15 experienced advocates to act as mentors for up-and-coming staff at programs around the state.  The Leadership Development Initiative was conceived based on needs discovered in the course of a 2007 study by Kelly Carmody.  It is endorsed and supported by the Florida Project Directors Association.

The Florida Leadership Development Institute supports fellows in developing their leadership skills and becoming recognized leaders in the legal aid community.  The Florida Leadership Development Institute will not only encourage fellows to continue in their careers as legal aid attorneys, but also assist them in developing the skills and confidence necessary to become the future leaders of the Florida legal services delivery system.

The 2009 class of fellows will meet in Orlando later this month.  In addition to in-person meetings, participants in the Institute are also using cutting-edge technology to interact on the internet through software provided by the Center for Legal Aid Education.  Throughout the year, we will bring you profiles and information concerning the projects being undertaken by the fellows.

The 2009 Fellows are: Kim Banister of Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, Dawn Bates-Buchanan of Gulfcoast Legal Services, Viletta Combs of Florida Legal Services, Roberto Cruz of the Legal Advocacy Center of Central Florida, Cara Dobrev of the Legal Aid Society of the OCBA, Jennifer Hill of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, Jamie Ibrahim of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Lizzie Johnson of Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, Lissette Labrousse of Legal Services of Greater Miami, Jacina Parson of Legal Services of North Florida, Ariel Patterson of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Laura Pichardo of Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, Deborah Rivera of Three Rivers Legal Services, Ilenia Sanchez-Bryson of Legal Services of Greater Miami, and Tim Stevens of the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County.

The Institute’s mentors are: Rose-Marie Archibald of Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, Tess Arrington of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Lisa Carmona of the Florida Equal Justice Center, Andrea Costello of Florida Institutional Legal Services, Amy Guinan of Florida Legal Services, Mary Haberland of Bay Area Legal Services, Chris Larson of Florida Rural Legal Services, Jimmy Midyette of Florida Legal Services, Carol Miller of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Tequisha Myles of the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, Leslie Powell of Legal Services of North Florida, Gabriela Ruiz of Southern Legal Counsel, Sue Selsky of the Seminole County Legal Aid Scoiety, and Larri Thatcher of the Legal Aid Society of the OCBA.

The Gray Lady has weighed in concerning funding for civil legal aid in the State of New York.  I credit the Times for taking notice of what many of have long known:

In the real world — unlike courtroom TV — people usually get the justice they can pay for, and those who cannot afford lawyers end up bearing an unfair burden. People need decent representation when doing battle with bad landlords and employers, callous health maintenance organizations and government agencies, disgruntled business partners and grasping relatives. And in an era of predatory home loans, the legal needs of distressed homeowners are urgent and steadily rising.

Advocates for the poor argue, persuasively, that outlays for civil legal services are budgetary pennies that save many dollars. A foreclosure prevented is an eviction avoided, a family kept from homelessness — and a considerable burden lifted from the government’s social-service safety net. With legal help, poor people can avoid litigation, easing the load on judges and courtrooms. They can get food stamps, leveraging federal dollars in an underused program. If they avoid the poorhouse they will have, by definition, more money to spend, increasing sales tax revenues and benefiting local businesses.

Closer to home, we’ve been fortunate for the faithful stewardship of The Florida Bar Foundation, and its effective IOTA-based funding strategy.  However, hope springs eternal that Florida leaders will be kind to the Florida Access to Civil Legal Assistance Act in the next session of the legislature.

A hat-tip to the SC Access to Justice Blog for writing their own post about this editorial.

We love Kelly Carmody.  We really, really love Kelly Carmody.  She has a way of getting people to talk.  And then she has a way of getting them to listen.

This time, she has the rapt attention of the organized Bar.  This article in The Florida Bar News should be required reading for every member.

“We had strong indications of some severe drops in pro bono activity in terms of number of hours and number of cases — the statistics were a little spotty, but it was pretty evident,” says Paul Doyle, who directs the Foundation’s Legal Services for the Poor grant funding program. “There was a growing concern that we were not paying enough attention to the pro bono delivery system — that we were failing to keep it vibrant and alive — just by what I would call benign neglect.”

The Florida Bar received national recognition for its pro bono program in the early ’90s and pro bono contributions increased. But it’s gone downhill since 2001. Since then, the report states, “Case-by-case attempts to revitalize pro bono programs have been generally unsuccessful.”