New practice practicum course yields results

Recent grads receive favorable appellate decision

—By Maria Iacobo

Two USC Law graduates recently received a favorable appellate decision in a case on which they worked during their final semester last spring. Maya Roy ’08 and Sarah Truesdell ’08 wrote an amicus brief representing Bet Tzedek Legal Services and other advocates for low income tenants while students in the newly established Access to Justice Practicum class taught by Prof. Clare Pastore.

“The advocates came to us because they wanted to be sure that the concerns of low income tenants were before the court. It is gratifying that the decision relies heavily on points made in our brief,” said Pastore, professor of the practice of law.
 
In the decision handed down last month of Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles v. City of Los Angeles, the California Court of Appeal held that Los Angeles’s rent control ordinance and the statute authorizing such ordinances were not repealed by the state’s general anti-rent control statute, the Costa-Hawkins Act of 1984, because they come within a narrow exception in Costa-Hawkins. Bet Tzedek’s clients who live in rent controlled apartments are overwhelmingly elderly and low-income long-term residents who would not be able to afford housing without rent control.

“It’s great to get a result like this in the first year of the practicum,” Pastore said.

The course, offered each spring, provides another real-world learning experience for students, and it offers a vital resource to the community.  This spring, one team of students in the practicum is writing an amicus brief for the California Supreme Court in an important wage and hour case, and another is working with the Alliance for Children’s Rights to develop litigation challenging unlawful foster care practices in L.A. County.

In a second recent decision, Pastore helped secure a victory in Silverbrand v. County of Los Angeles. Last month, the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously that pro se prison inmates with civil cases are entitled to the benefits of the “prison delivery rule” just as are pro se inmates with criminal cases.

Pastore co-authored an amicus brief for the American Civil Liberties Union arguing that the fundamental rights of access to court and equal protection mandate be extended to pro se inmates with civil cases. The rule construes “filing” for purposes of court deadlines as the date a pro se inmate gives the document to prison officials for mailing, recognizing that such inmates have no control over how long it takes the officials to process and mail the document.