Recession Injuries Reach the Legal Emergency Room
No one would be surprised to learn the work of the courts relates to the economy, but it’s nevertheless intriguing to see how the courts have taken up “clean-up” work related to the recent economic collapse. According to a report in the New York Times on December 28, 2009, the courts have a huge number of new filings related to deals that went awry and also to bad debts. In addition, there are rapidly increasing claims of domestic violence in homes affected by unemployment and lost wages.
To be specific: For New York in 2009, contract disputes are up nine percent, and foreclosure filings seventeen percent. Cases involving charges of assault by family members are up eighteen percent. In Arizona, eviction cases tripled in 2009, and in Florida there were a staggering 400,000 foreclosure filings during the past year.
Jonathan Lippman, New York’s chief judge, said of the courts, “We are the emergency room for society,” and there seems some connotative truth to his metaphor. What’s more, cases related to the recession seem likely to keep heading to the legal emergency room. While the economy itself seems to be rebounding, economic troubles only gradually become legal cases. Court administrators are bracing for even more filings related to business disputes, foreclosures, evictions, and family violence.
Despite the increasingly audible calls for changes in policy, we should not lose sight of the extent and nature of imprisonment in the United States. As of 1975, only .01% of the population was imprisoned, but the percentage has grown every year since then and now stands at almost .05%. We as a nation have the dubious distinction of reporting the highest per capita imprisonment figure in the world. What’s more, American prisons are no longer geared to rehabilitating inmates. Instead of educating and training inmates, prisons for the most part simply warehouse them.