28 Mar, 2024
2 mins read

Law Society’s fury at legal aid means test reform delayed

The Law Society is fuming after the Ministry of Justice announced yesterday that certain legal aid means test reforms will be delayed until 2026.

The MoJ opened its announcement by stating that innocent people who have suffered miscarriages of justice, personal harm or injury are among those who will benefit from means test changes coming into effect this year.

However, the MoJ went on to say that while new non-means tested areas of legal aid were implemented last year under the first phase of a means test review, and detailed work had been done to deliver further reforms, ‘the timeline for implementation will take longer than initially envisaged due to wider competing priorities. The new schemes are now not expected to be fully operational until 2026’. No more details were forthcoming by press time.

The Law Society responded by pointing out that the means test has not been updated for inflation since 2009. President Nick Emmerson said: ‘The government is displaying a pattern of behavior of refusing to commit resources to the justice system resulting in unmet legal need. They have already acknowledged there are issues with the current means test, leaving ordinary people without access to justice.

Nick Emmerson

‘Frequently blamed for the continued delays is the Legal Aid Agency’s antiquated IT systems – which are causing implementation problems. This is itself evidence of the long-term neglect of our justice system.’

The latest delay came after it emerged that the government had pushed back its civil legal aid review timetable.

Emmerson said: ‘Civil legal aid providers are questioning their ability to stay in the profession. The system is in a precarious state and ultimately the ones who will suffer are those trying to seek justice.

‘This means that poverty-hit families are being denied vital help to fight eviction, tackle severe housing

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Local notes: Free archaeological programs; theme song contest coming; free legal aid | The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Free Legal Aid

There will be a walk-in clinic for veterans who need help with a civil legal need from 1 to 3 pm Tuesdays at the Veterans Health Care Systems of the Ozarks Homeless Program Office, 228 E. Sunbridge Drive in Fayetteville or 8:30 am to 12:30 pm Thursdays at the Veterans Health Care Systems of the Ozarks Mental Health Clinic, Building 44, 1100 N. College Ave. in Fayetteville.

Civil legal services include:

Domestic services including divorce, custody and visitation, child support, modifications, paternity, adoption, name change, minor/adult guardianship, orders of protection, domestic violence and more

Housing services including landlord/tenant, evictions, housing discrimination, foreclosure, disaster relief and simple deeds

Benefits include medicaid, unemployment, social security, employment discrimination, disability rights/benefits, workers compensation and school loans

Other services include wills and estates, power of attorney, chapter 7 bankruptcy, record sealing/expungement, income tax and more.

Information: (800) 952-9243 or arlegalaid.org.

Hobbs State Park

Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area will host two free archaeological programs for March Archaeological Month.

The first program will be held at 2 pm March 10 at the park’s visitor center. Michelle Rathberger, educational outreach coordinator, Arkansas Archeological Survey in Fayetteville, will present “Archaeology of Native Foods.” The program will discuss what foods are native to Arkansas, how people in the past prepared those foods, how did they find them and how archaeologists found and learned about these foods and how they were made.

Program participants will play a foraging simulation to try out finding food in nature. (Fun for adults too)

The second program will be at 2 pm March 24 at the park’s visitor center. Dr. Carl Drexler, station archaeologist and research associate professor at the Arkansas Archaeological Survey in Magnolia, will present “History in the Ozarks’ Dirt: Archeology at Van Winkle’s Mill.” Drexler’s presentation will summarize the

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Supporting civil legal aid is a good investment

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When Gov. Wes Moore announced his 2024 housing package, the connection to the legal community at large might not have been readily apparent. Yet, within one of the pieces of legislation currently pending before the Maryland General Assembly is a provision that has the capacity to provide sustainable support to the Maryland Legal Services Corporation and the grantees it supports.

The Renters Rights and Stabilization Act of 2024 can help not only address the disparities within our landlord/tenant law framework, but also support and sustain the MLSC and in turn the civil legal aid organizations upon whom so much relies, by raising the filing surcharges in landlord/tenant matters to just below the national average and distributing those funds equally between a statewide Rental Assistance Voucher Program and the legislatively created MLSC Fund.

MLSC’s mission is to ensure low-income Marylanders have access to stable, efficient and effective civil legal assistance through the distribution of funds to nonprofit legal services organizations. It currently funds 46 organizations to work toward that mission across the entire state. The Maryland General Assembly created MLSC in 1982 to administer the state’s Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts (IOLTA) program, and since that time MLSC grantees have assisted approximately 4 million Marylanders with a wide variety of civil legal needs.

In 1998, the General Assembly enacted surcharges in civil cases as a source of funding for MLSC, and those surcharges now amount to one of MLSC’s largest funding streams.

The funds from these increased surcharges will support legal services for over 82,000 Marylanders, directly benefiting over 160,000 individuals. MLSC grantees helped clients obtain more than $16.2 million in economic awards and avoid over $18.8 million in costs through their cases, for issues such as child support, consumer judgments and discharged debts.

Civil cases constitute

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Senate advances bills to extend senior benefits, boost civil legal aid for low-income Alaskans

By Sean Maguire

Updated: February 23, 2024 Published: February 23, 2024

JUNEAU — The Alaska Senate on Wednesday advanced a measure to permanently extend a benefits program for low-income seniors.

Senate Bill 170 passed unanimously from the Senate along with three other bills, including a measure that boosts free civil legal aid for low-income Alaskans, which is often used in domestic violence cases.

The state’s senior benefits program pays three tiers of payments, ranging from $76 to $250 per month. As of December of 2022just under 9,000 older Alaskans got the payments.

Sen. Scott Kawasaki, a Fairbanks Democrat, said the program provided “an amazingly small amount” to seniors 65 or older who are on strict income limits. He said low-income older Alaskans often struggle to balance high costs of energy, prescription medicines and food.

Kawasaki’s bill was originally introduced to extend the state’s senior benefits program to 2032 at a cost of roughly $25 million per year. The bipartisan Senate majority amended the measure to make the program permanent.

In 2019, Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed senior benefits from that year’s budget, but he restored those payments after hearing strong and widespread public opposition. Since then, the program has enjoyed strong bipartisan support.

Palmer Republican Sen. Shelley Hughes, one of three non-majority senators, said that she encouraged churches, charities and communities to support elder Alaskans, but sometimes that wasn’t enough and the state needed to step in, adding, “our seniors are treasures in our community. ”

The Senate on Wednesday also unanimously approved Senate Bill 104. The measure would be more than double state funding for the Alaska

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Civil legal aid review: Law Society hands Ministry of Justice blueprint to save fragile sector

Removing arbitrary limits on remote working, interim payments at earlier stages of a case, less micromanagement by civil servants and an immediate £11.3m injection to boost fees that have not risen for 28 years. These are just some of the measures that would put the fragile civil legal aid sector back on a sustainable footing, the Law Society has told the government’s civil legal aid review.

In a 62-page submission to the Ministry of Justice’s call for evidence, Chancery Lane said civil legal aid had been allowed to fall into a state of decline that failed to deliver one of the department’s primary objectives – delivering access to justice.

Asked for short-term changes that would improve the system, the Society said fees for early advice work, known as legal assistance and controlled representation, should be raised by 15%. This would cost £11.3m a year.

The 50% limit on remote working with clients should be removed. Providers were well aware of the need to provide in person advice but Legal Aid Agency quotas should not dictate how services are offered, the Society said.

Office requirements should also be removed. ‘Premises constitute the main overhead after staff costs, and one that for an increasing number of providers may not be essential for maintaining effective service delivery. For mental health providers their clients are often detained in mental health hospitals and therefore do not attend offices, in these circumstances the office requirement is superfluous and expenditure on premises is unnecessary,’ the Society said.

Longer-term changes include increased fees, widening the scope of legal aid and less bureaucracy.

‘The civil specification is full of rules about how casework is to be carried out and recorded. For example, a significant problem that arose in family cases was that to progress from level 1 to level

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News focus: Civil legal aid provision is furthest away

Legal aid protest

The findings of a survey of providers commissioned for the government’s review of the fragile civil legal aid sector reveal nothing new – but still make for grim reading.

The Ministry of Justice wanted to understand the key ‘pain points’, how these could affect future service provision, why providers are doing legal aid and their ability to meet demand. PA Consulting carried out the research and its findings are based on responses from 18% of the 1,246 civil legal aid providers on the Legal Aid Agency’s (LAA) database.

Two-thirds of private practices and 37% of non-profits stopped doing legal aid work in the past because it was no longer financially viable.

Over half of private practices do not make a profit from civil legal aid work: 33% said the service was loss-making, 22% broke even. Four in 10 non-profits are heavily reliant on trusts or charitable donations as a source of revenue.

Four in 10 respondents will quit the sector or reduce their legal aid work in the next 12 months. Worse, four in 10 will ‘actively’ quit the sector in the next five years.

Demand for services significantly outstrips supply. One south of England non-profit has to ‘cherry-pick’ cases.

If providers are struggling to keep their heads above water, why keep providing legal aid services? For altruistic reasons, in some cases.

One north of England respondent said: ‘Our client group do not have much access to legal information and assistance is extremely limited, and their problems are multi-faceted and complex. It is important for us to be able to provide them with legal representation they would otherwise not get.’

The biggest pain points? Low fees, spending excess unbillable time, fee structure rigidity, time needed to manage the client and cumbersome administration.

‘Assessing financial eligibility for legal help/legal aid can

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Legal aid cuts denying vulnerable women access to justice, says thinktank | Legal aid

Vulnerable women in England and Wales, including survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, are being denied justice because of cuts to the civil legal aid budget, a think tank has said.

The Women’s Budget Group says a decade on from major changes to legal aid, women have been disproportionately affected, leaving them without essential support to fight discrimination, violence and housing insecurity.

For its report, Gender Gaps in Access to Civil Legal Justice, published on Thursday, the think tank conducted an online survey of 115 organizations, services and individuals in the field and found widespread concern about barriers to justice.

It found that 85% of respondents said vulnerable women were unable to access civil legal aid, while 77% said a significant consequence of the legal aid changes was women reaching crisis points or problems escalating before they received any legal help or advice.

Dr Sara Reis, the head of policy and research and deputy director of the Women’s Budget Group, said: “The report reveals a troubling reality: the legal aid changes introduced in 2012 have cut a critical lifeline for vulnerable women including survivors of domestic and sexual abuse and asylum-seeking women, leaving them without essential legal support in the face of discrimination, violence and housing insecurity.

“Policy makers should widen the eligibility criteria for legal aid, particularly for employment discrimination, and provide training and education for professionals to resolve the issues faced by women sooner and close the gender civil justice gap.”

Employment, including maternity or pregnancy discrimination, was identified by respondents as one of the most common issues for which women seek help. Others were housing, including advice on no-fault crime notices and rent arrears, social security and benefits, immigration and asylum, and private family law, including domestic violence.

Respondents to the survey included advice services,

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The state budget gives one-time boost to programs that give poor Mainers legal aid in civil cases

The newly signed state budget includes a one-time $4 million boost for a program that provides low-income Mainers with legal representation in civil cases – a big addition to the baseline $650,000 the program currently receives each year.

But the funding in the budget is significantly less than what the Legislature approved. Lawmakers passed a bill, sponsored by Anne Carney, D-Cape Elizabeth, that called for an $11 million investment over two years and an ongoing appropriation of $7.8 million a year – and was projected to help an estimated 10,000 additional Mainers.

Carney, an attorney who used to volunteer with a nonprofit that provides legal services, said she was pleased that her bill received funding, even though increasing the baseline funding would offer more stability to people needing legal help.

The need in Maine is great.

The National Center for Access to Justice recommends a ratio of at least 10 legal aid attorneys per 10,000 people living below 200% of the federal poverty line, but Maine averages less than two.

Steady funding would make a big difference, Carney said.

“I think the goal is to continue to add to the baseline, so we can get closer to that national justice index standard and make sure that we have high-quality representation for Mainers in civil legal matters,” she said.

While much attention has been paid to the state’s failure to provide constitutionally mandated legal services to low-income residents accused of crimes, advocates say a larger number of low-income residents need help when dealing with civil matters.

Unlike in criminal cases, there is no law in Maine that guarantees access to an attorney for civil matters. But advocates say that doesn’t make civil legal aid less important.

The additional funding is expected to allow non-profit legal clinics to help more low-income

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Demand for free civil legal aid in Michigan outweighs attorneys

Kelisha Williams has been trying to get a divorce for five years and said it has been a long and expensive endeavor.

Last fall, when a car accident left her unable to work and without steady income, she couldn’t afford a lawyer.

The cost for legal representation, according to estimates Williams received: between $8,000 to $10,000. But earlier this year, a 3rd Circuit Court judge referred her to the William Booth Legal Aid Clinic — the Salvation Army’s only free legal service provider in the world, serving low-income metro Detroit residents — and she’s now hopeful she’ll get to a resolution. The 47-year-old Detroiter said it was a relief the court told her about the clinic because otherwise she likely would have been waiting for someone to call her back or tell her they’re not accepting clients.

“It wasn’t hard to find them. It was just hard to get someone to help you,” Williams told the Free Press on a Thursday in June as she waited at the clinic for help on default paperwork to proceed with the divorce. It was the first day the organization opened its in-person clinic after three years of over-the-phone and virtual services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kelisha Williams, right, 47, of Detroit, talks with Detroit Mercy School of Law third-year student Savanna Polimeni while working to get the proper paperwork needed for her divorce during the William Booth Legal Aid Clinic at the Salvation Army Detroit Harbor Light on Thursday , June 1, 2023. The clinic is the Salvation Army's only free legal service provider in the world, serving low-income residents in metro Detroit.  In Detroit, three attorneys take on more than 1,500 cases a year and are constantly inundated with calls for help.

The phone at the William Booth Legal Aid Clinic constantly rings, clinic director Amy Roemer said. The nonprofit has to turn people away when it is booked with clients. It’s a similar story at other legal aid organizations across the state. More than 1.7 million low-income Michiganders qualify for civil legal aid, however there is only one available attorney for every 5,401 eligible residents, according to the Michigan State Bar Foundation. Legal aid groups say the demand for free housing, family and consumer finance services far outweighs the available funding.

“We’ve never been funded at a level to

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Why legal aid matters | opinion







wherry

When I speak to civic groups about Alpine Legal Services, I’m surprised how many people have heard of us but aren’t sure what we do.

People also tell me they don’t realize the right to legal representation applies mostly to criminal cases. They didn’t know that those facing a life-altering civil legal matter — an eviction, a protection order from abuse and violence, a custody case, an emergency guardianship — are most often not entitled to an attorney. That’s where civil legal aid comes in. That’s what we do.

Alpine Legal Services has been around in one form or another since 1987. A group of lawyers saw the need to uphold justice for people who had strong cases but didn’t know how to present them and couldn’t afford to hire an attorney. They saw people walking away from our justice system feeling powerless and resentful. They realized that if you want to live in a safe and stable community, you can’t have people thinking our system of justice is not for them. They knew a true system of justice required not only fair and impartial judges, but advocates on both sides, to get to the truth and uphold the law, regardless of someone’s ability to pay a lawyer, or social status.

Right now, you can think of Alpine Legal Services as an emergency room for legal aid. We get more requests for aid than we can handle, so our necessary and calculated response is to triage the most critical civil legal aid cases and help get people stabilized. We are short-staffed (spoiler alert: legal aid attorneys who can afford to live in our area are not easy to come by), so our main criteria for meeting with a client at this time is whether someone is at risk of

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