Both houses of Congress have indicated that they plan to cut back federal financing for the Legal Services Corporation, the nation?s largest provider of money to assist people who cannot afford lawyers in civil cases, according to an article in The National Law Journal.
The Senate Appropriations Committee?s vote this week to reduce financial support for the corporation by 2 percent comes as Jonathan Lippman, the chief judge of the New York, prepares for another round of hearings to promote the need to increase civil legal services.
Judge Lippman held hearings throughout the state last year and has four more planned this year, the first of which is scheduled for Tuesday in White Plains.
Steven Banks, the chief attorney for the city?s Legal Aid Society, said the Congress?s intended cuts to the Legal Services Corporation sent the wrong message.
?This is exactly the wrong moment to be decreasing legal assistance, which is crucial to helping children and adults living in poverty obtain the basic necessities of life,? said Mr. Banks, whose organization actually does not receive any funds from the federal corporation. Legal Aid opted out several years ago because a condition of accepting the funds would have meant that they would not have been able to represent immigrants facing deportation, Mr. Banks said.
During the economic downturn of the past few years, Mr. Banks said, Legal Aid has seen an increase in requests for legal assistance in areas like obtaining food stamps and unemployment benefits, fighting foreclosure and eviction, and getting orders of protection. Because of a lack of finances, Legal Aid must turn away eight out of every nine people seeking assistance in a civil matter, Mr. Banks said.
?In every category of legal problem on the civil side we?re continuing to see dramatic increases,? Mr. Banks said. ?One of the hardest things that our front-line staff has to do is turn away families and individuals whose evictions we know we could stop, whose foreclosures we know we could stop, who we know we could help get food stamps or unemployment benefits or access to health care, but we can?t because of lack of resources.?
The Legal Services Corporation currently receives $404 million in federal funding and the Senate?s proposal would reduce that by $8 million, according to The National Law Journal. But this cut was far less than the 26 percent reduction proposed by the House, the journal reported.
The fickleness of financing for organizations like the Legal Services Corporation was one of the main reasons Judge Lippman said he was moved to urge the State Legislature to act.
?That?s our point, that the Legal Services Corporation and all these other various means, this hodgepodge, patchwork quilt doesn?t do it,? he said. ?We have to have a permanent, reliable funding stream for civil legal services. That has to come from the public fisc.?
During last year?s hearings, Judge Lippman said, he discovered that for every dollar spent on civil legal services, $5 are returned to the state. This is because competent representation in civil cases helps keep people off costly government-financed social programs, and lawyers can also help bring money into the state by identifying federal entitlement programs that their clients are eligible for, he said.
The judge also noted that banks do not want to see people go into foreclosure, landlords do not want to have to evict people and hospitals do not want to have to deny services because it takes away from money they could be earning.
?Their bottom lines, their own well being,? Judge Lippman said, ?is served by making sure people get civil legal services.?
Source: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/legal-assistance-in-civil-cases-under-growing-threat/
9 11 conspiracy theories 9 11 conspiracy theories zeitgeist bush usc football ellie goulding ginger
No comments:
Post a Comment