June 4, 2021

Jonathan L. Mannina: 70 years of fighting for justice in Worcester County

BY Jonathan L. ManninaWorcester Telegram & Gazette

In January 1951, a group of attorneys from the Worcester County Bar Association took a bold step in the fight for justice by forming the Legal Aid Society of Worcester. The purpose of the new organization was “to provide legal assistance for those financially unable to engage an attorney.”

Remarkably, the society was founded more than a decade prior to the Great Society and War on Poverty programs of the 60s that were meant to reduce the growing divide between the haves and have-nots in America. Indeed, the society’s creation was visionary in its recognition of the profound need for access to justice for those in our communities unable to afford an attorney.

The society was the brainchild of the Worcester County Bar Association, but also had early support from several prominent corporate leaders who served as board members, including Jacob Hiatt, Paris Fletcher, Eugene Ribakoff, Joseph Carter, Frank Harrington, Fairman Cowan and Paul Morgan.

The society’s founding jumpstarted a movement in Central and Western Massachusetts of providing access to justice that has continued for 70 years. The Legal Aid Society has today evolved into Community Legal Aid, a non-profit organization with over 140 staff that provides free legal services to over 7,000 low-income and elderly clients a year across the five counties of Central and Western Massachusetts, impacting an estimated 18,000 of the region’s most vulnerable residents.

While those who cannot afford an attorney in criminal cases are appointed an attorney by the court, the same is not true in civil legal cases. As a result, our low-income and elderly neighbors are often left to fight for life’s basic necessities — a place to live, protection from violence, and support for their families — all without the help of a lawyer.

In Central and Western Massachusetts, Community Legal Aid exists to help people with these and other critical civil legal issues.

The COVID-19 crisis has brought into sharper focus just how essential legal aid is to many of our neighbors’ health and economic stability. In the span of just a few months in early 2020, Community Legal Aid saw a surge in the number of people seeking help to stave off eviction, access unemployment benefits, or apply for SNAP benefits (food stamps).

Others needed our help because their children with disabilities were unable to participate in virtual schooling or because they faced increased family violence as they quarantined in their homes. Without our services, low-income and elderly tenants, workers, students, immigrants, domestic violence survivors, and veterans would be left to fight for their rights alone.

As Community Legal Aid celebrates its 70th anniversary, I am deeply grateful to the individuals who so many years ago had the foresight to take action to help us live up to the American ideal of justice for all. Their action has helped hundreds of thousands of our neighbors and their families over seven decades.

I thank them and everyone in the Community Legal Aid family for the strength we have found together to continue to fight for justice for all.

Jonathan L. Mannina, Esq., is executive director of Community Legal Aid