California Employment Lawyers Association (CELA) has been a leader in addressing concerns of bias in the judiciary. In response to our members’ concerns heard over many years of instances of bias experienced by our members and by workers, and the subsequent difficulty in addressing such bias, CELA created the Elimination of Bias in the Judiciary Committee.

Through our research, in the spring of 2020, we discovered nearly all of the Superior Courts in California were out of compliance with California Rules of Court, Rule 10.20, Court’s Duty to Prohibit Bias. CRC 10.20 described the courts’ duty to support the integrity and impartiality of the judicial system and to promote a courtroom environment free of bias or the appearance of bias.  Within CRC 10.20 is a duty to establish local bias committees staffed by diverse members of the local bar community, along with court designees to accept complaints of bias and to investigate and address them. CRC 10.20 was initially created after the 1987 Judicial Council Advisory Committee on Gender Bias in the Courts established by Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird.

After widespread attention to the issues of nearly total non-compliance statewide regarding CRC 10.20, proposed changes to CRC 10.20 have been made to simply eliminate the existing requirement for the complaint procedure maintained by local bias committees, rather than assess their efficacy or bring them into compliance.

On June 24, 2021, CELA, along with thirty other civil rights, bar, consumer, and legal aid organizations, signed onto a letter opposing the proposed edits, specifically the elimination of the requirement for the complaint procedure. We also asked that a rewrite of CRC 10.20 be conducted with a more diverse Work Group including employment attorneys, civil rights attorneys, and members of diversity bar associations. The organizations who signed onto the letter included the following:

CELA
Equal Justice Society
ACLU California Action
Equal Rights Advocates
Legal Aid of Marin
Public Counsel
Open Door Legal
Impact Fund
Disability Rights Advocates
Legal Aid At Work
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
Church State Council
Wage Justice Center
California Women’s Law Center
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
Bet Tzedek Legal Services
Centro Legal de la Raza
Los Angeles LGBTQ Center
Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom
National Employment Law Project
Alameda County Bar Association
Marin Trial Lawyers Association
San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association
Asian American Bar Association of Greater Bay Area
East Bay La Raza Lawyers Association
Alameda Contra Costa County Trial Lawyers Association
Queen’s Bench Bar Association
San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association
Women’s Section of the Contra Costa County Bar Association
Mexican American Bar Association

Many of our members also provided letters detailing concerns with the proposed edits to CRC 10.20. CELA deeply thanks our coalition partners, who are committed to a robust, fair and impartial judiciary.

We are hopeful that the Court system will fulfill the promise made in 1987 by the Judicial Council Advisory Committee on Gender Bias in the Courts and come into compliance with CRC 10.20’s requirement of local bias committees staffed by diverse members of the local bar community to fully address concerns of bias and impartiality in the judicial system.

CELA has offered our expertise to assist in the development of complaint systems that address minimum standards to address bias and processes to ensure transparency and fairness. While this offer has not yet been accepted, CELA will continue to work on these issues and will keep our members updated and involved.

In solidarity,
Wendy Musell
Co-chair Elimination of Bias in the Judiciary Committee
Board Member