Barb Wilkie's EHN Website
Last updated 2008

Join the statewide Compliance Review of the California Courts for noncompliance with the ADA to be performed by the Department of Justice.

The basis of the Compliance Review is ADA Title II Complaints filed by organizations representing six million Californians affected by disabilities, and most importantly, ADA Title II Complaints filed by individuals who have been denied equal access to court proceedings because they were not accommodated effectively nor in a timely manner.

By 1995 all 58 County Courts were to have a program in place which makes available appropriate auxiliary aids and services to be utilized by the courts as reasonable accommodations during court proceedings for Californians with disabilities.

Based upon a statewide telephone survey of the 58 California County Courts in March, all the courts have a haphazard program for the hearing impaired. Not one of the 58 county courts have a program which makes available appropriate auxiliary aids and services for any other disability.

The Superior Court of all 58 California Counties is in violation of the ADA.

Background:

In 1994-1995 the California Judicial Council hired a national survey company, CommSciences at (323) 937-7607. The contract agreement between the Judicial Council and CommSciences.was for $100,000.00 taxpayers' dollars which included a comprehensive telephone survey of the California public (1,200 people), a mail survey to court users (6,000 survey forms were mailed), and qualitative interviews with 183 people. One report gives analysis/results of the surveys and interviews.

Additionally, CommSciences did a review of the relevant literature, worked on ALL aspects of the six (6) public hearings, attended all the public hearings and wrote another report summarizing and analyzing the testimony. In sum, they submitted two (2) reports.

The two final reports require Acrobat Reader to open and are quite lengthy.

PUBLIC HEARING REPORT: Access for Persons with Disabilities
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/programs/access/documents/dis_hear.pd

ACCESS TO THE CALIFORNIA STATE COURTS: A Survey of Court Users, Attorneys, and Court Personnel
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/programs/access/documents/dis_surv.pdf

The Subcommittee to the Judicial Council wrote:

Summary of Survey and Public Hearing Reports of the Access for Persons with Disabilities Subcommittee of the California Judicial Council's Access and Fairness Advisory Committee
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/reference/summarydisabilities.htm

 

Recommendation 1 - ADA Education,

Recommendation 2 - Education about Disabilities,

Recommendation 3 - Referrals to State Bar and Law Schools,

Recommendation 4 - Assess Available Resources,

Recommendation 5 - Financial Resources,

Recommendation 6 - Physical Access,

Recommendation 7 - Communication,

Recommendation 8 - Transportation,

Recommendation 9 - Environmental Sensitivities,

Recommendation 10 - Attitudes,

Recommendation 11 - ADA Coordinators,

Recommendation 12 - Programmatic Access.

Recommendation 13 - Recruitment, Hiring, Promotion,

Recommendation 14 - Accommodations for Court Personnel,

Recommendation 15 - Jury Service,

Recommendation 16 - Specialty Courts,

Recommendation 17 - Research,

Recommendation 18 - Case Outcome Study, and

Recommendation 19 - Compliance Review.

 

To remediate this public injustice, as well as noncompliance of the CA Courts please fill out an ADA Title II Complaint, which can be printed from the website

When you fill out the ADA Title II Complaint form:

Organizations representing Californians affected by disabilities, please state that there is no program in place which makes available appropriate auxiliary aids and services to be utilized by the courts as reasonable accommodations for disabled Californians during court proceedings except for the hearing impaired.

Most importantly, individuals please explain on an ADA Title II Complaint Form the incident(s) during court proceedings when you were not reasonably accommodated, subjected to prejudicial judicial demeanor, judicial bias, or non-statutory decisions by the court.

To avoid the possibility of these important complaints getting lost in piles of complaints received daily at the Department of Justice, please both

FAX (202) 307-1198 SUBJECT: CA COURTS

SUBJECT: CA COURTS

John Wodatch, Chief Disabilities Right Section
Civil Rights Division US Department of Justice
1425 NEW YORK AVENUE NORTHWEST
Washington, DC 20035

To date, organizations representing 30,000 Californians affected by disabilities have filed ADA Title II Complaints with DOJ and eighteen individuals have filed Complaints describing the incidents in which they were not reasonably accommodated by CA Courts during court proceedings.

By filing ADA Title II Complaints with DOJ outlining your experiences of noncompliance of the CA Courts you are supporting this undertaking, as well as making a profound difference in the future conduct of the California Courts towards six million Californians affected by disabilities.

Your assistance is appreciated,

Carin Memmer