RESTORE LSC FUNDING AT $400 MILLION LEVEL, ABA URGES CONGRESS

CHICAGO, April 12, 2000 -- Congress should restore funding for the Legal Services Corporation to the level of $400 million, said Doreen D. Dodson, chair of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants.

In testimony submitted to Congress, Dodson noted that LSC has worked closely with leaders of both the House and the Senate to ensure that LSC grantees focus their efforts on meeting the basic legal needs of the poor. That commitment to implementing program changes makes it appropriate to restore funding to the $400 million provided in fiscal year 1995.

LSC currently is funded at $305 million, and has requested $340 million for FY 2001. The ABA is urging the higher figure to help reduce the unmet legal needs of the poor. LSC grantees are able to serve only one of every five clients eligible for service under federal poverty guidelines, Dodson noted.

"For a quarter of a century, the LSC has been a lifeline for Americans in desperate need," and the legal services programs receiving LSC funds "have been there when poor Americans had nowhere else to go," said Dodson. She cited individuals served by those programs:

• Maude, an 89-year-old widow living in Pulaski County, Ky., was told she would "pay or go to jail" for nonpayment of a debt that was not hers. The Somerset Legal Services office stepped in, advising the debt collector that Maude disputed the debt, and asking for verification. The collector removed the debt from Maude's name and corrected her credit report.
• Joseph, a disabled Vietnam veteran in North Carolina, had been denied Veterans Administration benefits due to his less than honorable discharge. Legal Services of the Lower Cape Fear helped him prove severe post-traumatic stress disorder, resulting from exposure to extreme combat conditions in Vietnam, and the Board of Veterans' Appeals found that he suffered from a 100 percent service-connected disability. He and his family have moved out of poverty, and he no longer qualifies for legal services.

"LSC is a model public/private partnership, one of community-based and directed service," said Dodson, noting that LSC delivers legal services to the poor at a cost of about $7 per poor person in this country.

Ninety-seven percent of the LSC annual appropriation is distributed directly to local, non-profit legal aid programs based on the poverty population living in the programs' service areas. Leaders of the local business and legal communities set priorities for and oversee the work of the local grantees. The local programs work with state and local bar associations to recruit and train lawyers who provide volunteer service. Dodson cited support for LSC among leaders of Fortune 500 companies and the general American public. She noted Louis Harris polls in 1997 and 1999 that showed Americans support use of federal funds to pay for legal assistance to low income families in such cases as child custody, adoption, divorce and domestic violence.

The LSC is an "essential ingredient of ensuring equal access to justice for all," said Dodson. The American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. With more than 400,000 members, the ABA provides law school accreditation, continuing legal education, information about the law, programs to assist lawyers and judges in their work, and initiatives to improve the legal system for the public.