1972, January, Pg. 33. Annual Report of the President.

• Author: William P. Cantwell

1 Colo.Law. 33

Colorado Lawyer

1972.

1972, January, Pg. 33.

Annual Report of the President

331972, January, Pg. 33Annual Report of the PresidentWilliam P. CantwellThe following is the annual report of the Association's president to the members of the Association upon completion of his term of office.At the beginning of my term I concluded that the emphasis during my year as president of the association would be in three areas, I assessed the paramount problem as being protection of our achievements with the Colorado judicial system and developing advances in that system. The second most pressing problem appeared to me to be that of soothing the concern of many members of the bar who had become upset with the advent of federally funded programs to provide legal services for indigent persons. The third major problem, closely related to the second, was that of investigating and creating a mechanism to provide legal services to persons of moderate means.

As the year closes I am only satisfied with our achievement toward the second of these three objectives. I find much unfinished work with the first and much cerebration but little tangible progress on the third.

Legal Services to the PoorIn the area of the relations between the organized bar and the lawyers working on the federal payroll to provide legal services to the poor I feel that we have made very substantial progress and that the relationship is probably as quiet as we may ever expect it to be. I attribute the success in this area to the strong and devoted personal efforts of Lawrence Wood of Denver, chairman of the Committee on Legal Services to the Poor, and now president-elect of the association. In each community where strained relations existed, Larry exercised great diplomacy and tact, and I believe that the strong backing which the association showed for the role played by lawyers furnishing services to the unfortunate was helpful to him in this. What now seems to exist is an awareness, based on knowledge, of the purposes of the lawyers for the poor. While it is unlikely that polarization will ever be eliminated, we can be satisfied that most of the tensions, angers, and even violence that were present a year ago have been alleviated and that the worst is largely behind us.

In addition to the de-escalation of such tensions, the association has pursued an aggressive program of developing new voluntary programs of legal aid in communities of all sizes. It has carefully followed and backed federal legislation in the area. It is just now embarking on a study of a state-wide legal services corporation similar to pioneering efforts in Oregon and New Mexico as a possible way to bring together various types of

34legal service programs of both the fullfunded and the "Judicare" type---the latter being similar to Medicare in utilizing established lawyers who receive funds from a government agency for services rendered to indigent persons.

Legal services for indigents in the criminal sector have not been neglected. The association has been in close touch with the office of the Colorado Public Defender and with the Public Defender Committee of the Colorado Supreme Court. The negotiations resulted in association approval of a plan for reintroduction of purely voluntary efforts to the area of criminal defense. This program is just getting under way in Denver, and it is hoped that it will establish a pattern for other communities throughout the state in which the local Public Defender's Office is nearly inundated or needs assistance because of conflict problems.

The Administration of JusticeIt would give me the greatest pleasure if I could report the same measure of satisfaction in the problem that I consider to be the paramount one---continuing improvements in our judiciary system. We did score successes in this area. We faced the first major election campaign on a yes-no ballot, and in that regard we utilized judicial polls in a number of communities to indicate the bar's posture with respect to the candidates who were running. In what a great many lawyers consider to have been a very unfortunate development for the individual judge involved, we nevertheless did see an example of the fact that the yes-no election does not universally end with the return of the judge to office. In abstract terms, wholly removed from the result to that judge, the fact that this election verified that "the system works" may well be a source of strength in future years in defending it. The association clearly recognizes that this is of little consolation to the individual judge who lost that particular election and who had received a favorable vote in the poll of his local association. We have studied this particular election to learn how a judge who receives such a favorable vote in a judicial poll can best be served by the association conducting the poll. While there have been no indicators to test the lessons learned in this situation, it is hoped that they will have lasting value.

Following the election, the association faced the third in a consecutive series of challenges to the judicial selection, tenure and removal amendment emanating from the Colorado General Assembly. As in the previous two attempts to place the substance of the 1966 amendment on the ballot for reconsideration by the voters, this third attempt was defeated in the legislature, and it may be of some significance that the defeat occured at the committee level rather than in a floor vote.

The association joined forces with judicial officers throughout the state to develop legislative support for increased compensation for judges and in a year in which funds for increased compensation for anyone were virtually non-existent we were successful in achieving a modest improvement in judicial salaries. The problem appears to be a perennial one and study must continue to determine how judicial salaries may be placed on a proper footing and removed from the virtually annual renewal of trench warfare between the judiciary and the legislature over pay-bills. The problem with the present process is that it exhausts the resources of the association and the judiciary, and produces an unfortunate public image of the judiciary as having its hat always held in its hand. The association has been firmly unified with the judiciary in its quest for adequate compensation and must always remain so. However, we and the judges themselves would like to devote our energies to the many more serious problems and to have this eliminated from its present dominant position. Unfortunately an attempt to build in annual increments for several years which was proposed in the 1971 legislation was

35defeated, largely because of the funding problems. Achievement of at least this type of legislative reform would mean that the judges could stay away from the legislature for a few years. What may well be needed is some sort of "typing" formula so that the salaries will follow some independently operating index. This would probably mean a constitutional amendment, and either it or some other self-operating mechanism for adequate compensation must remain high on the association's agenda for future years.

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