Sustaining Justice: 10 Experts Tell How Courts Can Do More with Less
Illustration by Randy Lyhus
American courts are facing perhaps their worst crisis in decades. When the recession kicked into high gear, courts already besieged with heavy dockets found themselves taking on even more cases as growing numbers of individuals and families faced foreclosures, bankruptcies, collections, employment disputes and domestic relations matters. Many of those people opted for self-representation, a choice that puts even more pressure on judges and court personnel.
But now the other shoe has dropped, as state legislators desperate to hold down spending and forestall tax increases have begun slashing budgets for the courts and other justice services. The National Center for State Courts estimates that judicial systems in more than half the states face budget cutbacks.
It’s a recipe for disaster, says ABA President Stephen N. Zack, and “the potential to lose the rule of law in our country is very real.” As soon as he took office in August, Zack appointed the Task Force on Preservation of the Justice System to take a hard look at the issue and consider policy initiatives. The task force heard just how bad the problem is at its first public hearing in February, when members of the judiciary and other witnesses told of staff cutbacks, court closures, suspension of civil trials, and even entreaties to vendors for free pens and pencils.
“We’re being told of the need to cut spending, but there are two problems,” said task force co-chair David Boies in March. First, “we’re not talking about trimming fat anymore. We’re talking about bone, muscle and structure,” said Boies, the chairman of Boies, Schiller & Flexner based in the firm’s Armonk, N.Y., office. And second, “our basic promise of justice is being undercut. Who are we going to tell they won’t get justice?”
The task force—co-chaired by Theodore B. Olson, a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C.—has focused primarily on the financial aspect of the crisis facing the state courts. But there are many facets to that crisis, and there also are many ideas about how to solve it.
The ABA Journal asked 10 experts in the field to offer a specific idea about how our court systems can continue to deliver justice effectively and efficiently during a time of fiscal austerity. Those ideas, which range from the practical to the radical, are their own. But we’re hoping they will start a broad-based conversation about ways to protect our justice system in these uncertain times.
Click here to continue reading “Sustaining Justice” from the June issue of the ABA Journal.
