Join 76 other subscribers
Joe Surkiewicz/
Director of Communications
410/951-7683
jsurkiewicz@mdlab.org
Services provided to low-income people include employment (getting illegally denied unemployment benefits and back pay and wages due), housing (preserving affordable housing, stopping illegal evictions from public and subsidized housing, advocating for the correction of substandard housing, preventing homelessness), income maintenance (helping those with disabilities avoid institutionalization, preserving or obtaining public benefits, overcoming denial of public benefits), juvenile (representing abused and neglected children), consumer (preventing foreclosure, helping homeowners bilked by foreclosure rescue scams, correcting credit ratings, stopping dept-collection activity, overcoming illegal or unfair sales contracts, avoiding utility terminations), health (helping sick children and the elderly get medical assistance, helping seniors get Medicaid assistance so they can live in their communities), family (making sure custodial parents don't lose custody of their children, helping abused women obtain custody, divorce and alimony), farmworkers (educating and representing farmworkers regarding their employment rights and educating service providers, government and the public about farmworkers' rights and needs), and education (helping children get special education services to which they are entitled, avoiding illegal or unfair school suspensions and obtaining correct school records).
Legal Aid is fielding a record number of calls from reporters. Suddenly, poverty is hot. Could it be it’s because so many middle-class people are slipping into poverty? Here’s why you should pitch your editor a poverty story: You’ll learn a lot about public benefits (such as food stamps, unemployment benefits and foreclosure prevention), meet some of our formidable experts…and gain expertise that could come in handy.
Cynical? You bet. I used to be a reporter.
In 2011, Maryland Legal Aid helped 70,000 of our neediest citizens with their civil legal needs at no charge to them. Due to funding limitations, we are able to help only 20 percent of those who are financially eligible for our services.
In 2012, Legal Aid's budget was $25 million. Funding sources include the Maryland Legal Services Corp., the Maryland Dept. of Human Resources, the Legal Services Corp., local governments and private donations.
Join 76 other subscribers
A bank accused of overcharging its customers turned into a $106,000 windfall for Maryland Legal Aid yesterday as executive director Wilhelm H. Joseph Jr. (second from left) accepts the cy pres award. The money is left over from a $16 million national class-action settlement fund against Chevy Chase Bank that alleged it overcharged fees to its banking customers in the 1990s. Presenting the award is Thomas J. Minton (left) and Kathryn Miller Goldman (second from right) of Goldman & Minton in Baltimore; and Claire Prestel of Public Justice in Washington. Goldman & Minton, Public Justice and Baltimore attorney John T. Ward represented the plaintiffs in the case, which started in 1999.
Maryland Legal Aid Newsroom 
Congratulations!