WPLC
Wins Change in Rules For Out of State Attorneys to Defend
Water Protectors
Court
Creates New Regulations for NoDAPL Criminal Cases
BISMARCK,
ND: Water
Protector Legal Collective (WPLC) applauds the
ND Supreme
Court’s ruling today
in our Petition
to Permit Temporary Provision of Legal Services by Qualified
Attorneys From
Outside North Dakota.
The request filed on December 14, 2016 sought to relax
the rules
governing pro hac vice
admission for
out of state attorneys in order to meet the urgent need for
quality criminal
defense lawyers to represent the over 600 Water Protectors who
have been
arrested since August.
Today the Court granted our request in significant part,
allowing a
“streamlining of our procedures for temporary admission of
lawyers to provide
pro bono services” including excusing the requirement that a
North Dakota
associate lawyer appear in-person and remain in court for all
proceedings, and
waiving the fee for pro
hac vice
applications from out of state attorneys wishing to provide
criminal defense
services to Water Protectors.
The court acknowledged “the potential for delay or
inconvenience for
litigants due to the relatively large number of arrests and
finite resources to
handle the judicial proceedings related to those arrests” and
granted the
change in rules “due to the significant increased caseload of
the South Central
Judicial District as a result of criminal charges stemming
from the pipeline
protests.”
“This
will be a game
changer for our ability to defend Water Protectors moving
forward,” said WPLC cooperating
attorney Bill Tilton of St. Paul, MN who filed the Petition
along with 9 other
lawyers. “The Court showed courage in crafting a creative
response to this very
grave and difficult situation.”
A
public comment
period that ended December 30, 2016 generated over 16,000
comments, including a
letter
from over 175 law professors urging the
Court to grant
the Petition in order to protect the Constitutional rights to
adequate and
effective counsel in these cases.
The
Water Protector
Legal Collective has been providing legal representation and
coordination for Water
Protectors engaged in resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline
including coordination among local and out of state attorneys.
Sandra
Freeman,
Criminal Defense Case Coordinator for Water Protector Legal
Collective said,
“We are pleased the Court has recognized the peril posed to
the over 175 people
who are still without lawyers.”
Water Protector Legal Collective (WPLC)
provides
on-the-ground legal representation and coordination at
Standing Rock, North
Dakota in partnership with the National Lawyers Guild (NLG).
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