LJC in New Orleans
LJC in New Orleans: Client Expungement Initiative
LJC is committed to the reform of Louisiana’s public defense system in every district across the state. LJC projects promote fundamental fairness, effective standards, transparency, fiscal responsibility and client-centered legal services to improve community welfare for all residents. The Client Expungement Initiative is an innovative collaboration between LJC and Orleans Public Defenders (OPD). LJC staff conducts community outreach and creates resources for the greater ex-offender community in New Orleans, and engages public defenders and volunteer attorneys to provide direct services to certain clients. The Client Expungement Initiative also manages a fund to assist select clients with financial assistance to cover non-waivable fees.
The Client Expungement Initiative seeks to achieve four immediate primary objectives: 1) dramatically improving community awareness of expungement proceedings in Orleans Parish through resources and community programs; 2) providing public defenders and other court agencies with information and realistic avenues to provide expungement servies for clients; 3) engaging community advocates by creating and manging a fund so that deserving clients are able to seek expungements despite financial barriers to covering filing fees and 4) providing direct service to clients to assist their expungement filings so that they may reclaim state and federal benefits, find employment and enjoy the restoration of their civil rights.
On March 28, 2008 Critical Resistance, Safe Streets/Strong Communities and OPD co-sponsored an Expungement Summit at the Treme Center in New Orleans. During the one-day event, more than 400 people came through the door and attorneys assisted 250 people making expungement petitions for more than 400 arrests and/or convictions. The enthusiastic turnout for this event indicated a strong recognition of the ‘perpetual punishment’ of a criminal arrest/conviction and the need to find attorneys to handle these cases in court.
LJC will track and promote the success stories of its clients in order to make this pilot project a permanent feature of the Oreans Public Defenders legal services. LJC is part of a group that involves criminal district court judges, the Orleans Civil Sheriff and defenders to improve expungement proceedings.
As in most public defender offices, the vast majority of Orleans Public Defenders’ total cases are resolved by plea bargain. The vast majority of all indigent clients arrested in Orleans leave the criminal justice system with a criminal conviction, and the full range of collateral consequences that attach to that conviction. One of the most significant and enduring repercussion of a conviction is heightened obstacles to acquire meaningful employment. This is a major impediment to reducing recidivism, and also has negative consequences for the client’s family and community at large.
Community defenders know system reform should include community input about problems and about solutions. Expungement is an important service that can have a profound impact on a client’s ability to successfully re-integrate into his community, and is a logical extension of the legal support the public defender agency provides.
This project is funded by the Stanford Public Interest Law Foundation at Stanford Law School.