National Courts Monitor

Texas Truancy Another Civil v. Criminal Issue

Updated: May 21, 2015

How to deal with kids missing school is usually a civil issue, but not in Texas. As part of a series, Jyoti Thottam of Al Jazeera is reporting that “Texas is one of only two states in the United States that prosecutes truancy as an adult criminal offense — Wyoming is the other — and the volume of cases is staggering: In 2013, Texas had more than twice as many truancy cases as the other 49 states combined. Truancy is also the number one reason children in Texas encounter the criminal justice system. In 2013, more than 67,000 juveniles were referred to juvenile court for crimes other than truancy, ranging from homicide and theft to drug offenses and disorderly conduct. That number was 42 percent fewer than the cases of truancy.”

One reason might be the money. Thottam reports that “… failure to attend school has also become a revenue stream for Texas. In fiscal year 2014, the state assessed fines and court costs of $16.1 million for truancy convictions, even though 79.4 percent of cases that year involved economically disadvantaged students, according to an analysis by the Austin-based social and economic justice advocacy group Texas Appleseed.” There all calls to make the issue a civil offense. Read more.

Immigration Court Backlog Nearly A Half-Million Cases

by NCM Staff

Posted: May 18, 2015

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The latest update from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, the group most-cited for keeping track of the immigration courts backlog, sets the number of pending cases at a new all-time high of 445,000, with “routine” hearings being delayed for up to four years.

The Los Angels Times is among those taking notice, saying that the rising caseload “… is a nearly 30% increase since Oct. 1, 2013, the start of the last fiscal year” and “… immigration courts have been overwhelmed since the influx last fiscal year of more than 68,500 unaccompanied children and about as many family units crossing the southern border, most from Central America.”

They also noted a changing trend, because “… most backlogged cases involved Mexican immigrants, their backlog has increased only about 4% since the start of last fiscal year, while the backlog has skyrocketed for Central Americans — up 63% for Guatemalans, 92% for Salvadorans and 143% for Hondurans.”

Federal data indicates that California, Texas, and New York led the nation with the largest immigration backlogs, followed by Florida and New Jersey.

The nation’s “immigration courts” are actually a division of the Justice Department, not really federal courts at all. The system report that it has 233 judges in 58 courts nationwide and officials say 17 more are expected to start by month’s end with 68 more are in the process of being hired. But Judge Dana Leigh Marks, who’s been on the bench for 28 years and is president of the National Assn. of Immigration Judges, told the L.A. Times that some 100 immigration judges were expected to retire this year.

Fla. Chief Justice Becomes Voice For ‘Civil Gideon’

by NCM Staff

Updated: August 27, 2017

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Jorge Labarga, the Florida Supreme Court chief justice, has become an outspoken advocate of “Civil Gideon,” the idea that certain civil court issues should require the same access to legal representation we have in criminal courts. He’s been making the rounds in the Sunshine State discussing his views and which cases seem to demand better legal access.

He shared a personal story with a Daytona newspaper, saying that “… I was a trial judge for 13 years. It was always painful to see the banker’s lawyers, prepared and professional, on one side, and the judge looks on the other side and there’s a husband and wife, holding a little file with two or three pages of paper in their hand, wondering what to do next… I used to come home at night with my stomach in knots. I couldn’t help them. It was very frustrating.”

The newspaper pointed out that “… last November, Labarga did something to help them by signing an order setting up the Florida Commission on Access to Civil Justice. Members include state Cabinet members, legislative leaders, bar officials and industry executives. It’s charged with finding ways to improve access to civil courts.”

UPDATE: House Committee Endorses Asbestos Bankruptcy ‘Transparency’ Proposal

by NCM Staff

Updated: May 14, 2015

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By a 19-9 vote along party lines Thursday (May 14), the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee has decided to send an asbestos bankruptcy transparency proposal to the full House. The legislation, called “FACT,” for Furthering Asbestos Claims Transparency, would require court-approved bankruptcy trust funds to disclose name, claim and payout information of people seeking payouts from the funds.

Dozens of the trust funds have been created to address liability of bankrupt firms facing asbestos exposure liability. Republicans argue that transparency is needed to prevent “double dipping” from people who get paid by both trusts and civil lawsuits; Democrats counter that trusts are a different system and defendants could get the payout information via pre-lawsuit discovery efforts. Both sides claim to have interests of veterans at heart.

Watch the sometimes testy debate at the House website archives (note it might take some time to convert the webcast to archive): http://judiciary.house.gov/index.cfm/videos

Post-Ferguson Reform Continues To Focus On Courts, Traffic

by NCM Staff

Posted: May 13, 2015

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A new report released by a coalition of legal aid groups in California is the latest documentation of how local governments’ quest for traffic-ticket funds has skewed the judicial landscape. The Los Angeles Times notes that the report “… comes a month after the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division issued its report on Ferguson, Mo., which criticized similar practices for their disparate effect on low-income and largely minority populations.”

The report says that “… traffic-court fines layered with escalating fees and penalties have led to driver’s license suspensions for 4.2 million Californians — or one in six drivers — pushing many low-income people deeper into poverty…”

“As in Ferguson,” the California report noted, “these policies disproportionately impact people of color, beginning with who gets pulled over in the first place.” Reformers are calling for, among other things, an end to license suspensions for unpaid tickets and a reduction in fees and penalties.

Read the LAT story here.