Senate Bill No. 18¶

An act to ensure equal access to justice.

[Introduced by justind20 January 1, 2019. Approved by Governor January 4, 2019.]

Be it enacted by the Senate of the State of Mayflower in Congress assembled,

SECTION I. LONG TITLE; PURPOSE; EFFECTIVE DATE¶

(a) An Act to Ensure Equal Access to Justice.
(b) The new law would ensure that all civilians, regardless of their personal ability to pay, are able to obtain basic legal services of a reasonable quality.
(c) This bill shall go into effect immediately after the Governor signs it into law. This Act will end once a new bill has replaced it, this bill is altered, or this bill is repealed by a vote of the State Senate.

(a) Congress finds that—
(i) In this State, every citizen who is deserving of an expungement of their criminal record should have the means to meaningfully pursue such an expungement.
(ii) Quality attorneys are often unwilling or unable to take on meritorious expungement cases due to, among other things, the inability of the citizen to pay the attorney their required fees.
(iii) The State Bar Commission allows attorneys to charge as much as $3,500 per case, meaning that attorneys often choose to pursue less meritorious cases from citizens who are able to pay higher rates over more meritorious cases from citizens without the ability to pay.
(iv) Therefore, the only way to ensure equal access to justice is to provide financial incentives for attorneys to take on meritorious pro bono expungement cases.

(a) District Court judges shall be given the ability and authority to award attorneys fees in accordance with subsection (b) of this section.
(b)In an expungement case where the petitioning party prevails, where the petitioning party is represented by an attorney, and where the attorney is providing pro bono representation, the District Court judge presiding over the case shall award the attorney between $100 and $500 in attorneys fees in consideration of:
(i) The complexity of the case (more complex, larger award).
(ii) The quality of the attorney’s legal work (higher quality, larger award).
(iii) The attorney’s experience (more experienced, larger award).
(iv) And the time spent in connection with the case (more time, larger award).
(c) The method for implementation of subsection (a) of this section shall, of course, be left completely to the control and discretion of the developers, however, Congress recommends a trello-based system where awards ranging from $100 to $500 can be added by authorized judges as “cards.” An award would be executed when the attorney recipient of the award joins a server of New Haven County, and the award “card” would be moved to a different “list” automatically using Trello API.

(a) This act shall go into law immediately after the Governor of Mayflower signs it into law. This act shall end once the Governor, Judicial Official, or a Legislative Official deems it shall no longer be in effect by using their appropriate, prescribed powers.

Last update: May 7, 2020