FBA Chapter Provides Needed Legal Assistance
By Judge Robert Bacharach

The Federal Bar Association — Oklahoma City Chapter contributes to the federal district court in innumerable ways. One involves the provision of needed legal representation, and the FBA’s involvement has proven invaluable.

In 2006, 137 prisoner civil rights cases were filed in the Western District of Oklahoma. In virtually all of these cases, the inmate plaintiffs are unrepresented and the judges must screen the complaints to determine their facial validity. In a growing number of cases, the inmate plaintiffs require legal representation. For example, the case may be ready for trial or the inmate plaintiff may be unable to conduct necessary depositions from his jail cell.

Ten years ago, Congress anticipated this dilemma with the enactment of the Prison Litigation Reform Act. In 28 U.S.C.§ 1915(e)(1), the statute provides that “[t]he court may request an attorney to represent any person unable to afford counsel.” In the past, judges have attempted to solve the problem by asking attorneys on a case-by-case basis to accept these cases. The result has been unintended coercion on the attorneys who receive these calls.

Approximately two years ago, the Federal Bar Association stepped in to solve this dilemma for the bench and bar. Now, when a judge needs to request legal representation, he or she can call one person — the FBA liaison. Currently, that person is Crowe & Dunlevy attorney Will Hoch. Mr. Hoch then contacts prospective attorneys to find someone willing to accept the representation.

With the shrinking number of cases going to trial, the FBA is attempting to create a win-win situation by finding attorneys who will benefit from the experience. In particular, the FBA is inviting participation by young lawyers who would gain needed experience from the representation.

At the same time, the FBA and others have collaborated to reduce the burden on the attorneys taking these cases by providing:

• mentoring,
• free legal research by law students, and
• reimbursement of legal expenses.

The FBA recognizes that relatively few attorneys practice in civil rights litigation. Thus, the FBA has obtained mentoring for attorneys who might like to take these cases. A seasoned civil rights attorney, Rand Eddy, has offered to mentor attorneys who accept prisoner cases from the FBA.

The law schools at the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma City University have also stepped in to aid lawyers taking these cases. Both law schools sponsor programs for law students to provide free legal research for lawyers serving on the FBA panel. The contact person for OCU is Professor Laurie W. Jones, who is the pro bono and public interest law coordinator. She can be reached at (405) 208-5965 or e-mail at ljones@okcu.edu. For OU, the contact person is Judith Maute, William J. Alley professor of law and president’s associates presidential professor, who can be reached at (405) 325-4747 or jmaute@ou.edu.

Even the court has stepped in to ease the financial burden. Through Miscellaneous Order No. 22, the court has established a fund to provide limited reimbursement for the cost of “deposition transcripts, expert witness fees and other extraordinary expenses not reasonably included in law office overhead.”

The FBA’s service to the court has proven invaluable, but the legal assistance program cannot continue without the active involvement of practitioners in this district. If you are interested in serving on the FBA panel of attorneys for inmate cases, please contact Will Hoch at (405) 235-7700 or HochW@CroweDunlevy.com.