Federal Grant for Legal Assistance to the Indigent in Foreclosure and Other Civil Cases Facing Reduction

Federal grant for legal assistance to the indigent in foreclosure and other civil cases is facing reduction According to The National Law journal it seems Congress will cut spending for Legal Services Corporation. It is biggest among the agencies that give monetary assistance to those who are unable to engage lawyers in civil cases.

Recently the Senate Appropriations Committee has voted to bring down its financial commitment for this corporation by 2%. It is happening at a time when the Chief Judge of New York, Jonathan Lippman is getting ready for another session of hearings for the promotion of the necessity to step up legal civil services.

In 2010 Judge Lippman had conducted hearings across New York State and has scheduled four for this year; the first one will be on Tuesday 20th September at White Plains.

The chief lawyer for Legal Aid Society of the city, Steven Banks said the Congress’s intention of making cuts in funds to Legal Services Corporation has sent out a wrong message at a critical time. Banks said, “This is exactly the wrong moment to be decreasing legal assistance which is crucial to helping children and adults living in poverty obtain the basic necessities of life”.

His agency does not get any funds from the corporation. It had opted out many years previously because of conditions attached to the acceptance of funds. It meant they would not have been allowed to take up the cause of immigrants threatened with deportation.

Banks elaborated that in the last few years during the time of the economic woes, requests to Legal Aid for legal help in matters like unemployment benefits, food stamps, foreclosure rescue and protection orders have increased. But because of lack of funds Legal Aid has had to refuse help to eight out of nine applicants asking for assistance.

He said, “In every category of legal problem on the civil side we’re continuing to see dramatic increases. One of the hardest things that our front-line staff has to do is turn away families and individuals whose evictions we know we could stop, whose foreclosures we know we could stop, who we know we could help get food stamps or unemployment benefits or access to health care, but we can’t because of lack of resources”.

Currently Legal Services Corporation gets from the federal government $404 million. The Senate is proposing to cut it down by $8 million. However this snipping is much less than the 26% cut that the House had proposed.