Although individuals involved in the criminal justice system are entitled to court-appointed counsel if they cannot afford an attorney, no such right exists for families with low incomes who are coping with serious civil legal needs. Instead, they must rely on nonprofit legal aid providers or proceed without legal representation.
Since Pine Tree Legal Assistance opened its doors in 1967, it has helped Maine’s most vulnerable residents overcome pressing problems of everyday life — domestic violence, homelessness, economic security, financial exploitations, employment issues and others.
These are examples of the kind of work done every day by legal aid organizations funded by the Legal Services Corporation, which is marking its 40th anniversary this year.
Created in 1974, LSC is the largest single funder of civil legal aid in the country. It distributes federal funds through competitive grants to 134 independent nonprofit organizations with nearly 800 offices, located in every state, D.C. and the United States territories.
Every day, low-income Americans seek help from LSC-funded organizations with civil legal matters that go to the very heart of their safety and security. They are fighting to avert unlawful foreclosure or to escape domestic violence. They are grandparents seeking legal guardianship of a grandchild in need of life-saving surgery, or they are veterans returning from overseas and facing legal issues.
In Maine, Pine Tree has had a significant impact: The abolition of debtors’ prison, the right to due process and a fair hearing in state welfare proceedings, the first successful employment discrimination lawsuits, improved housing codes and accessibility for people with disabilities, and nationally acclaimed foreclosure prevention work are legacies of Pine Tree’s commitment to fairness and justice for all.
Pine Tree has a national reputation as a leader in civil legal aid in terms of the quality, quantity and breadth of its services, as well as in the expertise of its staff.
LSC also promotes technology innovation through its Technology Initiative Grants program, which has funded more than 525 technology projects in the last decade. These grants have made it easier for Mainers to access information so people can know their rights: With this funding, Pine Tree has produced easy-to-read educational materials, videos and self-help forms. In addition, Pine Tree used the funding to develop a national website specific to the legal needs of low-income military and veteran families at statesidelegal.org, which launched at the White House in November 2010.
Commemorations are a time to look forward as well as back, and as LSC marks 40 years of solid accomplishment, it faces a challenging future.
The need for legal services for low-income Americans stands at an all-time high, with nearly 65 million people — 21 percent of the population — financially eligible for assistance at LSC-funded legal aid programs. That is a 30 percent increase from 2007, the last year before the recession began.
But funding for legal aid has remained stagnant in absolute dollars since 2007 and has declined in inflation-adjusted dollars. In fact, in inflation-adjusted dollars spent per eligible person, LSC funding is at an all-time low and Pine Tree’s LSC grant is less than half of what it received in 1980, adjusted for inflation.
This low funding has forced LSC grantees to close offices and lay off staff, even as studies consistently show that only 20 percent of the civil legal needs of low-income people are met.
Money isn’t everything. Through its support of pro bono initiatives and technological innovation, LSC and its grantees are stretching these limited resources.
What is needed, however, in this milestone year for LSC, is a national renewal of the core value it embodies: access to justice.
Only with increased commitment from all — government, courts, the bar and the public — will our country’s promise of justice, reflected in the first line of our Constitution and the closing words of the Pledge of Allegiance, be made real to all Americans.
Nan Heald is executive director of Pine Tree Legal Assistance. Jim Sandman is president of the Legal Services Corporation.