Legal Services Avoids Budget Cut
$19 million Congressional appropriation is good news for the
national nonprofit's Tuscaloosa office
By Stephanie Hoops
January 26, 2003
Congress stepped in Thursday to pass a $19 million appropriation
for Legal Services Corp., which serves the legal needs of the poor
through state programs nationwide.
The appropriation was good news for the six lawyers, one
paralegal and three secretaries who work at Tuscaloosa's Legal
Services office and receive salaries much less than those of
employees at private law firms.
From left, Mary Frances and Artis
"I'm ecstatic," said Willie Mays Jones, managing lawyer of the
McKinney talk to Willie Mays Jones, Tuscaloosa office. "We didn't
know what was going to happen." managing lawyer at Legal
Services'
Tuscaloosa office. The infusion of funds effectively saved
Alabama's Legal Services programs, which have been scrambling to
find funding amid layoffs and benefit cuts.
Congress' appropriation for LSC takes it from a budget of $329.3
million to $348.4 million, which will be divvied up nationwide. And
it means Alabama won't have a half-million dollars cut from its
budget as had been expected. Instead, it will receive $6.4 million
for fiscal year 2003, the same as last year, said national LSC
spokesman Eric Kleiman.
"It was like pennies from heaven," Kleiman said.
But Alabama's Legal Services programs still lack funds, said
Tracy Daniel, executive director of the/sAlabama Law
Foundation.
"We're just treading water," said Daniel, whose organization
gives money to LSC programs in Alabama.
Daniel said funding must be doubled in the next five years if
Legal Services is to continue to meet the needs of the poor.
Alabama spends less than $11 per eligible person on Legal Services,
and the national average is $20. The state is at the bottom of the
nation in funding the services.
"We are dead last," said Melinda Waters, executive director of
Legal Services Corp. of Alabama, the largest of the state's three
LSC programs.
Alabama's Legal Services programs have been working with a
statewide task force to find a way to improve its system. They've
presented LSC in Washington, D.C., with a proposal to centralize
the services into one program, which the national office is
expected to accept or reject next week.
Consolidation would be a big change because the state has been
operating for decades with three programs, which together serve the
state's 67 counties. Waters' program serves 60 counties, including
Tuscaloosa. The other two are Legal Services of Metro Birmingham,
which serves Jefferson and Shelby counties; and Legal Services of
North Central Alabama, which serves Madison, Jackson, Morgan,
Limestone and Cullman counties.
"The main problem we're facing today is the fact that there are
[698,079] people living at or below the federal poverty guidelines
in Alabama and we have, in our 60 counties, 45 lawyers to serve 76
percent of that population," Waters said.
The Alabama State Bar Volunteer Lawyers Program helps the state
to some extent. Linda Lund, program director, said 25 percent of
lawyers with an active license volunteer. Some churches have
programs as well, but Lund said she has no data on them.
"I can't tell you how important I think a Legal Services program
is, not only for Alabama but for our country and system of
government," Lund said.
"If a large portion of our population has no access to the third
tier of government, they're basically ostracized."
Even with the volunteer lawyers, however, only 10 percent of the
need is being met, Daniel said.
Washington D.C.-based Legal Services Corporation, a private,
non-profit organization established by Congress in 1974, provides
85 percent of the funding for Legal Services programs
nationwide.
Alabama's funding comes primarily from the national LSC, with
other funds coming from federal and private grants, the Alabama
State Bar Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts program and private
donations.
The people who use Legal Services include veterans, family
farmers and people with disabilities. Legal Services provides
lawyers to help them only with civil legalities, such as consumer,
family, housing and employment law matters. The services are free.
Only those whose incomes do not exceed 125 percent of the federal
poverty level qualify for the services.
Mary Frances McKinney saw her lawyer at Tuscaloosa's Legal
Services office Friday. McKinney's house was sold in October on the
Tuscaloosa County Courthouse steps after she and her husband were
sued by a local business. Legal Services is trying to get it back
for the elderly couple.
McKinney said she wouldn't know what to do if Legal Services
weren't around.
"We'd probably lose everything we had if we didn't have this
place," she said.
In West Alabama, abused women make regular use of Legal Services
as well.
Last year at Tuscaloosa's Turning Point Domestic Violence Sexual
Assault Services, half of the 160 women who sought shelter used
Legal Services, said executive director Kathy Benitez.
"I had a client come in off the street one day and she said,
`I'm really afraid he's going to kill me this time, I need a
protection from abuse order.'" Benitez said. "So I immediately
called Legal Services and their attorney made an appointment with
her, worked her in that afternoon. That's just one recent
example."
The lawyers who work for Alabama's programs are not highly paid.
Starting pay is only $31,196, Waters said. Tax records show Waters
earned around $65,000 in 2000. By comparison, tax records show the
director of the program at the Atlanta Legal Aid Society earned
upwards of $80,000 during that time.
But those who work for Legal Services in Alabama say the money
is not why they entered the field.
"Having grown up poor myself, I know that a lot of people are
taken advantage of and need someone to advocate for them," said
Jones.
Jones has been with LSC of Alabama's Tuscaloosa office since
1986. Raised in housing projects, she took the job after graduating
from the University of Alabama School of Law because she wanted to
give back to her community.
"I could have gone to a law firm and I would have made more
money - a lot more money," Jones said. "I know that I'm not getting
paid as much as I could in the private sector, but I'm doing a lot
of good work for people who really need it."
Waters said she'd like to get an appropriation from the state
legislature to help Legal Services in Alabama, but she realizes
that is unlikely, given the state of the economy. A better option
might be to tack a filing fee onto new cases filed in state courts,
with the money going to help fund Legal Services, she said. That is
how indigent criminal defenders get paid.
"We can't lobby," she said. "We do not have paid lobbyists and
we are, in fact, a non-profit public interest law firm and that
kind of approach to the legislature would require a lot of
education."
Waters said the organization is already making difficult
decisions about who to turn away.
"Unfortunately our clients, being poor, have nowhere else to
turn for legal representation," she said. "So unlike people who are
fortunate enough to be able to afford attorneys and can go to
another lawyer, our clients are simply lost in the legal system if
they cannot get access to it from us."
Reach Stephanie Hoops at [email protected] or
722-0204.
