LAW DAY: Nebraska Access to Justice Commission Honored
The Access to Justice Commission is dedicated to ensuring equal access to justice for all Nebraskans — regardless of income, race, ethnicity, gender, disability, age or language.
The Robert M. Spire Public Service Award is presented by the Omaha Bar Association each year to an attorney or attorney organization that elevates the public’s knowledge and understanding of the law or the legal system or that has volunteered their time and energy for the betterment of the community. This year’s recipient is the Access to Justice Commission.
The AJC was formed in 2017 by order of the Nebraska Supreme Court out of a desire to coordinate the efforts of existing court-appointed advisory committees under one supervisory group and to create new committees with an expanded focus on equal access to justice.
Existing committees had focused on self-litigation, minority representation and access for non-English speakers, while new committees would address barriers to justice such as race and gender; improve communication and coordination between state, federal and tribal courts; and find ways to reduce time and expense of civil litigation.
The AJC is made up of state and federal judges and court staff, government and private practice attorneys, leaders of legal aid organizations, state law schools and law libraries, organizations that advocate for people with disabilities, as well as members of the state’s legislative and executive branches.
“Across the state, there was a lot of great work already being done to address justice gaps by local and state bar associations, legal aid organizations, court-appointed advisory committees, innovative judges and court staff, law schools, libraries, and other community organizations,” said AJC co-chair Nebraska Supreme Court Justice Stephanie Stacy.
“We concluded that an access to justice commission would allow us to bring all those stakeholders together and increase the impact of their work by coordinating and leveraging limited resources, identifying best practices, and recommending systemic changes to improve the delivery of justice in all of Nebraska’s courts,” Stacy said.
Under the AJC’s purview, the Nebraska Judicial Branch has made it easier to file court documents and pay court fees online, and it has updated the online legal self-help center.
The Committee on Equity and Fairness has recommended mandatory diversity and inclusion education for all court and probation staff, which more than 1,600 staff members have completed.
“I had been involved in a training for the trainers that was a collaborative effort with the Supreme Court and inclusive communities, and we developed our own tailor-made program to the state and now all state employees have to be trained in this full-day equity and inclusion program,” Sarpy County District Court Judge Stefanie Martinez, chair of the committee, told the OBA in an interview.
Martinez’s committee is currently looking into issues related to minority participation in the jury selection process and developing recommendations for continued use of technology to reduce failure to appear rates, such as a text message reminder system.
“The hope is if they get that reminder then it’s going to reduce the failure to appear rates, which will reduce the warrants, the capias, that are issued and people that are having to sit in jail for unpaid fines,” Martinez said.
In November 2020, the AJC conducted a statewide survey of court users to look at the perception of access and fairness of trial courts. The survey was offered online in both English and Spanish, and it garnered more than 700 respondents. Once the data has been analyzed, the AJC will use the information to determine and prioritize the issues that still need to be looked at.
Access to justice has been especially important in the past year with the coronavirus pandemic shutting down courts and creating new barriers to justice.
“I think it is fair to say that the pandemic has certainly created new challenges,” Liz Neeley, executive director of the Nebraska Bar Association Executive Director and co-chair of the Access to Justice Commission, said in an OBA interview. “Unemployment has caused a rise in evictions. The number of people able to afford legal counsel is declining and the stress on our civil legal provider network is increasing. At certain times the pandemic has required lawyers to participate in hearings virtually, and there are concerns about how the digital divide will impact access to justice.”
The pandemic changed the legal community’s use of videoconferencing, and legal professionals now better understand how to incorporate the technology.
“Our state has an opportunity to capitalize on that and help bridge our rural justice gap by bringing legal services to underserved areas of the state,” Neeley said. “Videoconferencing technology is also reducing the costs of legal counsel for Nebraskans by creating efficiencies and reducing travel time.”
In his State of the Judiciary Address to the Nebraska Legislature, Chief Justice Michael G. Heavican said the state has also made strides to improving access for the state’s Native American tribes.
In 2018, the state Judicial Branch hosted a roundtable discussion in South Sioux City, he said. Participants included the four Nebraska-based Tribes, federal courts, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, both federal and state Departments of Health and Human Services, the state Department of Education, the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs and other parties.
“That meeting ultimately resulted in the formation of the Consortium of Tribal, State, and Federal Courts,” Heavican told state lawmakers earlier this year. “The consortium is part of the Nebraska Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission, designed to fulfill our state’s motto to assure ‘equality before the law.’”
Heavican said the Nebraska Judicial Branch also responded to civil unrest stemming from incidents of racial injustice last summer through the AJC.
“We have recently begun a Racial Equity Initiative through our Access to Justice Commission,” he said. “This three-phase process is designed to engage court users and the public in determining equal access deficiencies in our courts.”
In accepting the Robert M. Spire Public Service Award, Stacy emphasized the multitude of legal professionals whose volunteer work has led to many improving the access and equality of justice throughout the state.
“On behalf of all the members of the Nebraska Access to Justice Commission, and all the members of the commission’s standing committees and subcommittees, we deeply appreciate the OBA’s recognition of our collaborative work to identify and address inequity and to improve equal access to justice for all Nebraskans,” Stacy said.
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