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Law Libraries react to funding uncertainties
By Jan Pudlow
The Florida Bar News Associate Editor
When a legal question erupts in the middle of a trial, the judge takes a break and Hialeah lawyer Juan Montes dashes to the Miami-Dade County Law Library to find case law.
“Ridiculous!” is the word Montes uses at the thought that the law library at the courthouse on Flagler Street is in jeopardy of closing, falling victim to details of the court funding shuffle. Last year’s legislation — passed to carry out the court funding shift from counties to the state, because of Revision 7 to Article V — does away with the mechanism of how most law libraries at county courthouses are financed through civil filing fees.
No provision was made for alternative sources of funding.
And because law libraries are not considered by legislators as an “essential service” of the courts, the funding will not be picked up by the state. So, across the state, courthouse law libraries are dangling in funding limbo.
The uncertainty of restoring funding has sparked petition drives, resolutions passed by county commissions and bar associations, and pleas to lawyers to contact legislators.
“A courthouse without a law library is like having a hospital with no medicine,” Montes said. “If it’s essential for lawyers, imagine for nonlawyers who have a right under our jurisprudence to represent themselves as pro-se litigants. Where do they go?”
For those who work in fancy large law firms complete with elaborate law libraries, it may not seem like such a big deal. But it is to lawyers like Joseph George of Miami.
“I am a former government lawyer and solo practitioner. What I am up against are lawyers from big firms with their own internal law library. Once you get over that’s their advantage, then you go the law library at the courthouse,” George said.
He also does a significant chunk of pro-bono work and he sends those clients to the courthouse law library to help on research.
“I tell people, ‘I can’t afford to do additional research for you. This is what you need to do. You are poor and I am still going to help you,’ but I give them a list and tell them to go get this and bring it to me. Ready access is threatened to be curtailed or shut off completely. That is a real concern for me.”
Those who care about the threatened law libraries are going on the offensive to try to get a “glitch bill” passed during this legislative session to restore funding.
Bob Riger, executive director of the Miami-Dade County Law Library, keeps a petition in that library for users to sign, and he has met with legislators and plans to meet with even more to make his case.
“I’ve been to a number of legislators, and some have told me they are interested in helping. But so far, nothing has been forthcoming. Some have flat out said that fees never will be returned (for county funding of law libraries),” Riger said. “I’ve been told by legislators that they are ‘conceptually supportive, but not financially supportive.’ We just have to keep hammering away.”
Rep. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, chair of the House committee that oversees judicial spending, and a lawyer for 17 years, said, “I know firsthand of the value of law libraries. I think law libraries are an essential element of a quality court system. I am committed to make sure they stay open to not only serve lawyers, but pro se litigants.
“The question is now, in this era of Article V, how will we pay for them?”
Perhaps some law libraries now at courthouses could be combined with county libraries, Negron suggested. Perhaps local bar associations could step up to the plate with greater financial support, he added.
“I think we need to be creative. . . .I am open to suggestions on the best way to do it,” Negron said.
“ I am optimistic we can reach an agreement to continue funding in some kind of partnership between the state, the counties, and attorneys.”
Sen. Rod Smith, D-Gainesville, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Article V Implementation and the Judiciary, was also optimistic about the fate of Florida’s public law libraries.
“It’s simply a matter of finding resources and getting them strategically applied in the most effective method,” Smith said.
He agreed the jury is still out on “what they will look like and how we pay for them, but we all recognize an obligation that we should have materials available to the citizens of each county.”
Questions about what is needed for an effective courthouse law library has Riger and others worried. Five sets of books in a corner of someone’s office does not a law library make, they say.
In early November, Riger said, a red flag went up when he was called by a staff member of the House Judiciary Committee requesting pricing on the costs of titles which she termed “basic legal materials” for county law libraries.
Riger said he was astonished at the House Judiciary’s “extremely sparse” list of what the legislative branch considered “basic legal materials.” It included Florida Statutes, United States Code, Florida Rules of Court, Federal Rules of Court, Beiber’s Legal Citation Dictionary, and Black’s Law Dictionary, for a total of cost of $2,267.
Riger has his own list of what the American Association of Law Libraries considers basic materials, the “Bible for what any county law library needs to have,” costing nearly 100 times the legislative bare-bones version, at $220,132.
“As I mentioned to (the House staffer), your list doesn’t even include state or administrative case law, no treatises, no self-help materials for the pro se’s, no session laws from the state, no annotations included in the statutes, no administrative law, no local bar publications, no case law, no encyclopedia,” said an incredulous Riger.
Riger said he was told by a staffer at the House Judiciary Committee that “it looks grave as far as expecting any money from the state.”
In St. Lucie County, attorney James T. Walker is on the board of trustees of the Rupert J. Smith Law Library, and he frets about keeping the doors open in these uncertain budget times. A courthouse law library is much more than Internet access to case law or a set of current statute books. A full-time librarian helps people find what they’re looking for in 45,000 books. The library’s budget this year was $240,543, next year’s proposed budget is $270,543, and at least until July 1, when the Revision 7 to Article 5 legislation kicks in, the money came from service surcharges on people filing civil cases.
“We feel the public law library is the access point to equal justice under the law,” Walker said. “It is essential to a free society.”
He is armed with a Florida Supreme Court case to back him up: Farabee v. Board of Trustees, Lee County Law Library, 254 So. 2d 1 (Fla. 1971): “Few courts in this state could operate without an adequate law library,” the justices concluded. “More importantly, a public law library is open to and serves the needs of all persons throughout the county, rich and poor alike. For lawyers, it reduces or eliminates the need to acquire and maintain expensive law libraries without jeopardizing the effectiveness of the individual lawyer’s research. For litigants and those interested in the law generally, it provides a vast amount of material at no expense to the individual. In our opinion, the law library fulfills an important and growing need of practitioners, judges, and litigants. It is essential to the administration of justice today, and it is appropriate that its costs be assessed against those who make use of the court systems of our state.”
Walker couldn’t agree more. He has been a trustee of the law library for 20 years, as a representative of the St. Lucie County Bar Association, and he knows that the people who use the library on the first floor of the courthouse are almost evenly divided between attorneys (52 percent) and the general public (48 percent).
In St. Lucie, both the local bar and the county commissioners signed a resolution supporting a continuation of funding through service fees in their present form, and asks for an amendment to Fla. Ch. 2003-402 to restore F.S. §28.2401 (3) as it was before last year’s enactment of HB-0113A, the massive court funding bill.
Ft. Pierce attorney Karen Emerson organized a petition drive requesting “the restoration of funding for local law libraries,” sending hundreds of signatures to legislators.
“We want to make sure the library stays funded, and to that end, our bar association has sent a personal appeal to each of the voluntary bar associations in the state requesting their support,” Walker said.
“Libraries cannot survive without a dependable funding source,”
Walker said. “If you take that away, they are forced to survive based
upon the availability of local funds. Some will survive, and some will not.
Those that do, in paraphrasing a local newspaper editor here, will suck funds
from other worthy programs.”
Recent Legislation Threatens
Florida County Law Libraries
Robert E. Riger Director,
Dade County Law Library System
In May 2003, the Florida Legislature passed HB113-A, legislation that eliminates case filing fees as the county law libraries primary revenue source, effectively jeopardizing their existence. This legislation was passed to implement the Florida voters' 1998 mandate, Revision 7 to Article V of the Florida Constitution, redirecting court funding from the county level to the state level. This would theoretically free up significant county dollars for local projects. Some of the anticipated savings could then be utilized for the continued maintenance of quality county law libraries. However, the "unintended consequences" of this legislation raise serious questions, and leaves the fate of these libraries "hanging in mid air". Some of the key issues that have to be addressed are:
* The issue of the continued existence of county law
libraries.
County law libraries are not mentioned in (and indeed were stricken from)
the legislation. While some interpreters of the legislation have stated, and
others have inferred, that it was the "intent" of the legislature
to transfer support of county law libraries from the state to the county,
no specific language within 11 HB113-A refers to this "intent".
Unless and until the legislation is amended, county law libraries have been
designated as non-essential, "county options". This means that funding
for them is at the discretion of their respective counties. Right now, no
one can legally compel county to fund a law library.
* The assumption that the counties will realize a significant enough savings as a result of Article V's redirection of costs, to be able to "fully fund" county law libraries. Even if the law was to be amended, and law libraries were to be designated as "County Requirements", there have been no guidelines set for the measurement of "adequate", let alone "full" funding.
The tremendous savings the counties are anticipating may not
materialize, especially since several factors, including the economic situation,
have changed dramatically since Revision 7 in 1998. Under the "County
Requirement" provision, counties would technically only be required to
provide $1 to their law libraries! Even if sufficient
funding is allocated in year 1, there would still be no guarantee of comparable
or sufficient funding in year 2, or any other subsequent years, forcing the
Library Director to beg the county for funding each
year. However, this legislation leaves the fate of county law libraries hanging
in mid air. There is no reference currently in HB 113 A to housing these materials
in existing county law libraries. References in the legislation specifically
point to basic materials outside of county law libraries.
The Florida State Legislature reconvenes this coming spring.
This will be our last opportunity to challenge the disastrous consequences
of this legislation for county law libraries, Pro Se Litigants, the citizens
of Florida, and Law Librarians around the country.Law Librarians must unite
to prepare a comprehensive and coherent response to this threat. Florida County
Law Librarians are rallying in Miami in October to strategize. Everyone else
should petition the appropriate legislators, county governments, and Governor
Jeb Bush.
Send letters and pass resolutions in support of Florida's County Law Libraries.
Contact the media. Raise awareness and make some noise. Just don't stand by
idly as our law libraries are dismantled and destroyed.
Editor's note: According to Mary Alice Baish, the AALL Associate
Washington Affairs Representative, the AALL executive board will be addressing
this issue at the October meeting.
This will be our last opportunity to challenge the disastrous consequences
of this legislation for county law libraries, Pro Se Litigants, the citizens
of Florida and Law Librarians around the country.
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