(photo by author)
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| Louisiana Supreme Court (photo by author) |
The struggle of the New Orleans legal system following Hurricane Katrina that made landfall on August 29, 2005 was recounted by the first person accounts of a panel in “And Still I Rise: Resurrecting the Legal System in New Orleans…Tales from the Trenches” during the AALL 2007 Annual Conference in New Orleans. Coordinated by Donna Nixon of Duke University School of Law Library, the panel was composed of a law school Dean, a Circuit Court of Appeals Judge, and a one time public defender and individual practitioner, who all gave compelling eyewitness accounts of the effect of the storm on the legal system, the city and individual lives.
P. Michael Whipple of Loyola Law School Law Library was slated to be on the panel, but was absent, so the views of a law librarian were unfortunately not represented. However, Loyola Dean Brian Bromberger recounted the various dimensions and ad hoc solutions to the evolving crisis. Some dire problems from his view as Dean were the prospect of a closed law school, which would mean the loss of needed tuition to sustain operations, the interruption of student, faculty and staff careers and livelihoods, and the long term damage to the physical structures and reputation of the law school as a desirable place to work and study. Bromberger, an Australian readily noted by his accent, described his difficult decision to evacuate like many of the legal community to Houston in advance of the storm, traveling on clogged roads without many services such as communication means between dispersed staff and students. Only after arriving in Houston and managing to consult with law colleagues did solutions begin to develop.
Eric Moller, a UNC Professor, suggested Bromberger use a blog to facilitate communication and through Prof. Seth Chandler of the University of Houston an arrangement developed where the University of Houston would accommodate Loyola or Tulane students to enroll for the Spring semester with the condition they pay tuition to Loyola or Tulane, thus maintaining the tuition lifeline that sustains the law schools. The outlook for a Fall semester of any kind for the local law schools of Loyola and Tulane was bleak and likely negative, but many law schools took in students on a visiting basis for the Fall semester nonetheless. Publishers donated books for delivery to the University of Houston and faculty were flown in from around the country to teach law classes in shifts due to the crowded conditions. 350 students or about half of their students opted for this arrangement. Stories common to many were the near or complete personal loss of possessions and/or housing, as the natural disaster was an equal opportunity event for the most part. The panelists stressed that the difference amongst the victims was the ability to recover, evacuate or relocate in response to the tragedy.
Judge Edwin A. Lombard of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals and a Louisiana native recounted his own career in the Louisiana court system as a pioneering African-American jurist. Some of the nightmarish problems he described included flooded evidence rooms, prisoners swapping name tags with those jailed for less serious crimes such as DUI, and the horror of the Coroner’s office where bodies were found to be floating around in waist high water. Also of issue was the mechanics of restarting the judicial process to effectuate the requirement of speedy justice in pending matters. However, the ability to allocate usable courtroom space was but one problem alongside issues such as the inability to find jurors and staff. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that serves Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi moved temporarily to Houston rather than Baton Rouge due to the crowded housing conditions resulting from the influx of evacuees. The Fifth Circuit reopened in New Orleans in January 2006. Soaked court records were sent by armed federal escort in several tractor trailers to New York to be retrieved when they were usable.
Laurie A. White, an established criminal defense attorney at one time on the Board of the Public Defender’s Office, detailed in poignant fashion the personal impact that Katrina had on her life. Her mother passed away in the wake of the storm and her father, in a local nursing home, endured a 13 hour evacuation journey on clogged roads to Baton Rouge under terrible conditions. Looters reached her own home and her law office like many others suffered some damage, but the destruction of computers and files of many in the legal community also took with it much of the hope incarcerated clients had for quick resolution of their cases. The flooded file and evidence rooms, destruction of DNA evidence, and evacuation of staff and personnel to run the system meant a breakdown in ‘the system’ of justice we take for granted, at least temporarily. It may take years to resolve many of the cases.
It was an interesting panel that one suspects represents the mixed recovery of New Orleans to date and how many residents have yet to return home and the difficult individual decisions of why and how to rebuild their lives. Attorney Laurie White’s decision was to stay relocated in Houston, establish a new life and run for political office. The sentiment of many local New Orleans attendees and local panelists encountered at the AALL conference seemed to be a strong commitment to stay and rebuild, the difficult part being that of convincing potential businesses, visitors, and tourists that the city is safe and open for business. The panel session did not provide materials for attendees but the effect of Hurricane Katrina has in itself produced a small body of literature1 of value as lessons2 in emergency preparedness,3 particularly for those in government and the legal community. Judge Lombard of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, a proud New Orleans native, was adamant about staying and rebuilding his city, whatever it takes. He echoed the panel session’s theme of the Maya Angelou poem that opened the session on the overhead projection, “Still I Rise,” an ode to determination in the face of hardship.
| Still I Rise by Maya Angelou ©1978, Random House |
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| You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? ‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells Pumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise. Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops. Weakened by my soulful cries. Does my haughtiness offend you? Don’t you take it awful hard ‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines Diggin’ in my own back yard. |
You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise. Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I’ve got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise. |
1 For example, see: Sherrie Armstrong Tomlinson, No New Orleanians Left Behind: An Examination of the Disparate Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Minorities, 38 Conn. L. Rev. 1153 (2006); Brenna G. Nava, Hurricane Katrina: The Duties and Responsibilities of an Attorney in the Wake of a Natural Disaster, 37 St. Mary’s L.J. 1153 (2006) and Glenn C. McGovern, Surviving Total Destruction of Your Law Office and Client Base After a Catastrophic Disaster, 41 Tort Trial & Ins. Prac.L.J. 799 (2006).
2 The White House, The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned (2006), available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/reports/katrina-lessons-learned/; http://www.whitehouse.gov/reports/katrina-lessons-learned.pdf (PDF); and see also Gary A. Munneke & Anthony E. Davis, Disaster Recovery for Law Firms (2004), available at http://www.abanet.org/lpm/katrina/disaster_recovery_formbook.pdf.
3 Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina, 109th Cong., A Failure of Initiative: Final Report of the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina, available at http://katrina.house.gov/.
