Sarbanes Joins Maryland Attorney General’s COVID-19 Access to Justice Task Force [Video]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman John Sarbanes (D-Md.) today joined Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh (D), the Maryland Congressional Delegation, leading Maryland nonprofit organizations and key officials from the Maryland legal community to launch the Attorney General's COVID-19 Access to Justice Task Force, a coalition to help ensure that Marylanders can access a fair and equitable civil justice system amid the COVID-19 public health emergency.

The pandemic has underscored the significant inequities that exist in American society – especially fair access to the justice system. The economic hardship created by illness and by business closures has created conflicts that only the civil justice system can resolve, including missed rent payments, medical bill disputes and consumer debt issues, among many others. More than ever before, Marylanders will need legal help – all at a time when court proceedings will become more challenging and when funding for affordable legal services will start to dry up.

The Access to Justice Task Force will bring together a diverse group of leaders from across Maryland to ensure that Marylanders have access to a fair and equitable civil justice system

"Thank you for assembling this amazing coalition of organizations and individuals who devoted, in many instances, their life's work to these justice issues," said Congressman Sarbanes. "I think having a task force assembled around the impacts, the justice impact, or the injustice impact, of the COVID-19 outbreak makes perfect sense. There's so much that can be done to focus the public and the legal community on ways to respond to this crisis."

Sarbanes continued: "… We know the fact of the matter is those communities that feel disproportionately the impact of police brutality are the same communities that feel a disproportionate impact when it comes to access to healthcare, when it comes to economic dislocation, and frankly, when it comes to political power. All of these things are connected. Legal advocates have an incredible role to play in trying to address that disproportionate impact and to promote the kind of access to justice that is at the heart of this particular effort."

Sarbanes concluded: "I certainly look forward in this advisory role on however we're connecting our delegation to the effort to be of assistance and to be a resource."

See below for the Congressman's full remarks.

See here for the full press conference.

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