A father suffers a heart attack, and his family almost loses its home over the small amount of back property taxes that accrues when he is unable to work. A teenage girl, physically disabled, yet working and attending school, is nearly institutionalized when her elderly grandmother can no longer care for her. A mother asks the justice system to protect her and her children from her violent husband.

These were real cases, real people, who desperately needed the help of an overburdened Texas Legal Aid system. With the help of the Texas Access to Justice Commission, these cases were success stories; now Oklahoma has taken the initiative to increase efforts to help such people in our own state with the creation of the Oklahoma Access to Justice Commission. Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Deborah Hankinson, who led the effort to establish the Texas commission, offered assistance and words of advice at the recent luncheon celebrating the Oklahoma commission’s first meeting.

“The promise of equal justice goes unfilled for the poor,” Hankinson said. “The challenge of equal justice is the greatest challenge because it requires each of us to do something. Without this commitment, the rule of law will suffer.”

More than 75 state leaders attended the luncheon, and listened to Hankinson describe the challenges Oklahoma is likely to face in launching its own commission, as well as why lawyers have a moral obligation to help the poor overcome the barriers they face in resolving legal matters.

Hankinson said, “The present need for legal services demonstrates a failure of the legal system. Our profession must lead the way — this idea is the foundation of the Access to Justice movement that is sweeping the nation. Access to Justice is the vessel for confronting problems. We can assess needs, identify fixes, search for money for programs and educate, educate, educate!”

To demonstrate the necessity for public education about the access to justice issue, she described a survey the Texas commission administered as one of its first projects.

“We found out that only 20 percent of Texans supported the idea of our commission. After we offered an explanation of what legal aid really is, the programs it offers and the kinds of people it helps, we discovered that 85 percent were in favor.”

She went on to detail some of the economic challenges she expects the Oklahoma commission will face. One example she offered was of Texas’ use of IOLTA as its primary source of funding. A ripple effect of declining interest rates across the nation has been that crucial funds have now been eliminated for Legal Aid programs. But she stressed that the key to making Access to Justice work is through the formation of strategic alliances.

“You won’t do all the work yourselves,” she told the commissioners. “You’ll have hundreds of people involved. One example of this is through Texas’ pro se protective order kits. We created the forms and got them approved by the Texas Supreme Court. We made sure the forms were understandable to someone with a fifth-grade education, and we had them translated into Spanish and Vietnamese. We got a grant from the Texas Bar Foundation, produced the forms and distributed them to 2,000 outlets including emergency rooms, police departments and domestic violence shelters. We had a press conference involving the governor’s wife and the state attorney general. With this network of hundreds of people, we made this resource available to abuse victims who are unable to secure an attorney’s assistance. Now it’s up to you to find these kinds of initiatives.”

The commissioners discussed these challenges at its first meeting held at the Oklahoma Bar Center immediately after the kickoff luncheon June 14. Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Gary Lumpkin was elected commission chair and Oklahoma Sen. Richard Lerblance, an OBA member from Hartshorne, was elected vice chair. Judge Lumpkin urged the commission to develop a strategic plan as soon as possible.

“Beginning this commission’s work is kind of like building a house without any plans,” Judge Lumpkin said. “We’ve got to make sure we get the foundation right.”

The commissioners voted to form committees to begin building that foundation. Three separate strategic planning committees, one for civil practitioners, one for criminal law and one for the courts, will begin the process of determining the committee’s near-, mid- and long-range goals. Judge Lumpkin asked that that the committee plan things that are both “do-able” and affordable, and recommended that the near-range goals include ideas that produce immediate results.

The commissioners also formed a budget development committee and an organizational structure committee. That latter committee will be charged with determining the commission’s business structure and managing its present funds, which currently sit at $25,000, the amount the bar association has set aside for the project with Supreme Court approval.

Judge Lumpkin once again mentioned public education as a vital component to the successful launch of the Access to Justice program in Oklahoma.

“It’s important that people understand that a poor justice system is actually an impediment to economic development,” Judge Lumpkin said. “When people lose their homes or become dependent on public funds over a legal matter, it drains resources that could otherwise be used to make our state more attractive to investors. Let’s not overlook chambers of commerce as community partners and remind them that Access to Justice is not just a social program, it’s an economic development program.”

The commission’s budget, when finalized, will require approval from the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph Watt said, “I am excited about the potential of this commission to meet the needs of low-income Oklahomans. Oklahoma lawyers possess tremendous talents and generous spirits. Hopefully, the creation of this commission will allow both of these traits to manifest themselves through greater access to our justice system for everyone.”

Oklahoma Access to Justice Commission

Chair:
Judge Gary Lumpkin, Court of Criminal Appeals

Vice Chair:
Sen. Richard Lerblance, Hartshorne