Latest news with #PLRA
Express Tribune
25-03-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
Land transaction service to be franchised
Public outcry in Canada as Google Maps removing the state owned building on Canada's digital maps. PHOTO: PEXELS The Punjab Land Records Authority (PLRA) Board has approved proposals for the introduction of a franchising model, restructuring of Arazi Record Centres (ARCs) and the procurement of a digital authentication service. In a meeting, the board deferred a proposal to acquire additional land for expanding the authority's head office in Lahore. PLRA Chairman Chaudhry Tariq Subhani, speaking to The Express Tribune on Tuesday, stated that the board's agenda focused on initiatives aligned with the authority's long-term strategy to enhance efficiency, security and accessibility in land-related services. He highlighted that one of the most significant approvals was for the CNIC-MSISDN Pairing Authentication Service (CMPA), a digital security mechanism that verifies citizens' mobile phone number against their computerised national identity card (CNIC). The system is expected to bolster security, prevent unauthorised access to sensitive land records and facilitate new service initiatives such as the franchising model. It was decided that the Pakistan MNP Database (PMD) Guarantee Limited will provide the service, ensuring that only verified users can access land records through their registered mobile numbers. Under the agreement, the first 10 million transactions will be processed at a fixed rate of Rs15 per transaction, with no price escalation for three years. Beyond this limit, transaction costs will increase gradually over the contract period. Additionally, the PLRA Board mandated the use of a registered mobile number for all land record services, with exceptions granted on a case-by-case basis by designated officers. Another major decision was the approval of a One-Go Service Model for Arazi Record Centres, designed to streamline the land transaction process. Currently, citizens must visit multiple counters for services such as obtaining copies of land records or processing property mutations. Under the new model, a single transferring officer will handle all steps, including biometric verification, payment processing and service issuance, at a single counter. This restructuring aims to reduce wait times, eliminate unnecessary delays and improve the overall customer experience. The board approved a pilot implementation at selected ARCs in key districts, including Lahore, Faisalabad, Sheikhupura and Jhang. The board also approved the PLRA Franchising of Services Regulations, 2025, which will allow private franchises to offer Punjab Land Records Authority services in exchange for a licensing fee. This initiative is expected to enhance public accessibility by increasing the number of service outlets across the province while reducing government operational costs. Additionally, it is projected to generate revenue and stimulate local economic growth by creating employment and investment opportunities. Under the plan, franchise fees will be categorised into platinum, gold and silver tiers. PLRA employees who resign to establish a franchise will be exempt from franchise fees for the first three years.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Few prisoners claiming abuses have access to a jury trial. The Supreme Court could soon change that.
The Supreme Court is set to hear a case Tuesday that could expand prisoner access to jury trials. The case relates to the PLRA, a 1996 law requiring prisoners to pursue a prison grievance before filing suit. The petitioner says expanding access to juries would leave courts "inundated" with meritless suits. When US lawmakers introduced legislation nearly 30 years ago to curb the "frivolous" prisoner lawsuits they said were inundating the courts, they insisted it wouldn't affect prisoners with legitimate claims. That law, the 1996 Prison Litigation Reform Act, created something of a catch-22. Under the PLRA, any lawsuit, however serious the claim, can be dismissed if the prisoner didn't first exhaust their prison's internal grievance process. Yet prisoners say grievances can be stymied by the very guards they've accused of wrongdoing. In these cases, a prisoner's claim of abuse or retaliation can be intertwined with their failure to properly file grievances. The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments Tuesday about whether prisoners have a right to argue these complex cases before a jury. The case the justices will hear centers on a Michigan prisoner named Kyle Brandon Richards, who said in a legal complaint he filed in April 2020 that Thomas Perttu, a resident unit manager at the Baraga Correctional Facility, had "engaged in a pattern of prolific and repetitive sexual abuse." Richards said that when he tried to file written grievances reporting the abuse, Perttu retaliated against him by destroying them and threatening to kill him. The Michigan Department of Corrections declined to comment on the claims against Perttu and did not confirm whether he still worked at the prison, citing the pending litigation. Michigan's attorney general's office, which represents Perttu, did not respond to queries. A judge dismissed Richards' lawsuit over his failure to exhaust Baraga's grievance process under the PLRA. An appeals court reversed course. A panel of 6th Circuit judges found that because Richards' First Amendment retaliation claims against Perttu were intertwined with a factual dispute over whether he'd properly exhausted the grievance process, those contested facts should be decided by a jury, not a judge, under the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial. Perttu appealed, and the question of whether prisoners in these situations have a right to a jury trial will now be heard by the Supreme Court. "Holding that the Seventh Amendment requires a jury decision on this question would be significant," said Michael Mushlin, an emeritus professor at Pace University's law school, who wrote an amicus brief with law professors in support of Richards' claims. "It's not earth-shattering, but it's significant in trying to soften the horrible blow of the PLRA." Though the PLRA was pitched as a common-sense reform to curb trivial lawsuits, Business Insider found, in a six-part series published in December, that the law has largely stymied prisoner lawsuits claiming serious harm — including retaliatory beatings, stabbings, sexual assaults, and egregious forms of medical neglect. Exhausting an internal grievance system before filing suit, as the PLRA requires, is often a convoluted ordeal. In one case BI uncovered that was dismissed by a judge over the failure to exhaust, a New Jersey prisoner said he'd been beaten by prison guards while he was in restraints and then missed a grievance deadline while in solitary confinement. In another, a Virginia prisoner who said he was sexually abused by a prison psychologist filed a grievance that was not considered specific enough. In Indiana, a prisoner who said he attempted suicide after a guard told him to "go for it" lost in court because his grievance didn't contain the guard's full name. In Richards' case, he argued that he was unable to meet the PLRA's exhaustion requirement because Perttu had destroyed his grievance forms — the same set of circumstances at the heart of his retaliation claim. "The disputed facts," said Lori Alvino McGill, a lecturer at the University of Virginia's law school who is representing Richards before the Supreme Court, "will be critical to both the retaliation claim and to whether administrative remedies were available." The PLRA has faced intense criticism since it was first enacted. Members of Congress have tried to reform the law and failed. And the Richards case is not the first time the Supreme Court has been asked to review aspects of the law. Margo Schlanger, a law professor at the University of Michigan who is a leading researcher on the PLRA's effects and who helped guide BI on its research methodology, said that if the justices decide in favor of Richards, it would mean, at the very least, "a few more cases" filed by prisoners would make it before juries. BI found that such outcomes are unusual. Of nearly 1,500 Eighth Amendment prisoner cases BI analyzed for its series — including every appeals court case that reached a decision over a five-year period — only 2% were decided by a jury. Plaintiffs who got a jury trial fared far better than those who did not: Less than 1% won their cases before a judge, while 18% of plaintiffs whose cases reached a jury prevailed. Richards' case has attracted support from the ACLU and the Cato Institute, the libertarian think tank, which both filed amicus briefs on Richards' behalf. Groups including the National Sheriffs' Association and the International Municipal Lawyers Association filed briefs supporting Perttu. The Cato Institute argued in its brief that the constitutional right to a civil jury trial is "fundamental to American liberty." "For Richards, and those similarly situated to him," Cato's Clark Neily III wrote, "a jury trial at the exhaustion stage is essential to ensure that their claims are fairly heard." According to Jennifer Wedekind, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU's National Prison Project who was an author of the ACLU's brief, credibility determinations often come down to an officer's word against a prisoner's. "Those are precisely the type of determinations that juries are supposed to be making," she told BI. The Supreme Court could decide broadly that every incarcerated plaintiff is entitled to a jury trial when there are disputes over exhaustion. Or the justices could rule more narrowly, as Mushlin expects — granting access to a jury trial only to plaintiffs in cases in which the factual discrepancies over exhaustion are inseparable from the substantive issues of the case. Perttu's lawyers argued that if the justices uphold the circuit court's decision, federal courts will be "inundated" with "meritless lawsuits that they must allow to go to a jury" and effectively "erase nearly 30 years of progress in reducing frivolous lawsuits." A brief filed by the International Municipal Lawyers Association and the National Association of Counties echoed those points, arguing that the 6th Circuit ruling "undermines the PLRA's goal of saving costs by reducing the volume of frivolous inmate suits." BI found that claims of a tide of frivolous lawsuits were largely a myth. While a few dozen of the claims in BI's sample appeared to center on minor matters, the vast majority clearly involved claims of substantive harm. The effects of the law have been dramatic: Of the roughly 1,400 federal prisoner cases that BI examined filed by people who were imprisoned — rather than by former prisoners or their families — 27% failed because of the PLRA's requirements. Among cases decided in district courts, 35% failed because of the law. Research by Schlanger found that within five years of the PLRA's passage prisoner suits dropped by 43% even as the prison population grew. The filing rate, she later found, never rebounded. In BI's sample of prisoner suits, plaintiffs prevailed less than 1% of the time — indicating a near evisceration of protections for this country's 1.2 million prisoners, thanks to the combined impact of the PLRA and a set of legal standards established by the Supreme Court at the height of the war on drugs. "Recent reports from Business Insider show that many prisoners have been denied their basic legal rights," Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois said in response to BI's series. "Any abuse that happens inside our prisons must be allowed to reach the light of day." Read the original article on Business Insider
Express Tribune
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Govt launches land division initiative
MULTAN: Director General (DG) Punjab Land Record Authority (PLRA) Tariq Subhani met Commissioner Multan Division Amir Kareem Khan and briefed him on a new system for dividing joint landholdings. He announced that the Punjab government has abolished fees on Wanda (land partition) to ease the process for the public. Calling it a historic reform, he emphasized that the merit-based and transparent division of joint family land would prevent disputes and ensure fairness. To streamline property distribution, the government launched the 'Wanda Karao, Sukh Pao' initiative, enabling legal heirs to obtain ownership records and land maps effortlessly. A dedicated wing has also been established to manage the process. Previously, the lack of a structured mechanism fuelled family disputes and prolonged legal battles.
