CA Judges Aren’t Impartial When It Comes to Pro Bono—They’re Some of Its Biggest Advocates!

Among the strongest proponents of pro bono services are judges.

Why? A variety of reasons, but perhaps none more so than the fact that it weighs heavily on the hearts jurists to witness an endless parade of vulnerable, low-income families and seniors appearing before them to handle serious legal matters without benefit of counsel.

The Judicial Council of California (the constitutionally chartered arm of the Golden State’s court system and an entity overseen by the chief justice of the California Supreme Court) says the desire to do something about that inequity is why California judges often seek to encourage the lawyers with whom they interact to take on pro bono work over-and-above the minimum recommended (in California, that’s 50 hours per year and merely aspirational, not a hard-and-fast requirement).

The Judicial Council has even produced a “pro bono tool kit” containing talking points that judges can use to advocate more compellingly for increased lawyer volunteerism in the name of the public good.

We at The LAWcares Foundation have reviewed those talking points and think they are quite good. We thought we’d share a few of them with you in the hope that they resonate—and perhaps spur you to amplify your own efforts to ensure that more of those classed as disadvantaged have viable access to the justice system.

To help judges make a more powerful case for pro bono, the toolkit offers them a plethora of jarring statistics. For example:

“More than 6.7 million low-income Californians qualify for legal aid, [a number that takes in] 1 out of 5 children in the state. Nearly one-third of [low-income] families are working families, and one-fifth of them are of limited English proficiency, making it difficult for them to navigate the court system on their own.”

The toolkit goes on to note that, distressingly, “[i]n California, there are approximately 800 legal aid attorneys out of a total of more than 164,000 active attorneys ... a ratio of over 8,300 eligible indigent clients per legal aid attorney.”

Within the toolkit is an estimate that Californians forced to self-represent and/or appear in court in propria persona number in the millions. It offers this remedy:

“Legal aid agencies in California must turn away more than two-thirds of eligible prospective clients who need assistance each year. The one-third who do get assistance do not necessarily receive the level of service they require, and many get only brief advice and counsel.”

The good news is that the state’s pro bono organizations, legal services programs, local bar associations, and court-based self-help centers have been working hard to “make it easy for [lawyers] to volunteer” for pro bono cases, the toolkit assures.

The toolkit then goes on to spell out the main benefits of pro bono service. These include fostering more efficient and effective operation of the courts (which furthers the administration of justice for all), enabling lawyers to acquire or sharpen skills they need to better serve clients, helping practices and firms grow by allowing lawyers to show themselves to be decent, caring, socially responsible members of the community, elevating the public’s opinion of the legal profession, and, of course, providing meaningful access to justice for those who need legal representation but cannot afford it.

(As an aside, LAWcares has been beating this benefits-of-pro-bono drum for quite some time, and enthusiastically so.)

A benefit to which the toolkit alludes but doesn’t plainly mention (so we will) is that pro bono is also a potent way to improve one’s sense of place and purpose in this world—for, truly, pro bono is good for the mind, the heart, and the soul. Therefore, we think it’s most admirable that California judges recognize such to be the case and we are thrilled to see them actively advocating for more of it.