Tag: right to counsel

Crisis and Opportunity

| by delsandy | Uncategorized | No Comments

“Never allow a good crisis go to waste. It’s an opportunity to do the things you once thought were impossible.”

Rahm Emanuel said that when he was President Obama’s chief of staff.

That sound advice came to mind twice today.

This morning, I spoke to advocates for a right to legal counsel.

We passed a law providing access to a lawyer for tenants in housing court two years ago.

I had been working on this issue for over a decade.

The pandemic got the bill passed.

The surge in evictions prompted Speaker Adrienne Jones to put this issue on her agenda.

Maryland’s nursing shortage and the need to modernize our response to public health challenges were considered this afternoon by the Health and Government Operations Committee.

The nursing shortage will prompt us to consider a host of incentives and benefits so that patients will receive quality health care.

Adopt those incentives and payments here, and you create a precedent to do it elsewhere.

The Covid pandemic is the basis for the commission,

“It’s a moment of opportunity,” stated Dr. Josh Sharfstein, vice dean of the Johns Hopkins.Bloomberg School of Public Health.

It sounded familiar.

Creative funding

| by delsandy | Uncategorized | No Comments

“These are creative ways to fund the law,” said a witness in support of my two bills.

As you may recall, the General Assembly enacted legislation last year providing access to counsel for tenants in rent court.

The companion bill to pay for those attorneys died in the final hour of the session.

Today was the hearing on the two bills I’ve introduced to provide some of that funding.

House Bill 712 would require the Governor to use the maximum amount permitted of federal rental assistance money for this purpose.

I asked one of our budget analysts how best to do this.

House Bill 571 would require that money received from a violation of the housing provisions of Maryland’s Consumer Protection Act also be used for this purpose.

Attorney General Brian Frosh sued Westminster Properties under that act.  An administrative law judge found that the company’s violations were “widespread and numerous.”  A final order is pending.

I sponsored the bills that created special funds for the money Maryland received from legal  settlements with the tobacco and opioid industries.

My bills may be creative.  They are also based on precedent.

Vaccines, Stimulus Payment, and a Lawyer

| by delsandy | Uncategorized | 1 Comment on Vaccines, Stimulus Payment, and a Lawyer

      The 2021 General Assembly responded to the pandemic by making vaccines available to you and your family and providing financial assistance to Marylanders in need.  We also passed major legislation.

 

  • Vaccines were made available at Sinai, now at Northwest Hospital, and  at CHAI’s senior apartment communities throughout Park Heights.  Testing was conducted at Pimlico Race Track.Stimulus Payment, and a Lawyer
  • If you still need to be vaccinated, you can call 1-855-MD-GOVAX, pre-register at https://onestop.md.gov/govax, or try the Vaccine finder maryland.gov. You must register in advance at the Baltimore Convention Center 443-462-5511 and M&T Bank Stadium https://www.baltimoreravens.com/stadium/covid-19-vaccinations/ or 1-855-634-6829.
  • At the outset of the pandemic last year, I sponsored emergency legislation that greatly expanded access to telehealth. My bill this session adds access to school health centers, which many students rely on for essential health care services.
  • A single person with an income of $15,000 will receive $831 from state and local government, in addition to the money from the federal government. A married couple with two children and an income of $25,000 will get an additional $1,527. To see if you’re eligible, go to https://interactive.marylandtaxes.gov/Relief
  • For people who lost their job, my Constituent Director, Jackie Greenfield, has helped dozens of people obtain their unemployment benefit.  We passed laws to correct major flaws in the system.

 

       The pandemic made us aware of the inequality and injustice in America’s past and present.  My efforts in this regard are longstanding.

I served on the Task Force to Study Implementing a Civil Right to Counsel in Maryland. I introduced legislation to implement the recommendations of the task force in 2015.

This session, I was a leader in the effort that passed House Bill 18, which establishes access to counsel in eviction cases.  After bills are enacted in Annapolis, a tenant’s future is decided in a courtroom.  The landlords are represented by someone who knows the law 96% of the time; the tenant only 1% of the time.  Those are bad odds.  We have begun to address that unfairness.

Funding legislation did not pass.  The morning after the session ended, I started lobbying to pay for lawyers with federal stimulus dollars.

Additional authority and Bad odds

| by delsandy | Uncategorized | No Comments

While the state prosecutor’s office was unable to determine the source of the funds, the case caught the eye of the FBI.

That sentence caught my attention in today’s Baltimore Sun story about the investigation of former Mayor Catherine Pugh.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-pr-md-ci-cr-healthy-holly-investigation-backstory-20210318-rwd5w3xsuzczrhnkj27uw4lce4-story.html

I emailed someone who might know why that’s the case.

Perhaps the State Prosecutor needs additional authority.

—

 

During today’s floor debate on House Bill 18, creating aright to counsel for tenants in certain eviction cases, I said this:

“There’s been reference to the fact that there are a slew of bills this year, there are a lot of bills this year, there are a lot of laws on the books regarding landlord-tenant.

“We try to strike a balance between the rights of the tenant and the rights of the landlord. But as the sponsor [of] the bill pointed out, as the floor leader pointed out, when the landlord is represented 96% of the time, and the tenant is represented only 1% of the time, those are bad odds.

“We don’t need to authorize sports wagering to know that 96 to 1, that’s bad odds. If we want the laws that we have written, that we have approved as the policy of this state to be carried out by the courts of this state, this bill, this right to counsel, for a lawyer who speaks for their client is essential.

“I urge a green vote.”

House Bill 18 passed the House of Delegates, 95-42.

Gideon’s Trumpet

| by delsandy | Uncategorized | No Comments

A bill creating a statutory right to counsel made it to the House floor today.

I was a high school freshman when I read Gideon’s Trumpet, the book about Gideon v. Wainwright, the Supreme Court decision establishing a right to counsel in criminal cases where jail was a possibility.

I served on the Task Force to Study Implementing a Civil Right to Counsel in Maryland, which was created by Senate Bill 262 in 2013.

I introduced legislation to implement the recommendations of the task force in 2015.

Over the years, I have also introduced bills to protect tenants who face eviction, whose children are being poisoned by lead paint.

After decisions are made in Annapolis, after the bills are enacted, the landlords are represented in court by someone who knows the law.

The tenant is not.

We are about to address that imbalance.

Changes will be made to House Bill 18 – in the Senate and in subsequent years, if necessary.

But today is a very big step forward.

Without a lawyer

| by delsandy | Uncategorized | No Comments

As I prepared to testify on legislation providing a right to an attorney for poor tenants facing eviction, I expected to tell this story.

Gideon v. Wainwright is the Supreme Court case that held a defendant charged with a felony is entitled to a lawyer, paid for by the state.

Gideon’s Trumpet, written by the New York Times Supreme Court correspondent, Anthony Lewis, is about the case.

I asked my parents to give it to me for Chanukah when I was 14 years old.

Lewis signed it for me when he spoke in Baltimore in 2003.

For Sandy Rosenberg, who writes laws

“This committee writes laws,” I began my testimony at 10:15 last night.

But instead of talking about the book and the author’s inscription, I said this.

An attorney for the property owners, when testifying on the bill before this one, stated that,  “If rent is paid, there are no evictions.”

Under the laws that this committee has written, the tenant should not pay the rent if the property is unsafe.

But a tenant doesn’t know that.

The overwhelming majority of tenants face eviction without a lawyer.  The landlord is represented in court, with very few exceptions.

The laws we write are not enforced if the tenant is without a lawyer.

The public policy we enact – the balancing of interests, is not a reality.

A Big Step Forward

| by delsandy | Uncategorized | No Comments

Speaker Adrienne Jones has written Governor Larry Hogan, urging him to “increase funding for the state’s rental assistance program and commit funding for a tenant legal assistance program through the end of the year.” 

Throughout my career, enabling tenants to remain in decent, safe, and sanitary housing has been one of my priorities.

The Speaker’s letter is a big step forward in achieving those goals. 

Even if the Governor responds favorably, these issues will be at the forefront when the General Assembly reconvenes. 

Emergency funding would be a stop-gap measure.  Long-term solutions will still be needed.

My job will be to assist in getting these issues addressed. 

I will be adhering to my newsletter rule:  My name does not have to be first on the sponsor line of a bill, as long as I can legitimately say in my end-of-session newsletter that I played a part in accomplishing something.

Unequal justice and white smoke

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2017 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I’ve spent more time in my committee’s conference room this week than I have in our public hearing room.

One meeting was about a bill that would have created a new right to sue in family law.

The question arose whether people could afford the cost of bringing such a lawsuit.

I said that we already have too many instances where people can’t secure their rights because they can’t afford a lawyer.

I could not support creating another example of unequal justice.

The bill’s sponsor responded that we shouldn’t deny this right to those who could afford it.

Under the compromise we reached, the merits of this new legal right will be considered by the judiciary this summer.

Consequently, the debate over a right to counsel was postponed as well.

The other issue discussed in the conference room was medical marijuana.

No details I can share yet, as there has yet to be any white smoke, the sign of consensus when a Pope is chosen.

March 1 – Writing laws

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2016 Legislative Diary | No Comments

I have four bill hearings tomorrow.

And that’s after I attend the oral argument at the Supreme Court on the Texas abortion law.

So before the end of the work day, I have to:

Make final revisions to my written testimony;

Since I don’t read my testimony at the public hearing, start drafting in my head the opening sentence for my oral testimony;

Meet with representatives of the Comptroller and the Attorney General to learn of their concerns about provisions in two of my bills and see if I can address or minimize their issues;

Confirm the witness lists for each bill;

Since one of my bills deals with guaranteeing a lawyer in protective order cases prompted by domestic violence, find my copy of Gideon’s Trumpet, the book about the Supreme Court decision guaranteeing the right to counsel in criminal felony cases.  It’s autographed:

For Sandy Rosenberg, Who writes laws – Anthony Lewis  (emphasis in the original) 

A commitment in the law and money in the budget

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2015 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Same strategy, different bills.

House Bill 348 would provide for legal counsel in certain areas of family law – protective order, custody, or visitation proceedings.

House Bill 367 would require that a 24/7 behavioral health crisis response system be established state-wide to assist people with mental illness.

The annual cost to fully implement each bill would exceed $10 million.

Unamended, the bills will die.

However, an amended bill could put into law the state’s commitment to provide these services on a pilot basis in one or two counties.

That’s the compromise I proposed when I met with advocates and interested parties.
.
Success in the court room and the emergency room would make the case for expansion of these programs and the dollars needed to fund it.

  • My Key Issues:

  • Pimlico and The Preakness
  • Our Neighborhoods
  • Pre-Kindergarten
  • Lead Paint Poisoning