Court Compliance Legal Team

Assistant General Counsel, Katherine Nelson

The Court Compliance Legal Team (CCT) is responsible for overseeing the management of post-trial class action suits against the Department as well as developing and implementing strategic plans for reaching substantial compliance with class action court orders.  The daily functions of the CCR include the following:

1. Management of the Department’s monitoring of compliance efforts throughout the State.  This includes both plaintiffs’ attorney monitoring as well as self monitoring efforts.
2. Meet and Confer with plaintiffs’ attorneys, Deputy Attorney General’s office, and court appointed Special Masters on compliance progress and disputed issues.
3. Development and/or revision of policy and procedures, forms, and training that comply with court order requirements.
4. Serve as Project Management for specific court orders.  This includes multi-divisional taskforce supervision and coordination.
5. Serve as the contact for plaintiffs’ attorneys inquiries regarding alleged violations of court orders and issues related to individual class members.

 

Current Court Orders:

Armstrong v Schwarzenegger:  A federal class action suit regarding the provision of reasonable accommodations for inmates and parolees with disabilities as identified under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  This includes access to programs and services provided by the department for inmates while they are incarcerated and for parolees while they are on parole in the community.

Clark v. State of California:    A federal class action suit regarding the provision of reasonable accommodations for inmates with developmental disabilities.

Valdivia v. Schwarzenegger:  A federal class action suit regarding the timeliness and due process protections required for the Board of Parole Hearings (BPH) parole revocation and revocation extension proceedings.

In Re Rutherford:  A California Superior Court class action suit regarding the timeliness of BPH life consideration hearings for indeterminately sentenced inmates.