![handle is hein.journals/ambrnw20 and id is 1 raw text is: Li
BAR
New ABA push
for federal
judicial
pay hikes
A pay boost for federal judges was
the target of renewed ABA efforts last
month.
At its December 9 meeting, the
Board of Governors urged President
Ford to recommend a federal judicial
wage hike to Congress. And 10 days
later, President James D. Fellers
sounded the same theme in a com-
mencement address at Oklahoma
Christian College in Edmond.
At stake, said the board, is attract-
ing and keeping [the] high quality
federal judges.. essential to the prop-
er maintenance of the administration
of justice in this free society. This
requires, said the board, adequate
compensation and reasonable salary
increases
In his speech, Fellers deplored the
shocking treatment of federal
judges, whose salaries have been frozen
for more than five years. These salaries
must be increased... immediately,
he said, to stop resignations from the
federal bench. He noted that, of the
six federal judges who resigned in
1974, five did so because of inad-
equate compensation. (The normal res-
ignation rate is one judge every two
years.)
To handle [the federal judicial]
assignment effectively, without tre-
mendous waste of taxpayers' money,
Continued on page 6
New recruits: How well will their legal
needs be met while in the service?
Committee
goes to bat
for military
legal aid
An Army enlisted man, abruptly
transferred hundreds of miles to a new
duty station, finds that his landlord
arbitrarily refuses to return a $50
deposit on the apartment he and his
wife rent in town, even though the
rental agreement would seem to re-
quire it. Few local lawyers would be
able to spend time on such a petty
claim, particularly for an absentee
client. Must the GI lose his money?
Under ELAP, he might not.
ELAP is the Expanded Legal Assis-
tance Program, conducted by military
lawyers in each service branch. The
program puts Judge Advocate General
Corps lawyers at the disposal of low-
ranking, low-income enlisted men for
countless non-military legal matters
that the private bar cannot or will not
handle.
Today, ELAP is in trouble, a victim
of budget cuts and lack of under-
standing, and the Standing Committee
on Legal Assistance for Servicemen,
chaired by Jack W. Ledbetter of
Austin, Tex., is mapping strategy to
keep the program from being elim-
inated.
Until now, it has operated solely on
the basis of a Defense Department
directive issued by former Secretary
Melvin Laird in 1970. Because it lacks
authorization in law, ELAP has been
Continued on page 12
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