MetroWest legal aid braces for sequestration cuts (MetroWest Daily News)

/in

Below is an excerpt from a February 28 article, published by MetroWest Daily News, describing funding difficulties at MetroWest Legal Services (MWLS) and other legal aid organizations in Massachusetts. Elizabeth Soule, Executive Director of MWLS, is quoted.

___

Sequestration’s potential cuts to MetroWest Legal Services’ budget won’t bowl over most people, especially compared to the rest of the $1.2 trillion deficit reduction package.

But according to Executive Director Elizabeth Soule, even a small hit is too much for the legal advocacy office and others like it around the state, which provide free legal help to the poor, elderly and disabled. Several are already running on deficit budgets thanks to diminished funding over the past few years, and have had to cut their services as well.

“It’s just another chink in the armor,” said Soule, who reported one of her office’s funding agencies on Thursday told her to expect a roughly 7 percent cut to its federal dollars should sequestration go through today.

If that rate were extended to the rest of the Framingham-based office’s federal funding, it would amount to a loss of approximately $16,000, she said – likely not enough to have to let a staff member go, but enough to force a slight reduction in services.

At Greater Boston Legal Services, Finance and Development Director Jack Ward said he was still unsure of what to expect from sequestration as of Thursday, but like Soule worried about having to absorb any more cuts.

“We’ve had a huge reduction in our other income,” he said, which has led the Boston-based office, which relies on federal funding for about 10 percent or $1.4 million of its budget, to eliminate 24 positions over the past few years.

The steep reductions to funding sources like the Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts program, whose contribution to MetroWest Legal Services has fallen about $200,000 over the last four years, couldn’t come at a worse time, as demand for legal help continues to increase. In Metrowest, the recent recession added thousands of new people into the ranks of those eligible for services, Soule said, which has forced her office to make some tough choices.

Read more at MetroWest Daily News.

Funding cuts force layoffs, closings at Legal Services (South Coast Today)

/in , ,

Below is an excerpt from a March 12 article, published by South Coast Today, about the effect of funding challenges at South Coastal Counties Legal Services. Richard McMahon, Executive Director of SCCLS, is quoted.

___

NEW BEDFORD — The same recession that caused many low-income and elderly persons to seek free legal help with their worsening problems is undermining the very agency that is supposed to be there to help them.

South Coastal Counties Legal Services Inc., or SCCLS, which once had offices throughout Southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod, has been forced to lay off 10 attorneys, secretaries and paralegals and close three offices, including the one in New Bedford, Executive Director Richard McMahon told The Standard-Times.

The remaining employees are trying to handle the work load and yet are being cut 9 percent in their pay.

The agency’s office on Union Street has been shuttered even though the agency owns the property, McMahon said.

“At least the initial contact is by phone,” McMahon said. The head office in Fall River will take the New Bedford calls, and send attorneys to the clients as needed.

The Plymouth office was closed late last year, McMahon said, and the Taunton office will close in a matter of weeks.

That will leave offices in Fall River, Hyannis and Brockton.

McMahon did not provide financial details, except to say that the losses came in grants and federal aid while state funding remained level.

“This is a real blow, of course, at a time when the economy is impacting the low-income community. There’s an increase and greater demand for our services and yet we’re laying off.”

McMahon said that there is a misconception that legal advice is free to the poor by right, but that only applies to cases that threaten their liberty, mostly criminal cases. In civil matters they must depend on nonprofits such as the SCCLS or on attorneys who do pro bono, “for free,” work as a way of giving back to the community.

Read more at South Coast Today.

© Copyright - Equal Justice Coalition