Not only is legal aid sometimes the problem, but there are times that the fixation on
legal aid increases blinds the bar to the alternatives that might be available.
Not exact matches
The program was created to assist attorneys who pursue careers in
legal aid in Texas and to
increase access to justice for low - income individuals.
Organizations represented at the rally included Amida Care, which brought a large team of members and staff to show support for
increased funding, Housing Works, Harlem United, VOCAL - NY, Iris House, the National Black Leadership Commission on
AIDS (NBLCA), the Latino Commission on
AIDS (LCOA), ACT UP, ACRIA, Callen Lorde, Bailey House, the
Legal Action Center, and many others.
Just over seven in ten (71 %) of Lib Dem rebellions in the last session were on social policy (broadly defined), such as the various
increases and extensions in VAT, the introduction of free schools and the expansion of academies, and curbs to
legal aid and superannuation for civil servants.
The new programs are expected to
increase college access and support degree completion by providing wraparound services for students such as child and elder care, transportation, health care services, family and / or employment counseling,
legal aid, and more.
He has fought successfully to protect and
increase funding for Medicaid, school health clinics,
AIDS services, and other health concerns and was the author of legislation to provide
legal services for persons with disabilities.
In the meantime, Lippman is pushing for an
increased budget of $ 100 million for his civil
legal services
aid initiative, up from $ 85 million in the current budget.
IDC delivers Raise the Age & historic immigrant
legal aid fund in this year's budget State Budget Changes New York for the Better with higher wages,
increased education funding & college affordability plans Albany, NY — Members of the Independent -LSB-...]
The Assembly proposal also restores $ 1 million for immigrant
legal services, includes $ 83 million more for CUNY, and would
increase school
aid statewide by 7.4 %.
Whether it be grants to agencies, scholarships to teachers or loan repayment programs for
legal aid attorneys, the Foundation's dollars help to
increase access to justice for all Arizonans.
The program was created to assist attorneys who pursue careers in
legal aid in Texas and to
increase access to justice for low - income individuals.
It is unlikely there will be an
increase in
legal aid funding that would be sufficient to help a significant portion of the human beings with unmet
legal needs.
I agree with this entirely, and I think it lies at the heart of the profession's failure to
increase access to justice primarily through
increased civil
legal aid funding.
While that analogy sometimes shocks people into reconsidering, an
increasing number of clients appear to agree with the general foolhardiness of the proposition but are left with no alternative as they are squeezed between the rock of dwindling income and the hard place of a
legal aid program available only to the completely impoverished.
Unbundling (or limited scope representation as it is commonly referred to in the U.S.) is becoming more recognized and highlighted as a key tool to
increase access to justice, particularly for those who do not qualify for
legal aid services but can not afford full representation (the CBA, NAC and Macfarlane reports for example).
Rejoicing over
Legal Aid Ontario «s (LAO's) recent
increased funding from the Government of Ontario, should be tempered by the listed «points of conscience» that follow this next paragraph.
An
increase of about $ 50 million to
legal aid in B.C. would not only ensure representation in criminal and family courts, it could prove to be revenue neutral, suggests Eder.
Phil Rankin, co-chairman of the Trail Lawyers Association of B.C.'s
legal aid action committee is recommending that
legal aid lawyers withdraw from handling any of the Vancouver riot cases as the next step in what is now a four - month battle to
increase provincial
legal aid funding.
Practice in legally
aided work must be made sustainable and sufficiently attractive, and that will not be achieved without
increased legal aid rates and without limiting the demands placed on individuals to what is reasonable for those fee rates.
Salter said the new area of jurisdiction will mean
increasing the number of staff and tribunal members, revising rules, creating new processes and online forms and developing new free
legal information content for the Solution Explorer software used to
aid individuals resolving claims.
The probability of wrongful convictions is
increased by
increasing numbers of defendants in the courts without lawyers, which is due to: (a) very poor government funding of
legal aid programs; and, (b) law societies» failure to attempt to solve the unaffordable
legal services problem — the one aggravates the damage done by the other.
Because two of the three
legal aid sources are predominately supported by lawyers, decision makers should consider the potential impact on access to justice if lawyers were to dramatically reduce their time / financial support of pro bono services and
legal aid programs, which is likely as competition
increases and the social contract under which lawyers and society have operated Vis a Vis the state sponsored monopoly continues to unwind.
For the Fiscal Year 2014, we successfully secured a continuation of levels seen in the King County's FY 2013 budget, which included a sizable
increase in investment to
legal aid programs serving King County's most vulnerable people.
• Create 15 new staffed civil
legal aid attorneys; •
Increase the capacity of pro bono programs across the state; • Invest in research and training for
legal aid and pro bono attorneys; and, • Provide Northwest Justice Project attorneys with long overdue cost of living and salary adjustments.
And it will certainly be cheaper than spending an additional $ 46.3 billion per year on
legal aid not to mention more realistic than expecting (let alone requiring) the 1.2 million lawyers of the US to
increase their average number of pro bono hours to 900 per year.
Legal aid funding from the King County budget
increased from $ 302,000 to $ 513,991.
As part of the 2014 provincial budget, the Ontario Liberals promised to
increase the eligibility threshold for
legal aid services by six per cent each year over three years.
The total budget for civil
legal aid services for the next two years, including the maintenance
increase, is approximately $ 23 million.
In response to the sobering and troubling findings of this study, the Equal Justice Coalition launched a 90 - day (Oct - Dec 2015) publicity and awareness building campaign — Justice For All — aimed at promoting the findings of the study, emphasizing the vital importance of
legal aid for low - income individuals and families, and ultimately convincing our legislators in Olympia to
increase state funding for civil
legal aid.
What is less clear is why the CCJ, the ABA and other organizations continue to focus so much of their limited attention and resources on seeking
increased public funding — and call on others to do the same — rather than devoting some of that attention and resource to changing the regulations in order to allow for alternative means of providing
legal aid and, as a consequence, to also allow for alternative means of funding.
Law firms from around the state, corporate counsels from Washington's largest companies (e.g. Starbucks, Microsoft and Amazon), and business leaders all publicly expressed their support for
increased funding for
legal aid; and, • We have built momentum for securing additional funding for civil
legal aid down the road.
The Foundation's pro bono program develops pro bono partnerships with bar associations, law firms, courts, law schools and
legal aid organizations to:
increase and maintain the number of lawyers who take pro bono cases;
increase the number of individuals, both low - income and special populations, that receive free
legal assistance; and assist pro bono providers to be more effective and efficient through innovation and technology.
The EJC worked with our supporters and the six King County
legal aid providers that receive County funding to successfully maintain funding levels from the previous budget, including a vendor adjustment
increase.
We entered this session asking the Legislature to
increase funding for
legal aid by roughly $ 12 million — which would have been a 50 % increase in funding to address the significant disparities identified in the 2015 Civil Legal Needs Study Up
legal aid by roughly $ 12 million — which would have been a 50 %
increase in funding to address the significant disparities identified in the 2015 Civil
Legal Needs Study Up
Legal Needs Study Update.
The Role of the Chief Judge: The current chief judge, when he was appointed in 2009, made
increasing funding for civil
legal aid a priority.
In sum, no matter how intensive or extensive any lobbying efforts for
increased public funding for
legal aid may be over any period of time, they will never lead to an allocation of funding at a level sufficient to close the justice gap in the US.
In the midst of all of this, the EJC and its supporters worked hard to obtain a much needed
increase for civil
legal aid funding, as the need for
legal aid services in our state has never been greater.
While the
increase to
legal aid funding is an important step, further steps must be taken to address the issue of access to justice in Ontario.
In a budget year when legislators struggled with issues such as education, mental health, and transportation, to receive a $ 4.8 million
increase for
legal aid (roughly a 20 %
increase in funding) is a gratifying result.
Although we didn't receive the full request, the $ 4.8 million
increase is a solid first step in narrowing the funding gap for civil
legal aid.
Between 2002 and 2015, the CCJ adopted no less than eight resolutions calling for
increased funding of
legal aid.
That must be contextualised against an
increased need for assistance, as fewer individuals now qualify for
legal aid, but still seek out law centres for advice.
Despite the
increase, many people in Ontario still fall into the grey area of being too «rich» to qualify for
legal aid, but too «poor» to pay the average lawyer's
legal fees.
During the 2017 Legislative Session, the Washington State Legislature
increased funding for civil
legal aid by $ 4.8 million!
It's a sentiment shared by front - line
legal aid workers, who point out that a threshold
increase is long overdue — with the last one coming in the 1990s.
Increase the thresholds and simplify the financial means tests for civil and criminal
legal aid to ensure that
legal aid is not reserved for only the poorest and most vulnerable in society, but rather is available to anyone who is unable to afford to pay for
legal advice and representation; and
On the basis of this unstated assumption, neither the CCJ nor the ABA (nor nearly any other individual or organization that calls for greater funding for
legal aid) suggests or even appears to have considered the potential of alternative structures as a viable complement to
increased public funding.
We met with nearly 90 members of the Legislature to advocate for
increased funding for
legal aid; • Op - eds from well - respected Washingtonians ran in the Tacoma News Tribune, The Chronicle, The Olympian, and The Spokesman Review; • The House's budget included a $ 7.6 million
increase for
legal aid, and for the first time ever, House democrats specifically identified civil
legal aid as a priority in their external communications and interviews with the media; • Our statewide coalition and network of support greatly expanded.
«As a result of these two threshold
increases, an addition 250,000 low - income Ontarians are now eligible to receive
legal aid,» said Attorney General Madeleine Meilleur.
In light of those findings, Daoust made a series of recommendations to improve
legal aid, the most obivious of which is to
increase funding, which B.C.'s Attorney General Barry Penner was quick to say was unlikely.