This
symposium, co-sponsored by the Sections on Civil Procedure, Tax, Bankruptcy,
and Criminal Justice, examines how courts are financed and the growing reliance
on user fees, whether for filing or defending civil cases; charges imposed on
criminal defendants such as “registration fees” for “free” lawyers; the
imposition of both civil and criminal “fines”; and the use of money bail. We
explore whether and how constitutional democracies can meet their obligations
to make justice accessible, both to participants and to the public, in light of
the numbers seeking help from courts, high arrest and detention rates,
declining government budgets, and shifting ideologies about the utility and
desirability of accessible courts. These
topics have prompted the creation of national and state task forces; litigation
(including challenges to detention of individuals eligible for release but
lacking funds to secure bail bonds, and the automatic losses of drivers’
licenses for nonpayment of fines); and a mix of economic, political, and legal
analyses probing the effects of “court debt.”
For those interested in reading
cases and commentary in advance, a 2018 volume, Who Pays? Fines, Fees, Bail, and The Costs of Courts, is available
at https://law.yale.edu/system/files/area/center/liman/document/liman_colloquium_book_04.20.18.pdf. Many other articles are
available and, in advance of the symposium, we plan to provide a bibliography
with additional readings.
An edited set of essays will be
published after the symposium in the North
Carolina Law Review.
Civil Procedure business meeting will be held at program conclusion.