Superior Court Trumpets Success in Its Four Domestic Violence Courts
The San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program has announced Latham and Watkins as its Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year.
The staff at Latham’s Downtown office performed more than 2,300 hours of community service this year, volunteering time to causes like the Children’s Museum and the San Diego Padres Youth Foundation.
Latham’s staff devoted nearly 800 hours to support the political asylum, Supplemental Security Income and battered immigrant women programs of the Volunteer Lawyer Program.
Latham and Watkins, which is headquartered in Los Angeles, will be one of several award recipients at the program’s Justice For All awards dinner Aug. 30 at the U.S. Grant Hotel.
Phyllis G. Schrader, who recently left a private firm and now works for the San Diego County counsel’s office, will receive the attorney of the year award for her work in helping undocumented children in long-term foster care to obtain legal immigration status.
Community service awards will be presented to Glenda Jones, a North County paralegal, and Christoph Diecke, a clerk with the Volunteer Lawyer Program who works on behalf of AIDS patients.
The Downtown accounting firm of Bruno, Mack and Barclay will be the first recipient of the Pro Bono Corporation of the Year award, recognizing its work in producing the annual Women’s Resource Fair for battered and homeless women and children.
Charles A. Bird of Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps will receive a humanitarian award.
Radio personality and author Garrison Keillor will provide the evening’s entertainment.
For information on the dinner, call the Volunteer Lawyer Program office at (619) 235-5656, ext. 110.
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Staring Down Domestic Violence: The San Diego Superior Court is trumpeting success in its four domestic violence courts.
The specialty courts resolved cases 74 percent more quickly and reduced recidivism by 33 percent, according to the court. Associated changes in the justice system also brought defendants into court 33 percent faster on warrants when they failed to appear in court.
A new study by Superior Court analysts compared the outcomes of a sample of misdemeanor domestic violence cases in the Central Division in 1995 to all Central filings in its specialty domestic violence court from January through June in 1998.
During the baseline period in what was then San Diego Municipal Court, domestic violence cases were distributed among all criminal judges using the master calendar method.
The study showed defendants saw as many as nine different judges during the course of their cases, often ignored court orders, and delayed enrollment in the required 52-week domestic violence educational course.
They often dropped out once they did enroll, frequently failed to appear in court, and repeated their offenses at a high rate.
In the direct calendar specialty courts, judges heard each case from the initial filing through the defendant’s treatment review hearings after sentencing. They instituted a positive reporting system with treatment contractors and a regular schedule of repeat court appearances to track the defendant’s progress.
In the process, they cut the median time to disposition from 57 days during the baseline period to 15 days in 1998.
Superior Court analysts conducted the study under a grant from the State Justice Institute.
Letterhead Changes: Eric M. Welch has joined Downtown’s Ferris & Britton, APC as an associate Zevnik Horton Guibord McGovern Palmer & Fognani, LLP, which has an office Downtown, has named Leon G. Krasinski as managing partner. Krazinski is formerly vice president, general counsel and secretary of ITT Fluid Technology Corp. He will work primarily out of the firm’s New Jersey office. The firm is headquartered in Chicago.
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Power Breakfast: James D. Boley, a shareholder in the Downtown firm of Neil, Dymott, Perkins, Brown & Frank has been elected president of the Lake Murray Kiwanis Club. (A member of the same club is incoming governor of the Kiwanis’ California-Nevada-Hawaii district. He’s Tom Vildibill, former CEO and founder of San Diego Precast Concrete.)
Items for this column may be sent via e-mail to bgraves@sdbj.com.
