Judicial Advisory Council Report: Meeting Unmet Legal Needs, Including Mandatory Pro Bono and Reporting

• Publication year: 1998
• Pages: 31
• Citation: Vol. 27 No. 8 Pg. 31

27 Colo.Law. 31 Colorado Lawyer 1998.

1998, August, Pg. 31. Judicial Advisory Council Report: Meeting Unmet Legal Needs, Including Mandatory Pro Bono and Reporting

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31

Vol. 27, No. 8, Pg. 31

The Colorado Lawyer
August 1998
Vol. 27, No. 8 [Page 31]

Features

Judicial Advisory Council Report: Meeting Unmet Legal Needs Including Mandatory Pro Bono and Reporting

In January 1997, Colorado Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Kourlis, acting on the basis of requests from the Colorado Bar Association to Chief Justice Anthony Vollack, and passed along to her, formed a Legal Services/Pro Bono Subcommittee to the Colorado Supreme Court Judicial Advisory Council ("Council"). She asked this subcommittee, composed of lawyers in private practice, judges, law school faculty and distinguished lay persons to

1) explore developing and implementing an effective plan to raise critically needed funds for Colorado's legal services programs

2) make recommendations to increase the amount of pro bono service performed by Colorado lawyers; and

3) explore the role of judges in encouraging lawyers to engage in pro bono service.

The subcommittee met thirteen times and issued a report making recommendations in four key areas. At its June 12, 1998, meeting, the Council adopted the subcommittee's recommendations regarding meeting unmet legal needs (financing) and increased involvement of the judiciary. These recommendations have been forwarded to the Supreme Court for its consideration.

To allow input from the bar and the public, the Council deferred action for at least six months on the recommendations regarding changes in Rule of Professional Conduct 6.11 to require lawyers to perform pro bono service and to make mandatory annual reporting on the amount of pro bono legal services provided. Before turning to specific recommendations, however, the reader should have in mind some of the information considered by the subcommittee.

The Unmet Legal Needs Of Coloradans

Regrettably, far too many Coloradans do not receive critically needed legal advice and representation because they are unable to pay attorney fees. Legal difficulties of low-income Coloradans often involve their ability to provide for basic human needs such as food, shelter, and health care. A recent California report surveyed more than twenty-five studies conducted over the past twenty years and concluded that more than 80 percent of the legal needs of the nation's poor are not being met.

In Colorado, as in other states, there is a great unmet need for legal services for the poor. The Council estimates that 130,000 low-income Colorado households experience civil legal problems each year. In contrast, Colorado's civil legal services programs for the poor served approximately 27,000 clients in 1996, and pro bono lawyers served an additional 3,000 to 5,000 clients during the same period. Thus, legal services and pro bono attorneys met only approximately 25 percent of the legal needs of poor people in Colorado.

The ability of Colorado's legal services programs to meet the legal needs of low-income Coloradans has declined in part because of the one-third cutback of federal funding in 1996. As a result of that cutback, total legal services funding from all sources in Colorado decreased from approximately $6 million to $4.9 million between 1995 and 1996. Federal funding has continued at approximately the same reduced level in 1997 and 1998.

Additionally, significant restrictions have been added to federal legal services programs that limit their abilities to provide legal services effectively and efficiently. Notable among the new restrictions are prohibitions against litigating class actions, a prohibition on the receipt of attorney fees from opposing parties, and a prohibition on involvement with issues challenging welfare reform.

Unfortunately, the decline in funding for legal services programs has not been offset by an increase in the number of attorneys willing to provide pro bono representation. On the contrary, pro bono coordinators throughout the state have indicated that the number of pro bono lawyers has either stagnated or decreased in recent years. Thus, if the...