Audio video recording produced by the Office of the Jury Commissioner in association with the Boston Neighborhood Network. Transcript produced by Approved Court Transcriber Donna H. Dominguez. For more information visit our website JuryDuty.MAjury.gov or call 1-800-THE-JURY, 1-800-843-5879.
Executive Producer: Pamela J. Wood, Jury Commissioner for the Commonwealth
Producer: Michael Ryan, Communications Coordinator, Office of Jury Commissioner
Directors: Cullen Cockrell, Theji Jayaratne, and David Palomares, BNN
Audio and Video Tape Operator: Wallace Fashaw
Camera Operators: Marcela Maroso and Vsevolod Iskiyaev
Studio Manager: David A. Palomares, BNN
Assistant Studio Manager: Cullen Cockrell
Project Manager/Editor: Gregory W.R. Fulchino, Office of Jury Commissioner
“Jury Duty” was produced in association with the Boston Neighborhood Network, 3025 Washington Street, Roxbury, Massachusetts 02119.
Copyright 2015/2016 [Episodes 01-11/Episode 12] - the Office of the Jury Commissioner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 560 Harrison Avenue - Suite 600, Boston, Massachusetts 02118. Website: MAjury.gov.
CAPTION: Jury Duty, Michael Ryan, Host
MICHAEL RYAN, BNN LIVE HOST: Hello. My name is Mike Ryan. The name of the show is Jury Duty: You Make a Difference on BNN, the show that should answer all your questions about the one day, one trial jury system.
HOST RYAN: Our special guest today is Erika Rickard who is the Access to Justice Coordinator for the Massachusetts Trial Court. Welcome, Erika.
MS. RICKARD: Thank you so much, Mike.
HOST RYAN: Thank you for being on the show. Erika is a graduate of Mills College in California and earned her Juris Doctorate Degree at Harvard Law School. And after that, she worked as an Assistant Attorney General in Massachusetts with a focus on criminal, civil, and appellate litigation. And since 2014 has been the Access to Justice Coordinator for the Trial Court. So that begs the question, what is the, what is Access to Justice?
MS. RICKARD: So Access to Justice is kind of a term that you’ll see a lot these days in justice systems around the country. We think, a lot of different people think about criminal law and criminal cases as kind of the main work of the Courts. And of course in criminal cases, you have a right to an attorney, and if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. But in civil cases, in all the non-criminal, a lot of the non-criminal cases, people do not have a right to an attorney. So we see more and more people coming into Courts without a lawyer and trying to learn how to navigate the process. So Access to Justice is something that is addressing the needs of people in civil cases who are coming into Court and we’re trying to look at the Courts from the experience of the Court user and make the Court a more effective, easier place for people to access the, what they need when they come into the courthouse.
HOST RYAN: And some of these people have language issues, correct, when they come to Court?
MS. RICKARD: Absolutely. And people have a right to equal access to the Court system whether they speak English or not, whether they read English or not, no matter how much money they make, people all have the same access to the Court. So it’s our obligation to make sure that our forms make sense in English and in other languages and to provide interpreters when people need them in the Court, in their Court hearings. So one of the areas of Access to Justice is expanding language access for everyone who comes to Court.
HOST RYAN: What are the long, long distance goals for Access to Justice?
MS. RICKARD: Well, I would, actually, right now the, the Conference of Chief Justices, which is a national organization, has put out the goal of one hundred percent Access to Justice. And what that means for Massachusetts is looking at our Court process and thinking about things like are people able to understand what to do when they come into Court, where to go and what to do once you come into a courtroom? Looking at your form, the forms you need to fill out. Looking at how you navigate the process really from soup to nuts, from start to finish, thinking about at every step along the way how can we make the Court an easier, more convenient, more accessible place for people who come into Court.
HOST RYAN: And the project just started a few years ago?
MS. RICKARD: That's right. The Massachusetts Access to Justice initiative started in 2009, so it was something where, in a lot of states, you’ll see Access to Justice Commissions which is where some folks from Court and some folks from legal organizations come together and think about how to solve Court problems. Here in Massachusetts, we have it actually as part of the Court, as inside the Court as an initiative of the Court. So since 2009, we’ve been working on looking at what the needs are in the Court, looking at what underserved populations there are, and how we can make things make more sense and make things a little bit easier for people to come in.
HOST RYAN: I notice that there was an interim report just a year after you started that you sent out electric, electric, electronic survey to Court employees, and more than 2,000 responded with some suggestions about Access to Justice.
MS. RICKARD: That's right. That's right. One of the very first things that the initiative did was survey all Court staff from all around the courthouses across Massachusetts. And I think it was really striking just how much people really care in the courthouses about serving the public and being, being stronger public servants. So some of the top things that people talked about were technology, improving our technology to make the Courts more accessible, providing more language access, and improving Court process for people who don’t have lawyers.
HOST RYAN: And a couple years later in 2013, the Trial Court came up with a strategic plan and part of that touched on Access to Justice, correct?
MS. RICKARD: Absolutely. Access to Justice is really incorporated as a theme throughout a lot of Court policy now including the strategic plan. You’ll see a, a few different initiatives that we have are improving the signage in the Court. So it’s one of the most frustrating things for people if they come to Court and can't find their way to the room that they need to go to to get what they need. So improving signage to make it easier to understand how to get to the places where you need to go. And other, some other ideas that we’ve had are Court Service Centers is a new initiative of the Court that came out of the strategic plan and that we’re working on expanding right now throughout, throughout the Courts to help people navigate the system a little bit easier.
HOST RYAN: I, I saw in the report that it said ensure fair access to the Court system. And the other one was respect the dignity of the judicial process and all participants and provide a safe environment. So it sounded like that sort of summed up your mission when I, when I read that. And we had, we had a show on the Court Service Centers. Can you briefly tell us what a Court Service Center is supposed to provide?
MS. RICKARD: Sure. So Court Service Centers have been around in a few other, in other states for a little bit longer. They’re new in Massachusetts. And they’re really intended to provide legal information to really anyone who comes in who’s, who’s seeking help. Now, they’re staffed by Court staff, so they cannot give legal advice. But they can give you some explanations of Court process, what forms you need to fill out if you’re trying to do a certain type of case, and really kind of help explain the nuts and bolts of what happens when you go to Court.
HOST RYAN: And where are the Court services currently?
MS. RICKARD: So we have Court Service Centers right now in Boston and in Warren, in Lawrence, excuse me, and Worcester, and we’re opening two more in Springfield and Brockton this year.
HOST RYAN: And do they have regular hours just like the courthouse?
MS. RICKARD: They, they’re open as, whenever the Court is open, the Court Service Center is open.
HOST RYAN: So somebody can come in, come in with a language issue, and they’re able to help that person?
MS. RICKARD: Yeah. Even, even language issues. So the Court uses something called Language Line which is telephone interpreting. So if people come in and need some, need some kind of assistance, and they, we don’t have someone who speaks that language there that day, we can still help people by, by calling the telephone interpreting.
HOST RYAN: I thought that was interesting too. There’s computers available at, at the Court Service Center.
MS. RICKARD: Yeah, that's right.
HOST RYAN: So people, and they have not only Court staff, but they have volunteer lawyers that come and help out?
MS. RICKARD: That's right. And we’re always eager to have more folks come and volunteer, law students, lawyers, members of the community who want to learn how the Court works and help other people navigate the Court.
HOST RYAN: Now, as far as electronic signage, has that improved in some of the Courts now? Do they have electric, not electric, electronic signage?
MS. RICKARD: Yes. So we, some, one of the places where we just started having electronic signage is in Boston at the Brooke Courthouse which is a really big courthouse that’s just now adding new signage that are, that’s electronic, that you can actually look at a TV screen and see where your case is, which courtroom it’s going to be in.
HOST RYAN: And then next you had a deal with a Language Access Plan. What briefly is a Language Access Plan?
MS. RICKARD: The Language Access Plan is kind of a vision for how to improve language access in the Court system, and that means interpreters, but it also means making signs multi-lingual, it means translating Court forms, and really a whole, whole host of different areas where we can identify people who need language access help, and we can tell them about their rights, and make sure that they actually access their, their rights.
HOST RYAN: Now, you would in, in conjunction with the Trial Court Office of Court Interpreter Services?
MS. RICKARD: That's right.
HOST RYAN: And how many full time interpreters do they have?
MS. RICKARD: The Office of Court Interpreter Services has 25 I think staff interpreters today. It’s usually 24 or 25 staff interpreters.
HOST RYAN: And they also have per diems, correct, that go throughout the Commonwealth?
MS. RICKARD: That's right. So there’s contract interpreters.
HOST RYAN: Yeah.
MS. RICKARD: I think to, presently, we have 150 to 175 different interpreters who are on a list who speak a whole range of languages. I think in the past year, we’ve had 80 different languages spoken in the Trial Court.
HOST RYAN: Wow. Wow. What are the most popular ones?
MS. RICKARD: The most popular, well, Spanish is by far the, the most common language that, that we’ll see in the Court system. That’s about 74 percent of the language access needs that we have are Spanish. After that, Portuguese is another really prevalent language here in Massachusetts. Other languages are Chinese, so both Mandarin and Cantonese. Arabic, Russian, Vietnamese, Khmer or Khmai which is the Cambodian language, Cape Verdean Creole and Haitian Creole are all really common in Massachusetts.
HOST RYAN: Now, I noticed that there’s something called a Babel Notice that’s put up in the courthouse. What’s a Babel Notice?
MS. RICKARD: Babel, Babel or Babel Notice is a poster that explains something in multiple languages. And in this case, it explains your right to an interpreter. So we have posters up in common, in courthouses all around Massachusetts that say you have a right to an interpreter at no cost to you and if you point to your language, then the Court staff can know which language you speak and they can call an interpreter for you. So we have that poster up in 30 different languages.
HOST RYAN: I also notice that a lot of the Court forms are in about six or seven languages now. So that, ideally if someone goes on the, on the Trial Court website, they are able to find things like small claims forms in their, in the most frequent, frequently used languages?
MS. RICKARD: That's right. We have small claims forms, abuse prevention order so domestic violence or restraining order forms are all up in multiple languages. And we’re adding new, new forms every day. So if folks want to go to the Mass.Gov/Courts website, it’s very easy to find. There’s a little talk bubble with multiple languages in it. So you can click on that, and all of the different forms are available there.
HOST RYAN: And one of the purposes of Access to Justice is do it yourself Court forms that are online, correct?
MS. RICKARD: That's right. That's right. That’s something that we’re expanding. I think improving our Access to Justice technology, thinking about things like people use Turbo Tax a lot for their taxes. We, we’re moving toward Turbo Tax type surveys for people to fill out Court forms.
HOST RYAN: Sort of like E, e-filings for, of legal, legal documents?
MS. RICKARD: We’re, I think that is in the works, yes, looking at e-filing as well.
HOST RYAN: And you’re also big on self-help online as well, correct?
MS. RICKARD: That's right. We’re trying to get information to people as early as we can so folks don’t come to Court confused about what’s, what’s happening in their case. If people want to get more information from, from the comfort of their own home before they come to Court, we’re trying to make user friendly information available on the website.
HOST RYAN: So on the self-help center, there’s a, there’s quite a wide range of topics. And this isn't necessarily for somebody who is language impaired. This is anybody who’s looking for information about the Court system, correct?
MS. RICKARD: That's right.
HOST RYAN: So if I, if I needed to find out about how to file a small claims, if I had a parking ticket, I could go on and find out how to handle that.
MS. RICKARD: That's right. We have information about housing, families, so guardianship issues, all, a whole host of different issues. It’s kind, the self-help page on the website also has an interactive piece. So on the right hand side of the, of that page, you can access the law library website. And the law librarians actually have five different ways that you can reach them. You can do online chat. You can text. You can email. You can call. Or of course you can go into their, to the law libraries which are all around Massachusetts, and they’ll help provide even more self-help information about different legal areas.
HOST RYAN: And again, it’s Access to Justice is providing legal information but not legal advice?
MS. RICKARD: Of course.
HOST RYAN: And the other thing that I, I noticed about Access to Justice is limited assistance representation. What, what does that mean?
MS. RICKARD: So one of the things that folks struggle with and the reason why we see so many people without lawyers in the Courts is that people just can't afford a lawyer. But, so if people are not eligible for legal aid which is free, a free lawyer, or if they can't afford a lawyer, sometimes folks think that they have to go it alone. But limited assistance representation is this kind of middle ground where you can pay an attorney for just a part of the case, so it’s a little bit more affordable. And it’s, requires a little bit more communication with the lawyer to figure out just what part the lawyer’s going to help you with. Are they going to go in on a hearing? Are they going to help you write a document? Are they just going to give you a little bit of legal advice? But for each of those things, you can actually have an attorney give you some real legal advice and pay a much smaller fee than you world for having someone represent you for the full case.
HOST RYAN: And I notice that some people do go pro se which means?
MS. RICKARD: Which means that they don’t have a lawyer.
HOST RYAN: They don’t have a lawyer.
MS. RICKARD: So pro se or self-represented or unrepresented are a lot of the terms that we use.
HOST RYAN: And you try to help them by giving them information if they’re for instance filing for a small claims case?
MS. RICKARD: That's right. So in addition to the, the forms and the self-help information on the website about small claims, we actually have videos, self-help videos for people to learn how to do the process by themselves. So if you don’t have a lawyer, it’s really helpful to see what it’s going to look like when you go into Court and what’s going to happen when you get there.
HOST RYAN: So with limited assistance representation, it’s where a lawyer comes in and helps like in a, a part of their legal business, as you say. It might be a document. It might be just giving out some information and --
MS. RICKARD: That's right. And that’s something that each lawyer and the person who is hiring that lawyer negotiate together.
HOST RYAN: And are there lawyers in the courthouses for this? Or do they have to contact various agencies?
MS. RICKARD: So different, some of the Courts actually have lists of which attorneys are certified to be limited assistance attorneys. So, or County Bar Association, so you can call your County Bar Association, and they have a lawyer referral service, and you can ask for a limited assistance attorney, and they can, they can give you some referrals.
HOST RYAN: I didn't know that. Also you deal with ADA, Americans with Disabilities compliance. And what exactly does Access to Justice try to do for ADA?
MS. RICKARD: So part of 100 percent Access to Justice means that people should be able to access the courthouse and be able to have their disputes resolved regardless of any disability that they might have. So that includes physical disabilities. It includes mental health issues. It includes mental impairments. So for any of those areas, we’re working on policies and procedures to make sure that people have just as much access to the Courts as everyone else.
HOST RYAN: In our office, the Office of Jury Commissioner, we’re always trying to make sure that if somebody is disabled and they go to a courthouse that is handicap accessible, most of them are now, nowadays, but we try to, you know, under ADA try to accommodate them as much as we can. And you were talking about the ability of, you know, people to speak. We have three Spanish speakers on staff. We have a Haitian Creole. So I hope we’re doing whatever we can for Access to Justice and also, we have a, sometimes people are not only randomly called for jury duty, they’re randomly assigned. And sometimes that courthouse, they cannot drive or they have no access to public transportation. So we try to accommodate them and get them to the closer location. So --
MS. RICKARD: That’s great. I think from where I’m sitting in the Access to Justice initiative, looking at the work that the Jury Office is doing I think is really helpful for us to see how we can make the Court system work better overall. I think the Jury Office is always working to make things more accessible and more convenient for people to serve on jury duty, and we’re trying to do the same thing for people who have an active Court case.
HOST RYAN: And as I say, we have, as you know, all the Court houses have an ADA coordinator.
MS. RICKARD: That's right.
HOST RYAN: And we also try to hear people, try to help people who are hard of hearing. We have what’s called listening assistive devices that can be obtained in the various courthouses. You know, they either contact us or they, they apply online. And just recently, you probably know, there’s been a deaf juror project which with the Mass Commission for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing has just launched within the last year or so. So people who are severely or permanently hearing impaired now have access to, you know, going to jury duty which is --
MS. RICKARD: That’s incredible. I think it’s so important to have a real jury of your peers which includes everyone, right? So that includes folks whether they have a disability, whether they’re hard of hearing. So that’s, that’s really remarkable.
HOST RYAN: Yeah. So is, in a perfect world, do you envision that people who come to Court, they’ll be able to navigate their way to Court, receive any and all pertinent legal information, be able to complete Court forms, maybe obtain limited representation, and get help if they have trouble with English? Is that the perfect world?
MS. RICKARD: That’s, that absolutely is our goal.
HOST RYAN: That’s the whole access, the whole Access to Justice Program.
MS. RICKARD: And I think we’re getting closer to that every day.
HOST RYAN: Okay. Well, we’ve run out of time. We’d like to thank you at home for watching Jury Duty: You Make a Difference on BNN.
Just remember, if you have any questions regarding your juror service, you can always go online at MAJury.Gov or call the office us toll free at 1-800-THE-JURY, that’s 1-800-843-5879.
Just remember you do make a difference. Please serve when called. It’s important to all of us. Thank you Erika.
MS. RICKARD: Thank you so much.
HOST RYAN: And thank you at home.
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