If we are serious about court reform - let's start cleaning up the house

Various grass roots groups and independent individuals raise, in the press, in social media, in documentaries, in rallies, the issue that corruption in court proceedings is pervasive and that court reform is necessary.

I wholeheartedly agree.

Here is what, in my personal opinion, may help clean up court proceedings in the United States, on the state and federal level.

1/  Deregulate the legal profession and remove control of attorney's livelihood from the government.  It will not cost the state any money to simply say - finita, we do not any more regulate who represents you in court, as long as you've chosen that individual and gave him/her a Power of Attorney.  

For substandard services or professional misconduct of court representatives there are private cause of action for professional malpractice, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty etc.  Your counsel is independent from the government and can challenge the government without fear of being stripped of his/her livelihood.  For that, you pay with having to watch out for yourself on your own as to quality of your counsel's services.

Such a measure will increase supply of legal services, drop prices in the market for such services and increase variety of services and creativity of providers.

2/ For the same reason as deregulation, abolish rules and statutes allowing judges to impose sanctions upon attorneys and parties for expressing themselves in litigation.

3/ Legislatively, or on state and federal constitutional level, abolish all restrictions to jurisdiction of federal courts to review civil rights cases - all deferences, abstentions, immunities, specific pleading (plausibility) requirements etc.

4/ Legislatively abolish any and all time and page restrictions for pleading a civil rights case.

5/ Legislatively prohibit discrimination against civil rights appellants, from putting them on the "fast track" to deciding their cases by "troika courts (three, most often, senior status judges)" through "summary orders".

6/ Cut the terms of judges to one year maximum to prevent judges from colluding with influential attorneys.   Make elections secret, through secure Internet hubs, and allow anybody who meets educational requirements to preside over judicial proceedings to register and run for a judge, no party approval  and no approval by groups of supporters to register should be required.  

7/ Simplify court rules and procedure.

8/  Teach judicial duties and requirements of the law for such duties in high schools, preparing every citizen to be able to serve as a judge by appointment, on a case-by-case rotational basis.

9/ Eliminate the pension and state benefits as a lure for incompetent losers who come to the bench because they cannot survive in private practice and spend their time on the bench avenging their incompetence against independent attorneys and litigants represented by them.   

10/ Make rotational appointment process transparent and public, so that members of the public can see, in an online register, what is the order of assignment of attorneys or members of the public as judges in every court on every particular date.

11/ Allow peremptory challenges of judges, especially where judges are fact-finders.

12/ Allow voir dire of judges, on the same principles as voir dire of jurors.

13/ Mandate judges to file their financial disclosures with the clerk of the court where the judge is serving, allowing anonymous access to those financial disclosures by the public.

14/ Equalize rights of pro se parties and representing parties in rules of service, subpoena powers et.  If the legal profession is deregulated, allow all court representatives and all pro se parties the same powers in service and non-judicial subpoena powers.

15/ Abolish absolute judicial and prosecutorial immunity for corrupt acts in office, legislatively, or on state or federal constitutional levels.

16/ Legislatively mandate all courts to publish their decisions online and make them accessible to search engines, for easy legal research by the public.

17/ Make the texts of the laws, from federal to state local laws and agency regulations, readily available to the public through easily searchable online free online databases.

18/ Until such databases are in place, abolish or suspend statutes presuming that lack of knowledge of the law is no defense.


19/ Offer free courses to eliminate illiteracy easily accessible to the public.

20/ Until such courses reach all illiterate people in the country, abolish or suspend laws punishing pro se illiterate people for imperfect pleadings or for lack of knowledge of the law.

21/  Allow all cases to be resolved out of court, through arbitration and mediation, including some criminal cases (95% of cases in this country are resolved through plea bargaining anyway, and most of them are for non-violent crimes).

22/ Abolish jail sentences for non-violent offenses, applicable retrospectively, and release all prisoners who are in jail for non-violent offenses.

23/ Equalize the scope of discovery between criminal and civil cases.  At this time, discovery in civil cases is more generous than in criminal cases, while stakes for criminal defendants are higher than in civil cases.

24/  Allow video and audio recording by private individuals of court proceedings.

25/ Open all proceedings to the public with very few exceptions, such as juvenile proceedings.

26/ Fully ratify the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights and give a private cause of action, as other UN member states allowed, for violation of individual civil rights by the United States, federal and state governments.

27/ Legislatively abolish any and all "rules of finality" where justice was not served, and allow litigants to re-litigate matters until rule of law is correctly applied, as written.

28/ Legislatively prohibit to punish litigants and their representatives for making constitutional arguments and for making motions to recuse a judge.

If at least a fraction of these changes is implemented, court proceedings will be much cleaner than they are now and people will have a lot more trust in the integrity of the country's justice system.

Most of the solutions that I've pointed out are being offered by different scholars and members of the public for decades.  It is time to finally do something about court reform.

Let's remember that courts were established to put the predictable, uniform, status-blind and even-handed rule of law as a barrier to personal vendettas.

Why do we need to clean up the courts urgently is very clear - injustices can easily lead to public unrest, and the frequency and concentration of injustices, misconduct and corruption in this country's courts can easily - and soon - urge the public to public disobedience and unrest.

Let's start cleaning up our courthouses.