Re: And I'm back...

The entire last half openly addresses criminal justice doesn't it?

 

 

 

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Mike Findlay
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 12:58 PM
To: DADL (off topic)
Subject: Re: [DADL-OT] And I'm back...

 

No, its talking about civil courts/law.  Criminal courts aren't
"inaccessible" to anyone, although a lot of defendants probably wish they
were.

Mike F.  

 

  _____  

From: Karl Swenson <[email protected]>
To: DADL (off topic) <[email protected]>
Sent: Wed, April 20, 2011 2:55:11 PM
Subject: Re: [DADL-OT] And I'm back...

Seems like the article is combining criminal and civil justice.

 

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Mike Findlay
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 12:47 PM
To: DADL (off topic)
Subject: Re: [DADL-OT] And I'm back...

 

I just tried sending the text of it but I keep getting a connection error
message.  Appears the author is an editor at Huffpo.  I got to it from
another page although I'm drawing a blank on which one.

Why haven't more Americans successfully sued the banks that lured them into
fraudulent mortgages, then foreclosed on them without the required
paperwork?

It could be because the civil justice system in this country is essentially
inaccessible to many Americans -- and when it does get accessed, is tilted
toward the wealthy and moneyed interests. 

That's certainly consistent with the finding of a world-wide survey unveiled
Thursday morning that ranks the United States lowest among 11 developed
nations when it comes to providing access to justice to its citizens -- and
lower than some third-world nations in some categories.

Particularly when it comes to access to and affordability of legal counsel
in civil disputes, the U.S. ranks 20 out of the 35 nations surveyed, below
not only developed nations but also such countries as Mexico, Croatia and
the Dominican Republic.

The results are from the World Justice Project
<http://worldjusticeproject.org/> 's new "Rule of Law Index", which assesses
how laws are implemented and enforced in practice around the globe.
Countries are rated on such factors as whether government officials are
accountable, whether legal institutions protect fundamental rights, and how
ordinary people fare in the system. The index will expand from 35 countries
to 70 next year.

The lowest-ranking countries in this year's survey included Liberia, Kenya,
Nigeria and Pakistan.

The U.S. didn't lead the world on any of the rule-of-law measures, ranking
near the bottom of the developed world on most -- including even fundamental
rights. But the most striking findings related to access to justice for
ordinary people. 

As part of its fact-finding, the organization polled 1,000 people in New
York, Chicago and Los Angeles, and found a significant gap between the rich
and the poor in terms of their use and satisfaction with the civil courts
system. According to a news release:

For instance, only 40% of low-income respondents who used the court system
in the past three years reported that the process was fair, compared to 71%
of wealthy respondents. This 31% gap between poor and rich litigants in the
USA is the widest among all developed countries sampled. In France this gap
is only 5%, in South Korea it is 4% and in Spain it is nonexistent.

Juan Botero, the index's director, told the Huffington Post that the U.S.'s
poor ranking on access to justice "is a little bit surprising" considering
that our society is so prone to litigation, and so fascinated by TV shows
about law and order. But he said the index simply quantifies what was
already the consensus among legal experts: That when it comes to access to
justice, "the U.S. could do a better job, especially with marginalized
communities." 

Indeed, the index's findings are consistent with previous studies of access
to justice by lower-income people. The Legal Services Corporation reported
last year
<http://www.lsc.gov/pdfs/documenting_the_justice_gap_in_america_2009.pdf>
that state-level studies had concluded that less than one in five of the
legal problems experienced by low-income people are addressed with help from
either a private or legal-aid lawyer.

Unequal access to the legal system is also a problem that the Obama
administration has publicly acknowledged and is trying to address. 

In March, Attorney General Eric Holder appointed prominent Harvard Law
Professor Larry Tribe to serve as a senior counselor in charge of a new
Access to Justice Initiative. His goal is to work with judges and lawyers
across the country to find ways to help people who cannot afford a lawyer.

As Tribe himself put it in a June speech
<http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/multimedia/video-nijconf2010-keynote-tribe.htm
> :

The truth is that as a nation, we face nothing short of a justice crisis. It
is a crisis both acute and chronic, affecting not only the poor but the
middle class. The situation we face is unconscionable. It's why the
President and the Attorney General created the Access to Justice initiative
that I am leading, and it's why we won't rest until we have made measurable
and sustainable progress, but to make that progress and to do it across the
board, we have got to first acknowledge that what we do know is far
outweighed by what we don't know.

Botero said the index is not intended to be prescriptive. "The index doesn't
give you a complete recipe for action; it doesn't even give you a full
diagnosis. It's like a thermometer," he said.

Nevertheless, he noted that many other countries have more robust mechanisms
to provide legal assistance to the poor. 

For instance, in many Latin American countries, law students spend their
final year of law school serving the poor. Or in Japan, many disputes are
adjudicated by administrative bodies. In the U.S., he said, small claims
court works very well. "However, the scope of coverage is limited." The
result: "There seems to be a gap in the system."

The U.S. criminal justice system received a mixed grade in the new index,
ranking well when it comes to guaranteeing due process of law, but ranking
last among developed nations on delivering impartial justice.

How exactly does the index define access to justice? The report states:

In a nutshell, these factors measure whether regular citizens can peacefully
and effectively resolve their personal grievances in accordance with
generally accepted social norms, rather than resorting to violence or
self-help. 


For civil and informal justice, this implies a service that is affordable,
effective, impartial, and culturally competent. For criminal justice, this
implies a system capable of investigating and adjudicating criminal offences
impartially and effectively, while ensuring that the rights of suspects and
victims are protected.

Impartiality includes absence of arbitrary or irrational distinctions based
on social or economic status, and other forms of bias, as well as decisions
that are free of improper influence by public officials or private
interests. Accessibility includes general awareness of available remedies,
availability and affordability of legal advice and representation, and
absence of excessive or unreasonable fees, procedural hurdles, and other
barriers to access the formal dispute resolution systems. Access to justice
also requires fair and effective enforcement of the decisions.

And why is all this important? The report explains:

Establishing the rule of law is fundamental to achieving communities of
opportunity and equity--communities that offer sustainable economic
development, accountable government, and respect for fundamental rights.

 

*************************

Dan Froomkin is senior Washington correspondent for the Huffington Post. You
can send him an e-mail <mailto:[email protected]> , bookmark his
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