By John N. Erlenborn

Static Funding Falls Flat

All over America, local legal services offices serving the poor are closing their doors, and dedicated advocates are getting pink slips. The perpetual funding crisis facing legal aid just took a major turn south.

In the upcoming congressional debate over LSC’s FY04 budget, preserving the status quo will not be enough. “Flat funding” for the fourth consecutive year actually will mean less justice for those who need it most. Since 1999, legal aid providers have been able survive on $329.3 million from Congress, in part, because outside funding sources could be, and were, tapped to maintain current levels of service. 

Today, the struggling national economy, the costly war on terrorism, record-low interest rates on special IOLTA accounts, budget crises in almost every state, and LSC’s Census-related state funding reallocations have altered the equation. Public interest leaders across the country are being confronted with some very painful choices.

Legal Aid of West Virginia will deal with budget shortfalls by closing six offices across the state and laying off 17 employees by year’s end. Executive Director Adrienne Worthy can’t believe her program will be forced to turn away even more clients. “Our phones ring off the hook now,” she says. “I do not look forward to saying, ‘I’m sorry, we can’t help you.’ ” West Virginia currently has one public interest lawyer for every 7,895 eligible poor people in the state. The odds of getting help will nosedive further come 2003. As many as 6 of 21 regional offices will close and up to 72 advocates will be out of work. Domestic violence funding from the U.S. Department of Justice didn’t come through as hoped, creating a $460,000 state budgetary hole. LSC, by statute, must shift another $836,000 out of the Bluegrass State due to poverty population shifts reported in the 2000 Census. Priority-setting becomes crucial now. “Eviction and domestic violence cases involving children will move to the top of the list,” says Jamie Hamon, director of the statewide Access to Justice Foundation. “Thousands of clients facing other serious problems will be turned away.”

In Montana, the legal aid office in Harve will be closing after almost 30 years serving the area’s low-income population. Montana Legal Services had no choice but to close the Harve office and lay off five advocates. More offices may yet need to be closed, warns Montana Legal Services Director Klaus Sitte.

In Utah, the funding situation is so catastrophic that domestic violence assistance is in peril. Next year, the state must absorb the loss of $450,000 in Justice grants it had expected to receive after getting the funds the previous two years. The board overseeing the state Office of Crime Victims Reparations turned down an emergency appeal to provide enough funding for skeleton staffs to offer limited assistance to victims of family violence. “We don’t have a lot more options,” Utah Legal Services Director Anne Milne says despondently.

As President of LSC, it saddens me to think that we have reached a point where some states cannot afford to maintain the most basic services for our most vulnerable clients. When there is not enough money to help battered women who need the protection of the law, our system of civil justice is truly broken. 

For three straight years, we on the LSC Board of Directors have abided by the Bush Administration’s requests for fiscal restraint. However, the need for a significant legal services funding boost can wait no longer. For FY04, LSC plans to ask Congress to increase its appropriation to $415 million – a long-overdue bump that will help keep programs up and running during a code-red funding crisis.

This much we already know: If LSC receives flat funding again in FY04, far too many of our clients are going to find themselves flat out of luck.