The Center for American Progress chimes in on the impact of legal services funding shortages..

The number of low- and moderate-income litigants representing themselves in civil legal matters has increased in recent decades. And there remains a significant gap between these individuals’ legal needs and the civil legal assistance system’s ability to fulfill them—the “justice gap.”

Self-representation, or pro se, features prominently in a wide range of civil legal cases, including but not limited to domestic violence, foreclosures, landlord-tenant disputes, bankruptcy, and consumer issues. Pro se litigants face many challenges in their quest to reach fair resolutions to civil disputes.

The following statistics illustrate the increase in self-representation over the last several decades and the need for additional funding for civil legal aid programs to ensure efficient, effective delivery of legal services to those who need them…

Read the full CAP piece: “Civil Legal Aid By The Numbers”

By: Steve Grumm and Jamie Bence

Happy Friday, Dear Readers!  Much of the content for this week’s Bulletin was drafted with assistance from Intern Extraordinaire Jamie Bence.  It takes a special kind of nerdiness to put together this news bulletin.  And Jamie’s got it!

This week: $12.5 million to New York State legal services providers; but in Montana, funding woes force a legal services branch office closure; speaking of funding woes, mounting pushback against Garden State legal services cuts; from the Upstream Swim Department, an Illinois prosecutor is pushing to raise his attorneys’ salaries(!); salt-in-wound: the debt-ceiling madness even managed to produce bad news for grad student loans; the San Diego D.A.’s prisoner re-entry program earns kudos; pretty big changes to Seattle’s indigent defense system; what will deficit-cutting measures mean for Uncle Sam’s civil servants?; LSC announces its star-studded Pro Bono Task Force; a Bay Area debate about employers looking at prior convictions of job applicants; NDAA appoints its first woman president; the growth in unpaid legal internships; a report on the Empire State’s strained indigent defense program; an op-ed out of Seattle in opposition the proposed 26% LSC budget cuts; more opposition to legal services funding cuts in New Jersey; Wisconsin’s public defenders are way, way short-staffed; and New York State’s new indigent defense office gets moving. 

• 8.3.11 – good news, for a change, concerning legal services funding.  In New York, the state judiciary has begun making good on its plan to bolster legal services by distributing $12.5 million among 56 organizations.  The New York Law Journal reports that the funds will be applied to serving clients who face troubles with the “essentials of life,” like housing, public benefits, and safety from domestic abusers.  The funding is seen by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman as the beginning of a steadier stream of funding to support legal services providers at a time when other funding streams have diminished.

• 8.3.11 – bad news from the Treasure State.  The Montana Legal Services Association is being forced to close its office in Butte, and to relocate that office’s sole staff attorney to Helena.  The Montana Standard reports, “Butte District Judge Brad Newman said Tuesday while the effect of the closure remains to be seen, he said that the office provided ‘critical legal services that would be difficult to replace’.”

• 8.3.11 – in New Jersey, the battle for legal aid funding continues. The Assembly Judiciary Committee requested a public hearing over the recent line-item veto, Shore News Today reports. Even fiscally conservative members point out that current funding will probably not sustain an already stressed system.

• 8.2.11 – in Kane County, top prosecutor Joe McMahon is seeking better salaries so that he can retain his experienced staff. McMahon pointed out that keeping a top-flight staff requires several years of training before new attorneys can prosecute the more difficult cases, and by that time they may move on to more lucrative private-sector jobs. “We need to take a significant step in closing the gap in the disparity of pay,” McMahon said according to the Courier News.

• 8.2.11 – while many in Washington were excited to avert a downgrade in the nation’s credit rating this week, our friend Heather Jarvis points out that the Budget Control Act of 2011 has some unfortunate consequences for graduate students. “The elimination of the graduate and professional in-school interest subsidy and the direct loan repayment incentives are estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to produce a savings of $21.6 billion.   $17 billion of that savings will go to shore up the Pell Grant program, and $4.6 billion will be used to reduce the deficit.”

• 8.2.11 – congratulations are in order for the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, which recently won prestigious Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties (NACo) for the DA’s Helping Others Pursue Excellence (HOPE), a prisoner reentry program. Corrections.com has the story.

• 8.1.11 – more news from the Left Coast. This time, the City of Seattle is making changes to its indigent defense contracting.  The Seattle Times reports: “For the first time in 40 years, the King County public defense firm The Defender Association will not have a presence in Seattle Municipal Court.  On Monday, the Seattle City Council awarded a $1.5 million annual contract for a portion of the city’s misdemeanor public defense work to Northwest Defenders Association, said Eileen Farley, executive director of the Northwest Defenders Association. The city’s decision not to award the contract to The Defender Association had been met with a restraining order, a lawsuit and an appeal. But The Defender Association lost its legal battle.”

• 8.1.11 – Washington Post points out that the debt deal discussed above could also squeeze federal jobs. “I am pleased to see that the deal does not include any immediate cuts to federal pay or pensions,” National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen M. Kelley said in a statement Monday. “However, the impact on the federal workforce remains uncertain and agencies are likely to face reductions in their budgets.”   Government Executive has additional details, as well as perspectives from federal employees unions.

• 8.1.11 – LSC has appointed over three dozen public interest luminaries to its pro bono task force. The Blog of the Legal Times reports: “The task force is a project of the Legal Services Corp., the federally funded nonprofit that is the largest source of funding for civil legal aid. Republicans in Congress have warned the organization that it faces potentially deep budget cuts, and they’ve pushed it to find new ways to help the poor with problems like home foreclosures and domestic violence cases.”  Here’s a press release from LSC that lists all task force members.   This push for pro bono has historically been a double-edged sword.  On one hand, it’s absolutely vital to engage the private bar in efforts to support legal services.  On the other, pro bono should not be seen as a means to substitute for funding.  Pro bono to supplement the work of legal services providers: yep.  Pro bono to substitute for the work: nope.  We’ve already offered our thoughts on this topic in a prior blog post.

• 8.1.11 – Time Magazine reports from San Francisco on a new movement to keep employers from considering prior convictions when they review job applications. “‘These people are in the community regardless,’ said San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón. ‘Do we want to marginalize them and keep them on the edge’?”

• 8.1.11 – as we reported earlier this week, the National District Attorneys Association has named Sacramento District Attorney Jan Scully their new president. Ms. Scully becomes the first female president of that organization, but as PublicCEO points out, it’s merely the latest in a series of groundbreaking roles for her.

• 8.1.11 – PilotOnline investigates the growing number of unpaid internships for law students, and how many unpaid positions are becoming remarkably competitive. Even students at elite schools, and those working for large government agencies, face an increasingly tight market.

• August, 2011 – New York’s public defender and legal aid systems are in crisis, but with the state budget quickly shrinking, it’s unclear whether they will get a desperately needed overhaul. Some in the state are questioning whether public defenders, faced with growing caseloads, are meeting the constitutional standard of care, Gotham Gazette reports.

• 7.31.11 – LSC board chair John Levi and LSC board member Harry Korrell take to the pages of Korrell’s hometown newspaper, the Seattle Times, to pen an op-ed laying out the potential 26% funding cut that LSC is facing, and explaining how this will hurt Washingtonians: “In Washington, nearly a quarter of the population is eligible for civil legal assistance.  At the Northwest Justice Project, there are pleas from women trying to escape domestic violence and protect their children. There are requests for help from elderly people deceived by scam artists. Families who are desperate call, worried about losing the roof over their heads because of foreclosure or eviction. Often callers are seeking unemployment benefits, or feel financially overwhelmed and see bankruptcy as the only path to a fresh start.”

• 7.31.11 – more from the growing legal aid funding crisis in New Jersey. The New Jersey Record said the following in a Sunday editorial: “Legal Services President Melville Miller Jr. told legislators the new bottom line most likely will mean 100 fewer lawyers, the closure of at least three offices and 10,000 fewer people getting legal help by the end of the year. As a result of the last cuts, Miller estimates that two out of three people seeking help are turned away. This new round may mean three out of four people with a real need for attorneys’ services are out of luck. It’s a deplorable state of affairs.”  There has been considerable backlash on the legal services funding cut, and it will be interesting to see if Gov. Christie reconsiders.

• 7.29.11 – as we blogged about earlier this week, Wisconsin’s public defenders face a dire situation. Less than 25% of offices have enough attorneys to staff the cases referred to them. In many counties, public defense has been contracted out to private firms. WTAQ has the full story.

• 7.29.11 – New York’s newly created State Office of Indigent Legal Services has sent out its first contracts this week, Gotham Gazette reports. “If [you’re] a cynic you can look at it as a small step,” ILS director William Leahy said of sending out the first contracts, “but we look at it as an important step forward.” Leahy said that when discussing indigent services with county officials he was repeatedly told, that it was the first time they had ever, “talked to anyone from the state about public defense and what they need.”

By Jamie Bence

Gotham Gazette reports on efforts to overhaul New York’s Public Defender system, generated by widespread complaints about the quality of services and pressure on the accused to accept plea deals. However, the necessary changes will require more than talk:

While recent efforts by the state legislature and Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman have lead to the first steps in reforming the system, a true overhaul in which the state would take over the reins and set standards now seems long off due to the state’s fiscal trouble. In fact, even the small gains that have been made seem in jeopardy. Meanwhile the New York Civil Liberties Union has brought suit against the state in hopes that it can expedite justice for thousands of poor New Yorkers.

Families are frustrated with court appointed attorneys, who in turn are strapped for resources and often juggling huge caseloads. It has led some to question whether the system meets minimum constitutional standards for representation:

The New York Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against the state charging that the public defender system does not provide the constitutionally required quality representation for indigent defendants. The case is currently in discovery. Some advocates hope the case will eventually force the state to reform the system.

“This is a systemic deficiency we are talking about,” said Corey Stoughton, lead counsel on the NYCLU case, “not simply one bad apple.” Because funding for indigent defense in New York is left up to New York City and 57 upstate counties, each locality has a different structure for their system and provide various levels of financial support.

While New York has taken steps to reform the structure of its legal services, no state-wide standard for legal services yet exists. Read more here.

By Jamie Bence

From Wisconsin, more bad news for public defenders facing budget cuts, and the possible impact on defender services. According the report, just 25% of Wisconsin’s public defender offices have enough attorneys. WTAQ explains:

The constitution requires all criminal defendants to have attorneys, regardless of income. And counties must arrange to have private lawyers represent those that the public defender’s office cannot handle.

The report also called on states to consider more of a defendant’s needs when representing the poor.

Thompson says her agency is working on that. It’s working with non-profit service agencies to offer poor defendants help with finding jobs, housing, and mental health care. She says the goal is to reduce the possibility that criminals will offend again – thus keeping them out of the criminal justice system.

The findings come from a report from the Justice Policy Institute, which we blogged about last week.

By Lauren Forbes

Heather Jarvis’ Blog features a breakdown of  how the passage of the Budget Control Act of 2011  affects student loans.

The Act provides for:

• Elimination of the in-school loan interest subsidy for graduate and professional students beginning July 1, 2012.
• Elimination of Direct Loan “repayment incentives” (reduction in interest rates for on time payments) for new loans disbursed on or after July 1, 2012.
• Additional funding for the Pell Grant program for the next two fiscal years.

The elimination of the graduate and professional in-school interest subsidy and the direct loan repayment incentives are estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to produce a savings of $21.6 billion.   $17 billion of that savings will go to shore up the Pell Grant program, and $4.6 billion will be used to reduce the deficit.

Funding for student aid could be subject to cuts again when the joint congressional committee seeks additional savings.

Farewell in-school interest subsidy on federal loans.  We’ll miss you.

The National District Attorneys Association has a new president: Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully! Public CEO notes that her appointment is significant for several reasons:

As the first woman president of NDAA since it was founded in 1950, Scully continues a long history of breaking new ground for women in her field.  In 1994, Scully became the first woman to be elected Sacramento County District Attorney.  In 2005, she became the first woman to serve as president of the California District Attorneys Association (CDAA).  That same year, Scully started serving on NDAA’s Board of Directors as vice president and was elected president at NDAA’s 2010 annual conference.

Congratulations to Ms. Scully!

By: Steve Grumm

This week: continued concern over drastic state funding cuts to Legal Services of New Jersey; five new appointees to the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council, and one of them is named “Gator”; speaking of under-resourced public defenders, there’s a new Justice Policy Institute report on just that topic; the debate over city funding to help Jacksonville Area Legal Aid; Jack McCoy is giving his troops a raise!; the brand-spanking-new Houston public defender’s office (How could a city that big wait so long?); a Florida legal services provider is one of the Sunshine State’s best companies to work for (Were salaries a criterion in this contest?); heavy stuff: legal services as a bridge connecting low-income communities to society; Connecticut public defenders feeling the pinch of strained resources; rockin’ out to benefit Lone Star State legal services providers (But why is my favorite Texan band, Centro-matic, not in the mix?); the Wake County, NC prosecutors pull double duty as receptionists; and an interview Keith Findley, founder of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, which has 16 exonerations under its belt.

• 7.28.11 – the Philadelphia Inquirer covers hearings across the Delaware about state funding cuts which will have a serious impact on Legal Services of New Jersey:  “Two-thirds of those who contact Legal Services of New Jersey and qualify for its help are not being assigned lawyers because the agency doesn’t have the money to meet the demand, its president told legislators Wednesday. Melville Miller Jr. told an Assembly Judiciary panel examining state budget cuts that he expects to lay off 100 staff members, close at least three offices, and serve 10,000 fewer clients than last year because Gov. Christie cut the agency’s appropriation by $5 million for the budget year that began July 1. The cut comes atop a $9.7 million reduction last year. The total state appropriation for legal services for the year is $14.9 million, down by about half from two years ago.”

• The Press of Atlantic City’s editorial board chimed in on the funding cuts, and they’re not happy: “Christie didn’t just cut the $5 million for Legal Services that Democrats added to the $5 million in aid Christie had proposed in his own budget. The governor cut it all – $10 million – including the $5 million he was previously willing to give the agency. The only explanation for that, folks, is pure vindictiveness toward the Democrats, who had the gall to propose their own budget….  The deep cuts that Legal Services have endured over the last three years raise the question of what kind of nation we are. Do we want to create a nation where only the wealthy get legal representation?”

• 7.28.11 – Georgia’s Public Defender Standards Council, oft the subject of controversy, is getting five new members.  One of them is named “Gator.”  Yes!  Here’s a blurb from the AP: “Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal has appointed five new members to join the board overseeing the state’s public defender system.  Deal announced the appointments to the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council on Wednesday.  The appointees are Donna Avans Seagraves, G.S. “Gator” Hodges, Lamar Paris, Ron Cross and David Sims.  Seagraves is a veteran public defender who lives in Athens.  Hodges is a Butts County commissioner and veteran police officer.  Paris is a Union County commissioner, and Cross chairs the Columbia County Commission.  Sims is a veteran trial lawyer who has worked in Savannah and Atlanta.”  Here’s a bit more background on the five GPDSC appointees, courtesy of The Weekly.

• 7.27.11 – the Justice Policy Institute has released a new report, System Overload: The Costs of Under-Resourcing Public Defense, which looks at the troubled state of indigent defense programs nationwide: “Public defense systems serve millions of people in the United States every year. Yet many systems across the country have been in a state of ‘chronic crisis’ for decades. The defender systems that people must rely on are too often completely overwhelmed; many defenders simply have too many cases, too little time and too few resources to provide quality or even adequate legal representation.  Ensuring that public defense systems have the resources necessary to provide quality representation to their clients can result in a more just system that reduces costs and incarceration and improves public safety and communities.”

• 7.27.11 – a Florida Times-Union editorial weighs in on deliberations by Jacksonville’s City Council about an assessment to fund civil legal services.

• 7.26.11 – the New York Times reports that as the Manhattan District Attorney’s office works through some recent setbacks that have affected staff morale, it has made an announcement that is sure to produce some smiles: salary raises!  The office, led by D.A. Cyrus R. Vance Jr., has recently faced some setbacks in high-profile cases.  Also, since Vance took over for Robert M. Morgenthau, who served as D.A. for over 30 years, the office has experienced funding constrictions and layoffs.  Managers in the office have been working on boosting morale. Well, raises probably aren’t a bad start.

• 7.26.11 – an update on the newly created public defender’s office in Houston.  KUHF reports: “After being one of the last major cities without one, the Harris County Public Defender’s office was created for the purpose of representing mentally ill defendants facing misdemeanor charges, and appeals cases for the indigent….  The county launched the office with a $4 million dollar state grant, but with plans to eventually fund it for about $7 million dollars a year…. The public defender’s office should expand its caseload to include juvenile and felony cases within two years.”

• 7.26.11 – congrats to Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida!  The organization has been named by the Florida Trend magazine as one of the Sunshine State’s best companies to work for. Here’s some coverage from theDaytona Beach News-Journal: “Agency Executive Director Bill Abbuehl, said ‘a committed and dedicated staff, one that will meet the demanding needs of nonprofit legal aid’s challenges, needs to be consistently made aware that they are needed and wanted and valued.’ The firm has 90 employees throughout Central Florida, including about 45 in Daytona Beach.”

• 7.21.11 – Corey Shdaimah, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, has authored Negotiating Justice: Progressive Lawyering, Low-income Clients, and the Quest for Social Change.  On the American Constitution Society’s website, Shdaimah previews Negotiating Justice, in which he interviewed 11 legal services lawyers and 30 clients: “Perhaps as important as [direct representation of clients’ interests] is the need for solidarity at a time when our societal divisions are growing. The interests of an ever-smaller group at the top are set against those who struggle as more people lose their jobs, their homes, and their savings…. Legal services programs sit on that divide; legal services lawyers, most of whom graduated elite law schools, choose to work directly with communities in need. Providing day-to-day legal services requires interactions between lawyers and clients. For clients, this means not feeling entirely abandoned by government agencies and society at large.”

• 7.21.11 – Connecticut public defenders, facing deep cuts, are concerned that they may not be able to meet ethical and constitutional obligations with ever-growing caseloads. Boston.com reports on the growing fears of state public defenders. “If the caseloads are too big, our people cannot spend the time they need to spend on a case and with their clients,’’ said Deputy Chief Public Defender Brian Carlow. “Our biggest initial concern is cases not moving as quickly as they can when people are locked up.’’

• 7.24.11 – Business News reports that legal aid providers in Texas have come up with a loud and fun way to raise funds for legal services. Seven bands, composed exclusively of area judges and lawyers, will rock out on August 20^th in Dallas. Ticket information and more details are available here.

• 7.19.11 – In Raleigh, NC, WRAL reports that attorneys in the Wake County DA’s office are pulling double duty- as lawyers and secretaries- as a result of budget cuts that have forced drastic reductions in staffing. ” ‘I have some of the most skilled lawyers in this county who are answering telephones on a daily basis, because somebody has to answer the phones – and we have to share that duty,’ said Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby. ‘We’re pinched. Each day, it’s robbing Peter to pay Paul’.”

• 7.24.11 – From Madison.com, an interview Keith Findley, founder of the Wisconsin Innocence Project. Since 1998, the initiative has helped free 16 people who were wrongly imprisoned, and today has expanded to issues such as improving compensation for public defenders.

By Jamie Bence

Howdy, folks! Every Thursday, the PSLawNet Blog posts a compilation of some of our favorite posts from the public interest blogosphere. Here’s what looks good this week:

• 7.14.11: SC Access to Justice Weblog features a video of LSC President Sandman on how pro bono is important to legal services programs.
• 7.14.11: The Office of Law & Social Justice Initiatives has a few tips for law students and clerks trying to stand out this summer.
• 7.22.11: Heather Jarvis’ Blog features a guest post by Adam Minsky, who explains how student loan lenders and collections agencies violate the law.
• 7.22.11: The Brennan Center for Justice weighs in on the debate over pay increases for New York judges.
• 7.25.11: Legal Services in the United Kingdom compared to our own on Richard Zorza’s Access to Justice blog.
• 7.28.11: Equal Justice Works breaks down some student debt relief options and provides links to additional resources.
• 7.28.11: Robert Elardo, Managing Attorney of the Erie County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project, is profiled by The ABA Center for Pro Bono Exchange.

By Jamie Bence

Yesterday, the Justice Policy Institute  released a report which takes a comprehensive look at the economic, social and ethical costs of underfunded public defense systems. From JPI’s press release:

System Overload: The Costs of Under-Resourcing Public Defense found that public defense systems across the country are overburdened, and considers how the busting-at-the-seams systems affect state and county budgets, the lives of those behind bars, the impact on their families, and the challenges of re-entering communities after serving time. The study further looks at why dedicated public defenders do not have enough time to conduct thorough investigations, or meet with and provide quality representation for their clients – many of whom are low-income earners and people of color – contributing to disparities in the criminal justice system.

The report goes on to make several recommendations about how the system can be improved:

• Integrate a holistic and community-based approach to public defense. Community-based and holistic approaches to defense can help address the root causes of justice system involvement and prevent future involvement by treating the whole client. This can improve public safety, save money on corrections and have a positive impact on people and communities.
• Collect better data and conduct more empirical evaluations on the impact of public defense systems on people, communities and criminal justice. Rigorous research and data collection on all justice policies and practices, but especially public defense, can help policymakers make informed decisions on policies that impact public defense.
• Involve public defenders and affected communities in the policymaking process. As people who are directly involved with the laws and policies in a state or locality, defenders are in the unique position of being able to offer insight on the impact these policies have on people, on their law offices, and on the justice system. As such, defenders should be actively engaged in the policymaking process for criminal justice policies as equal partners in the justice system.
• Actively seek out the voices and perspectives of people who have used defender services to gain a better understanding of the realities of various systems and the implications for people. Nobody knows better the impact of criminal justice policies and practices than people who are involved in the justice system. Involving people directly impacted by the justice system will provide crucial information on making better and more effective and just policies.

To read the full report, click here. For a summary fact sheet, click here.

By: Steve Grumm

Seven months into the year and Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, headquartered in Daytona Beach, has sewn it up.  The organization was listed by the Florida Trend magazine as one of the Sunshine State’s best companies to work for.  Impressive.  Times have been tough in the legal services community, particularly in the recession’s wake as funding streams have run dry.  So it’s great news to learn that morale is high at

Orange you glad you work at CLS of Mid-Florida?

Community Legal Services.  Congrats!

Here’s coverage from the Daytona Beach News Journal:

Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida was named one of Florida’s best companies to work for by a statewide business magazine.

The third annual rankings appear in the August issue of Florida Trend and online at FloridaTrend.com.

Agency Executive Director Bill Abbuehl, said “a committed and dedicated staff, one that will meet the demanding needs of nonprofit legal aid’s challenges, needs to be consistently made aware that they are needed and wanted and valued.”

The firm has 90 employees throughout Central Florida, including about 45 in Daytona Beach.