Conference Background and Agenda
FROM THE OREGON FAMILY
LEGAL SERVICES
COMMISSION
1. The Oregon Legislative Assembly should authorize presiding judges to establish courthouse facilitation programs to provide the following free assistance to family law litigants:
a. provision of educational material and information about court procedures,
b. Assistance in completing forms, and
c.
Resource
provision and direction to appropriate groups for
additional services
2.
The Oregon Legislative Assembly should adopt legislation establishing
that courthouse facilitators are not engaged in the unauthorized practice of law
The
Commission recommends amending Oregon statutes to provide that persons
performing family law facilitation services in a program established pursuant to
its authorizing legislation be exempt from unauthorized practice of law
restrictions.
3.
The Oregon Judicial Department’s Director of Family Court Services
should coordinate the development, updating, and dissemination of sample family
law forms for pro se parties
It is the
Commission’s view that provision of pro se forms is not the preferred vehicle
for delivering legal services. The
Commission’s ultimate objective in providing legal access is to ensure that
all family law litigants, regardless or income, can obtain legal services from
lawyers.
4.
The Oregon Judicial Department’s Education Division should regularly
include in education events discussion of judicial ethics issues implicated by
unrepresented litigants
The
Commission recognizes that the tension between judicial impartiality and the
duty to provide a meaningful hearing is problematic. While perhaps more obvious in the broader context of
treatment of pro se pleadings and pro se litigants in the actual courtroom, the
conflict between impartiality and meaningful access is also present for some
judges even outside the courtroom.
5.
The Oregon State Bar and local bar associations should promote
practitioners’ efforts to provide unbundled legal services by:
a. promoting the use
of written retainer agreements particularized for discrete task representation;
b. continuing to educate lawyers about the practical, ethical and economic issues of discrete task representation, and
c. increasing efforts to publicize and promote the Modest Means program and other services designed for low and middle-income Oregonians.
6.
The Legal Ethics Committee of the Oregon State Bar
should evaluate the
implementation of the
Disciplinary Rule amendment allowing
attorney-mediators to
prepare and submit stipulated
orders and judgments. (At the Commission’s
request,
the Oregon Supreme Court amended the Oregon
Disciplinary Rules
governing attorney conduct to
allow this change to occur)
The
Commission recognizes that additional refinement of the Disciplinary Rules may
be necessary. The Commission was
aware of, and discussed, mediators’ concerns.
The Commission recommends that the OSB Legal Ethics Committee work with
the OSB Alternative Dispute Resolution Section, the Oregon Mediation
Association, the Oregon Dispute Resolution Commission, and other entities, to
broaden litigants’ and lawyers’ understanding of the Disciplinary Rule
amendment.
7.
Local family law advisory committees and legal service providers should
coordinate access to family law legal resources on the community level,
integrating roles for attorneys in developing and delivering courthouse
facilitation and other services
The
Commission believes that the entities best suited to coordinate these efforts
are the local Family Law Advisory Committees (FLACS) and legal service
providers.
8.
The Oregon Judicial Department’s Office of the State Court
Administrator and administrators of Oregon’s Child Support Program should
identify and develop improved practices in areas where court and agency
procedures in family law intersect
The
Commission recommends that OJD and the Child Support Program formalize and
encourage collaboration by creating a working group to identify and develop
solutions for these troublesome intersections.
The inability of low-income parents to access integrated services to
resolve their family law problems calls for the assumption of joint
institutional responsibility for examining these issues.
9.
The State Child Support Program should provide to the parents it serves
information on the availability of legal services in each community
10.
The Oregon Judicial Department and the Oregon State Bar should continue
their leadership on access to justice issues, and actively encourage local,
state, and federal governments and the public to support access to justice
efforts
The
Commission urges the Oregon Judicial Department and the Oregon State BAR to
continue this emphasis on access. In
the family law arena, it recommends that:
1. The OJD’s State
Court Administrator’s office and the OSB collaborate to ensure courts
and
litigants have timely access to suitable model forms.
2. The OSB
prioritize statewide Pro Bono Coordination; and
3. The OJD and the
OSB work closely with legislators to ensure that,
when legislation and rules
implicating family law matters are
proposed, considerations include the impact
on pro se litigants and on
low and middle-income families’ ability to access
legal representation.
The OJD
and the Bar must enlist local and state lawmakers in the aggressive pursuit of
accessible and affordable legal services.
11.
The Statewide Family Law Advisory Committee should monitor implementation
of the Commission’s recommendations and report at its annual conference on the
status of those efforts
The
Commission recommends the Statewide FLAC as the appropriate entity to monitor
implementation of the Commission’s proposals.
Ongoing review is necessary to determine which of the Commission’s
proposals are working, which need refinement, and which—if any—should be
abandoned.
12.
The Oregon Legislative Assembly should fund the Oregon Judicial
Department’s Director of Family Court Services position
The
Commission reaffirms the commitment to the Task Force on Family Law to the
Family Court Services Director position. The
Commission believes that the Legislature should appropriate funds to the Family
Law Account adequate to permit the OJD to staff the Director and related OJD
positions, to perform the required statutory family court functions, and to
implement the recommendations of this Commission.
Reproduced from:
OREGON FAMILY LAW LEGAL
SERVICES COMMISSION
REPORT TO THE OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY
January, 1999 - The
Honorable Kristena A. Lamar, Paul J. Lipscomb and Rebecca O. Orf, Barbara
Fishleder, Russell Lipetzky, Alice Mills Morrow, Kay Pulju, Larry Thomson, Herb
Trubo, Maureen McKnight, Jessica Mindlin.
In a final
report given to the December, 1997 Legislative Assembly, the Oregon Task Force
on Family Law articulated the continued unmet and acute demand for assistance
dealing with pro se litigants in the court systems. At the request of the Task
Force, the Legislature created the Oregon Family Law Legal Services Commission.
The charge to this group was to evaluate and report on “how courthouse
facilitation and unbundled legal services might enhance the delivery of family
law legal services to low and middle-income Oregonians.” During the next four
years the Commission gathered both qualitative and quantitative information.
They held public monthly meetings, solicited written input from lawyers,
litigants, experts in the field, court clerks and all interested parties before
drafting the proposal and completing its final work with the recommendations
found here.
Oregon Family Law Legal Services Commission
700 S.W. Taylor, Suite 310
Portland, Oregon 97205