Michael W. Bien

San Francisco

Complex Litigation

Michael W. Bien, a trailblazer in civil rights impact litigation, is nothing if not tenacious. The co-founding partner has fought for decades for people with disabilities and mental illness in California state prisons.

Bien leads a class-action lawsuit dating back to 1990 that challenges the mental health care system within state prisons, maintaining that it places prisoners at serious risk of death, injury and prolonged suffering. Coleman v. Newsom, 424 F. Supp. 3d 925, 926 (E.D. Cal. 2019).

The case, filed on behalf of all California state prisoners with serious mental illness, continues because the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has never fully complied with orders issued after trial requiring major changes in the prison mental health system.

While much has been improved, Bien said, the state government still must come into compliance on two issues: transferring patients who need higher levels of care and filling mental health staffing needs. In February, the district court judge ordered the state government to come into compliance or face fines for each day of noncompliance. The fines, Bien said, are not to penalize the state. Rather, they are a civil contempt designed to coerce compliance.

"It's one of the last things a judge can do to fix something. [Chief U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller] has tried lots of other things before this, and she's hoping this works, as we are. Our goal is not to impose the fines or punish anyone, it's to get our clients care," he said.

"In some ways, we're very close; there's a path for them to end the case. We've agreed to everything in the remedial plan. We've agreed to a plan that they came up with, and they have funding for it -- they just have to implement it."

The judge has demonstrated considerable patience for the state to come into compliance with its own plan, Bien added. The case has a hearing scheduled for late September on the payment of fines, which total close to $3 million, he said.

California has previously sought to end the lawsuit on the grounds that it is too old, and Bien said he is wary of the state attempting to make this argument again.

"We want cases to end when they should -- when we solve the problems, which are solvable," he said.

-- Jennifer Chung Klam