What is Legal Aid All About?
Legal Aid is about bringing justice to the poor. The term "legal aid" usually refers to private non-profit law firms that provide free civil legal help to low-income persons. Representation is usually limited to prioritized types of "civil" (non-criminal cases) that have the most impact on low-income persons such as:
- Housing Preservation - such as eviction and forclosure defense
- Domestic Violence Related Family Law Cases (divorce, custody, support)
- Public Benefits Preservation - such as disability, welfare, Food Stamps, and Medicaid benefits cases
- Consumer and Debt Relief - such as bankruptcy and other debtor relief
- Health Care Preservation
Programs with additional funding often represent clients in employment issues as well. Most programs also participate in outreach efforts that may try to reach an isolated population, such as those with limited English proficiency.
Most legal aid programs use a community priority setting process to determine what types of cases are the most important to accept given limited resources. For those of you unfamiliar with the factors of poverty, it is important to realize that there are many reasons why someone is in their financial predicament. Regardless of these factors, one thing is consistent: when critical legal issues cannot be resolved, their lives, families, and economic situation is - at best - unstable. Studies have shown that resolving legal problems for low-income persons is a key factor in determing their ability to pull themselves out of poverty.
Almost all legal aid studies agree that current funding for legal aid only meets about 20% of the legal needs of low-income persons. This means that for every low income person with a critical legal problem, legal aid programs can meet 2 out of 10 persons' needs. State studies suggest that of those persons who know about or use legal aid, only 15 - 35% will actually get a lawyer to represent them in court on their legal matter. The remaining will only receive advice or what is termed "brief services" (limited representation).
Funding for these nonprofit firms comes from a myriad of sources. The largest funder of legal aid is the Legal Services Corporation (LSC). LSC is a quasi-federal agency whose board is appointed by the President to oversee a federal program of about $3.3 billion. LSC distributes funds to approximately 140 private legal aid programs -- from Maine to Micronesia -- that provide services in every county, parish and territory in the U.S.. Programs also get funding from a number of other sources including state and local bar foundations, United Way and anyone else who cares to support them.
