Legal Aid Services Need Support

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February 28, 2011

 

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By Gayle Flanders Weiss

SPECIAL TO THE WORCESTER BUSINESS JOURNAL

 

 I am writing about the fiscal crisis confronting civil legal services for the poor. Each region of the state has a civil legal services program, which provides free legal assistance to low-income and elderly people in civil (non-criminal) cases. These programs typically assist clients with legal matters affecting their most basic needs, including shelter, safety and subsistence income. 

 

Unfortunately, as the need for services for this population has increased with the economic downturn, core funding has been decimated. The dramatic decline in revenue generated by the Interest On Lawyers’ Trust Accounts program (a mainstay of funding for civil legal services), along with cuts in other funding, has resulted in devastating losses statewide to legal services organizations and the populations they serve. 

 

Resource Poor 

Worcester County’s legal services program, Legal Assistance Corp. of Central Massachusetts (LACCM), has suffered crushing funding cuts, losing more than 30 percent of its revenue over the last two years. LACCM’s clients — laid-off workers denied unemployment benefits, lead-poisoned children in need of decent housing, victims of domestic violence — all rely upon LACCM to help them with their most basic needs, and all stand to lose when LACCM is unable to provide services because of its funding cutbacks. 

 

The need for LACCM’s services has become even more acute during the foreclosure crisis. LACCM recently helped Michael Damon, an Iraq War veteran, his wife Lisa, and their two young children. They were facing foreclosure on their home after Damon could not immediately return to work because of injuries sustained while serving in Iraq. 

 

The mortgage’s adjustable interest rate rose drastically and the family fell behind on mortgage payments. Although the family tried desperately to work with the lender to save their home, they lost it to foreclosure and were then threatened with eviction and homelessness. 

 

When the lender started an eviction case against them, the Damons turned to LACCM. Their LACCM attorney negotiated an agreement with the lender that resulted in the Damons being able to repurchase their home on affordable terms. Talking about LACCM, Lisa Damon says, “I don’t know where our family would be without their help.” 

 

The largest funder for civil legal services programs in the state is the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corp. (MLAC), a quasi-public agency which distributes grants to legal services programs based on the poverty population in each area of the state. More than 50 percent of LACCM’s funding comes from MLAC. 

 

MLAC recently sponsored its annual lobbying event at the State House called “Walk to the Hill for Civil Legal Aid.” This year’s featured client speaker was Natasha Torres, a LACCM client trying to save her home in Oxford from foreclosure. 

 

Fiscal year 2012 is expected to be an even more difficult budget year than last. I urge my colleagues in the private bar and the business community to show support for protecting civil legal aid funding by speaking to your legislators about the importance of level funding the MLAC line item. Also, please consider making a donation to LACCM. LACCM needs our help now more than ever. ▪

 

Gayle Flanders Weiss is the board president of the Legal Assistance Corp. of Central Massachusetts (www.laccm.org). She is also vice president and chief litigation counsel for Unum.