Audio clip
Janice Holder
NASHVILLE -- A pro bono summit in Nashville next year and an unprecedented partnership with public libraries are among the Tennessee Supreme Court's main goals for increasing awareness and access to the legal system for the state's poorest residents.
Chief Justice Janice M. Holder announced the goals Tuesday at the state Capitol. They are the product of almost two years of work in which the court has worked with lawyers and judges across the state to identify ways to combat the legal aid crisis in Tennessee.
"Lack of equal access in our civil courts remains one of the most pressing issues facing our court system today," Justice Holder told a crowd of onlookers.
She reiterated that the state Supreme Court's No. 1 strategic priority continues to be making sure people who cannot afford legal representation will be able to get the help they need.
The Access to Justice Commission, which the court formed in early 2009, largely helped identify all four top goals. They include engaging more lawyers in pro bono work, creating more educational opportunities for people who represent themselves in court, making the justice system more user-friendly and removing barriers to access to justice such as language, literacy and geography.
While those accused in criminal court have a constitutional right to be represented by a lawyer, there is no such remedy for those entangled in civil disputes. People in Tennessee who fall below the federal poverty level, however, qualify for legal aid, but the state's 81 full-time legal aid attorneys can meet only about 20 percent of the need.
That means that only the most severe cases often are accepted, leaving most people to fend for themselves in the legal maze.
"Thousands more who fall just outside the income guidelines are unable to afford representation when faced with a life-altering legal event," Justice Holder said.
Margaret Behm, chairwoman of the Access to Justice Commission, said Tuesday after the meeting that one of the biggest challenges in creating the top goals was identifying "pockets of need" when it comes to legal aid. A common theme, commissioners found, was that people often go to public libraries seeking legal help because they know the information they might find will be free.
A new partnership with the state's public libraries and the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services hopefully will create a unified system for helping people research legal aid resources, Ms. Behm said.
She spoke briefly about the national legal aid problem, singling out Tennessee as the only state in the country whose Supreme Court is "wholly behind the effort" to fix the legal aid crisis.
Though the state's legal community has a long tradition of helping those in need, Ms. Behm said the Supreme Court's united front on the legal aid crisis and its willingness to back the commission's four main goals will ensure that nothing gets put "on the back shelf" anymore.
"Having the court's authority behind this makes all the difference," Ms. Behm said.
Continue reading by following these links to related stories:
Article: Legal aid funding cut as need grows across state
Article: New state panel aims to make getting legal aid easier
Or login with:
New Account