White House and LSC co-host forum on civil legal assistance for poor Americans

The Legal Services Corporation co-hosted a White House forum to discuss the state of civil legal assistance for low-income Americans. At the forum, President Barack Obama addressed a group that included U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh, and former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, as well as six directors of LSC-funded programs from across the nation (including Wilhelm Joseph of Maryland Legal Aid). Making civil legal assistance available to low-income Americans is “central to our notion of equal justice under the law,” the president said. He pledged to be a “fierce defender and advocate” for legal services. For more last month’s forum, click here.

Budget cut hits region’s legal aid groups

A 14-percent budget cut the federal Legal Services Corp. has D.C.-area legal aid programs scrambling, the Washington Post reported last week.

“Neighborhood Legal Services Program in the District, Legal Services of Northern Virginia and Maryland Legal Aid are consolidating offices and jobs, freezing salaries and more aggressively pursuing private funding and partnerships with law schools to share resources and manpower,” the article said.

“Maryland Legal Aid, the largest civil legal services provider in the region with about 300 employees in 12 offices throughout the state, has not laid off any staff and does not plan to dismiss any staff in 2012, said executive director Wilhelm Joseph, Jr.,” the article continued.

“To compensate for a 15 percent cut ($670,000 less) in LSC funding — paired with a 5 percent cut ($550,000 less) in funding from Maryland Legal Services Corp., the state counterpart to LSC — the nonprofit is looking to replace retiring staff with lower-paid new hires, tighten up travel and other expenses, and intensify fundraising campaigns aimed at law firms, foundations and individual donors.”

To read the article, click here.

Staff reductions hit legal aid programs nationally

The nonprofit programs funded by the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) to deliver civil legal assistance to low-income Americans are implementing layoffs and staff reductions because of budget constraints, a survey conducted by LSC found.

According to the survey, LSC-funded programs anticipate laying off 393 employees, including 163 attorneys, in 2012.  The reductions continue a staffing downturn that began about a year ago. In December 2010, LSC-funded programs employed 4,351 attorneys, 1,614 paralegals and 3,094 support staff. During 2011, LSC programs reduced their staffing by 833 positions through layoffs and attrition. They now anticipate a new round of layoffs this year, bringing the staffing loss to 1,226 full-time personnel.

The survey was conducted in late December and early January, and 132 of the 135 nonprofit legal aid programs funded by LSC responded.

Maryland Legal Aid, one of those LSC-funded programs, has not implemented layoffs or closed offices.

To read the entire press release, click here.

More seek Legal Aid in hard times

From yesterday’s Washington Post: As Maryland Legal Aid celebrates its centennial this year, the national housing crisis, which has hit suburban Washington hard, is making the work it does even more vital.

At the same time, the agency, like similar organizations across the country, is grappling with funding cuts that make it harder to help the increasing number of people in need of assistance in civil cases.

For example, Prince George’s, the second-most-populous jurisdiction in the state, has endured more foreclosures than any other in Maryland. And the economic downturn has brought Legal Aid prospective clients that the organization would not have seen 10 years ago.

“I review a lot of the intakes, and we’re getting people from Potomac calling us,” [said Legal Aid supervising attorney Teresa Cooke]. “But these individuals are now actually financially eligible for our services.”

To read the article, click here.

Legal Aid adjusts to funding cuts

Maryland Legal Aid, the state’s primary provider of civil legal help to the poor, will try to avoid reducing its services in the wake of cuts to federal funding, the Montgomery Gazette reported.

Legal Aid will look at “any cost-saving measure short of affecting our capacity to serve clients,” said Shawn Boehringer, the nonprofit’s chief counsel. Last month, Congress cut funding to the Legal Services Corp., a major Legal Aid funder, by $56 million, which will translate into a reduction of more than $650,000 to the Maryland program.

To read the article, click here.

Legal aid is needed now more than ever

An op-ed in today’s Baltimore Sun by Legal Services board chairman John G. Levi:

Federal funding for civil legal assistance to low-income Americans in Maryland and throughout the country is in jeopardy.

A proposal before the U.S. House of Representatives would cut funding for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) by 26 percent — a reduction of $104 million, down to $300 million. The proposal, for fiscal year 2012, would roll back LSC funding to a level not seen since 1999. Such a result would hit the 100-year-old Maryland Legal Aid Bureau with a cut of more than $1.15 million a year.

The proposal by the House Appropriations Committee is not the last word. The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up the issue Thursday and will soon make its recommendation for 2012 legal services funding. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland is a great supporter of legal services, oversees the subcommittee that handles LSC appropriations, and through the years has helped to build bipartisan support for legal services in the Senate, for which we are very grateful.

Much is at stake. At many legal aid offices throughout the country, the recession and slow economic recovery have led to significant increases in matters involving foreclosures, landlord-tenant disputes, bankruptcy and consumer finance, and, sadly, domestic violence. And the number of Americans who are eligible for civil legal aid (at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty line) has continued to climb to now more than 60 million Americans. As a result, legal aid programs, including Maryland’s, are overwhelmed with requests for assistance and stretched thin in their ability to provide it. Recent studies show that half of eligible applicants are turned away at LSC programs because of underfunding; across the nation, less than 20 percent of the legal needs of low-income Americans are being met.

Why should taxpayers support legal services?

Civil legal assistance is necessary to provide access to justice, which has long been a part of our national fabric. We pledge allegiance to a nation with “justice for all,” and, as the legendary federal judge Learned Hand said, “If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: thou shalt not ration justice.”

To read the column, click here.

Nearly one in five Americans live in poverty

From John G. Levi, chairman of the board of directors of the Legal Services Corp. in Washington, D.C.:

The U.S. Census Bureau released its official 2010 statistics on poverty this morning, and the data show that nearly one in five Americans qualifies for civil legal assistance at the legal aid offices funded by the Legal Services Corporation (LSC).  The number of Americans now eligible for legal services is staggering: more than 60.4 million, up 3.6 million from the prior year.

These 60 million Americans had incomes at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty line—$13,613 for an individual and $27,938 for a family of four.
Our concern is more than mere numbers. Across the country, local legal aid offices are handling civil matters that go to the very heart of health, safety and security of many of our citizens and their families, from fighting to save homes and help victims of domestic violence to addressing the legal needs of the elderly and handling the myriad of legal issues confronting veterans on their return from overseas.

In this challenging environment, legal aid offices are overwhelmed with requests for assistance and are stretched thin because of inadequate resources and funding.  In the coming days, we will urge Congress to increase federal funding for legal services so that the vital work of legal aid offices is not further impaired by even greater layoffs of attorneys, paralegals and support staff.

To read the entire statement, click here.

Maryland Legal Aid is funded, in part, by LSC.

Addressing the justice gap

A New York Times editorial this week called for expanding civil legal services to the poor:

“In civil proceedings like divorces, child support cases, home foreclosures, bankruptcies and landlord-tenant disputes, the number of people representing themselves in court has soared since the economy soured. Experts estimate that four-fifths of low-income people have no access to a lawyer when they need one. Research shows that litigants representing themselves often fare less well than those with lawyers. This ‘justice gap’ falls heavily on the poor, particularly in overburdened state courts.

“There is plenty the government, the legal profession and others can do to improve this shameful state of affairs. With the economic downturn, only around two-thirds of law school graduates in 2010 got jobs for which a law degree is required, the lowest rate since 1996. That leaves the other third — close to 15,000 lawyers — who, with financial support from government and the legal profession, could be using their legal expertise to help some of those who need representation.

“While the Constitution requires that defendants in criminal cases be provided a lawyer, there is no such guarantee in civil cases. The Legal Services Corporation, created by Congress, gives out federal grants that provide the bulk of support for legal aid to the poor. Over the decades, that budget has shrunk — it was $404 million in 2011, about one-third less than it was 15 years ago, adjusted for inflation. The House Appropriations Committee has proposed reducing that to $300 million for 2012. The cut would be devastating; the budget should, instead, be increased. “

To read the entire editorial, click here.

Legal Aid of North Carolina to eliminate 30 staff positions, close 3 rural offices

“Facing budget cuts of more than $2 million, Legal Aid of North Carolina plans to eliminate about 30 positions and close its offices in Smithfield, Boone and Henderson by the end of September,” the News Observer reports. “Those three offices have served about 2,000 households a year in Johnston, Harnett, Sampson, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Mitchell, Watauga, Wilkes, Vance and Yancey counties. The nonprofit looked at furloughs and salary cuts, but the reduction in funding was too great, said George Hausen, Legal Aid of North Carolina’s executive director.  Legal Aid’s total budget had been about $20 million a year before the cuts. By closing rural offices, Legal Aid hopes to maximize the number of poor people it serves at its current funding level. . . . Legal Aid of North Carolina has about 150 attorneys on staff who assist more than 40,000 low-income and moderate-income households with various legal matters each year. In recent years, the organization has been heavily involved in providing mortgage assistance to people facing foreclosure. Those programs have been spared from cuts, Hausen said. Legal Aid gets its funding from a range of sources, but its biggest sources are the state and federal governments, which have been cutting spending in a range of areas. Some of Legal Aid’s funding is also tied to commercial real estate transactions, which are down significantly in recent years. The cuts come at a time when there is increased demand for Legal Aid’s services as a result of the economic downturn. ‘Even under the best funding that we had, we’re still turning away over half the clients who apply to us with good cases,’ Hausen said. ‘We have a burgeoning poverty population here in North Carolina, and we’re cutting these services at a very critical time.’ Legal Aid of North Carolina faces the prospect of further cuts later this year. A proposal in the U.S. House of Representatives would cut the nonprofit organization’s funding by an additional 26 percent, Hausen said.” To read the article, click here.

House proposal would cut civil legal aid by $104 million

Funding for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) would be cut by 26 percent in Fiscal Year 2012 under a proposal announced by the House Appropriations Committee today. The Committee bill proposes a $300 million budget for LSC—rolling back LSC funding to a level not seen since 1999.

Basic field grants, which are currently provided to 136 nonprofit civil legal aid programs across the nation, would be cut to $274.4 million, a 27.5 percent reduction from current funding of $378.6 million.

LSC’s preliminary estimates show that about 235,000 low-income Americans eligible for civil legal assistance at LSC-funded programs would be turned away if the Committee proposal were enacted.

“The proposed cut would prove to be especially damaging to low-income persons whose health and safety are at risk—the elderly, the victims of domestic violence, the disabled, children, veterans and others—by denying them access to justice,” LSC President James J. Sandman said.

“At LSC programs, requests for assistance are increasing. The poverty population eligible for civil legal assistance has grown by 17 percent since 2008, to an all-time high of 63 million Americans. And funding from non-federal sources is decreasing. This is not the time to undercut the fundamental American commitment to equal justice for all,”  Sandman said.

To read the entire press release, click here.

Maryland Legal Aid is a grantee of LSC.