The March Issue

In this month’s issue, we highlight A2JC advocating for civil legal aid funding, the Daily Record’s Editorial Advisory Board urging support for civil legal aid, and a new report on language services in the Maryland Courts, a study showing eviction prevention can save money and prevent trauma, and the biannual Baltimore Expungement Clinic. We also showcase Gov. Moore’s testimony for bills aimed at making housing more affordable, the Colorado Supreme Court’s Committee voting to explore how AI can foster access to justice, and discuss why legal equality is key to women’s economic rights and well-being and the end of the Maryland Homeowner Assistance Fund. You can find all this and more in this month’s issue.

A2J Commission News

• A2JC Strongly Advocates for Civil Legal Aid Funding and Urges YOUR Support! There is an urgent need for $14.8M in civil legal aid funding to continue to implement the transformative Access to Counsel in Evictions law and for civil legal aid organizations to continue to provide other life-saving work to keep Marylanders housed, economically secure, and safe. The Governor’s Renters’ Rights and Housing Stabilization Act of 2024, HB693/ SB481, is the only mechanism during the 2024 legislative session to fund civil legal aid. The bill raises the filing fee in eviction cases, prohibits the pass-through of the fees to the tenant, and uses 50% of the revenue generated from increased fees to fund MLSC and civil legal aid. We urge you to contact your legislators and push for critical civil legal aid funding.

• The Daily Record Editorial Advisory Board Urges Support for Civil Legal Aid  The Daily Record Editorial Advisory Board supports funding civil legal aid this legislative session and calls it a “good investment.”

• Save the Date for the A2JC’s Public Interest Law Committee’s Reception! Calling all MSBA members and future members interested in advancing the public interest! The Maryland Access to Justice Commission’s Public Interest Law Committee will be hosting a reception after the Pro Bono Resource Center’s Partners for Justice Conference. The Conference takes place on Wednesday, May 22 from 8:15am to 3:30am at the Baltimore Convention Center. The PIL Committee’s reception will take place immediately after the Conference from 3:30pm to 4:30pm at the same location. You do not have to attend the conference to attend the Public Interest Law Committee’s Reception! Registration coming soon!

• We’ll See You by the Ocean! The Access to Justice Commission will once again host a casual welcome dinner and fundraiser at the MSBA Legal Summit on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. Join us for great food, company and to support civil justice for all!

Tips from Maryland Judiciary’s Access to Justice Department                         

We are pleased to offer recurring content from the Maryland Judiciary’s Access to Justice Department as part of the A2J Dispatch.

• New Report on Language Services in the Maryland Courts The Maryland Judiciary provided in-person interpreters for over 19,000 court proceedings and services in Fiscal Year 2023. A new report, Language Services in the Maryland Courts – Fiscal Year 2023, provides details about the full range of services provided to enhance access to justice for persons with limit English including information about a new pilot to explore the use of qualified bilingual court employees, court interpreter recruitment, the use of Spanish staff interpreters, and more.

Local A2J News

• MD Coalition Says Investing in Eviction Prevention Can Save State Money, Prevent Trauma For every dollar invested in preventing evictions, Maryland could save nearly $2.50 in what evictions cost. That’s according to a study by Stout Risius & Ross with the Maryland Center on Economic Policy and members of the Maryland Eviction Prevention Funds Alliance. Lisa Sarro is legal counsel for Arundel Community Development Services. We ask Sarro about the need in Anne Arundel County and who is most at risk of eviction.

• Commentary: Homeowner Assistance Fund Ends Amid Persistent Foreclosure Risks The Maryland Homeowner Assistance Fund represented a lifeline for low-income residents at risk of losing their homes. The fund was officially spent or allocated all the $185 million that was provided by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development to assist homeowners with mortgages, reverse mortgages, homeowners insurance, water bills, property taxes, and home ownership association fee defaults. Depletion of the fund means the end of one of the most significant assistance programs for low-income homeowners in the 21st century, particularly for Maryland Legal Aid clients.

• Hundreds Get Legal Help at Biannual Baltimore Expungement Clinic More than 200 people received complimentary legal counsel on Saturday as Johns Hopkins co-hosted its eighth expungement clinic and resources fair as part of the B’More Healthy Expo at the Baltimore Convention Center. Held in partnership with Maryland Legal Aid and the Monumental City Bar Association, this biannual event gives individuals the opportunity to receive free legal advice and potentially remove certain criminal charges and other offenses from their public records.

• Maryland Officials Reverse Course Will Fully Reimburse SNAP Theft Victims The Maryland Department of Human Services will fully reimburse stolen food assistance, reversing course on a policy that limited how much, and how often, theft victims could be refunded. The policy change was announced Tuesday in an internal policy memo to department staff, effectively ending many of the restrictions on how stolen food assistance can be replaced.

• Maryland Gov. Moore Testifies for Bills Aimed at Making Housing More Affordable Maryland Gov. Wes Moore testified Tuesday in support of measures aimed at making housing more affordable and protecting renters, some of the governor’s top priorities this legislative session. Moore, a Democrat, told lawmakers that the state is facing “a true housing crisis,” largely due to a lack of housing supply. He said that’s holding back the state’s economic growth as well as making it more expensive to live in Maryland.

National A2J News                           

• Access to Justice Is More Than a Punch Line in Rural Areas How much do you know about the rural access-to-justice gap? You may not know the term, but you know what it means if you’ve heard or seen even small amounts of pop-culture media.

• Access To Justice Means Language Justice DOJ Official Says The U.S. Department of Justice said some language barriers in the justice system have been mitigated but that more work needs to be done to ensure non-English speakers have equitable access to the courts.

• Access to Justice Requires Access to Law. So Why Aren’t the Advocates of Each More Closely Aligned? Two travesties persist in tainting access by all to the U.S. legal system. One is the gaping lack of access to justice. The Legal Services Corporation estimates that 92% of the civil legal problems of the roughly 50 million low-income Americans receive no or insufficient legal help. Reasonable minds can quibble over that number – some say it is exaggerated – but no one doubts or disputes that the legal system falls dramatically short of serving those who need it, not just for those with low incomes, but also for the middle class and small businesses.

• Colorado Supreme Court Committee Votes to Explore Role of AI in Practice of Law An advisory committee to the Colorado Supreme Court recently created a subcommittee that will evaluate existing rules barring the unauthorized practice of law to determine if changes are necessary to accommodate emerging artificial intelligence-powered legal tools. The March 1 vote of the Advisory Committee on the Practice of Law came at the request of the Colorado Access to Justice Commission. The commission advocates for expanded legal aid and better tools for self-represented litigants in civil cases. The commission’s director, Elisa Overall, noted AI tools can foster access to justice and efficiency in the legal profession.

• NY Law Professor is Calling on ‘Lawyer Nation’ to Reform Ray Brescia, a law professor at Albany Law School in New York, has taken a hard look at the country’s legal system in his new book, Lawyer Nation: The Past, Present, and Future of the American Legal Profession. Brescia tells the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles about the efforts in the late 19th and early 20th century to exclude people from the legal profession who were not part of the dominant social class and how access-to-justice issues persist today as a result of some of those measures.

• Why Legal Equality Is Key To Women’s Economic Rights And Well-Being Women’s economic opportunities, rights, and well-being are being denied worldwide by sex-discriminatory laws and policies that curtail women’s access to employment, equal pay, property ownership, and inheritance. Governments need to take urgent action to repeal or amend sex-discriminatory legislation that is hampering not only the socio-economic progress of women and their families but also of their countries.

• Diversion of IOLA Funds Will Degrade Access to Justice A wide range of groups and individuals are calling on Governor Kathy Hochul to scrap her plan to divert $100 million from New York’s Interest on Lawyer Account (IOLA) Fund to the General Budget, warning that depleting the fund will have severe effects on access to justice and the state’s economy.

• Legal Experts Tackle Barriers to Civil Justice at ASU Conference Millions of U.S. citizens grapple with civil justice issues each year. These might be in the form of work disputes, custody battles, tenancy challenges or personal injury. However, many individuals lack the resources or know-how to navigate their issues effectively, which can lead to outcomes in the form of lost wages, benefits or homes. In many cases, a just resolution gets left behind.  At Arizona State University’s Access to Justice and the Future of Justice Work Conference, legal experts and advocates gathered Feb. 28–March 1 to challenge this status quo and explore ways to make civil justice more accessible for everyday citizens.

• Preventing Home Loss & Closing the Racial Wealth Gap According to a new National Consumer Law Center report, increasing home costs, economic crises, and persistent structural barriers to fair housing have all contributed in some way to a widening homeownership gap between white households and households of color—especially Black households.  As a result of this finding, advocates have been working with policymakers by devoting considerable attention to increasing access to homeownership for first-time homebuyers of color.