Legislature must increase funding for MLAC (Mass. Lawyers Weekly)
Below is the text from an April 5 editorial, published in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, encouraging the House Committee on Ways and Means to include increased civil legal aid funding in its budget proposal.
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The House Ways and Means budget expected to be released this week will include funding for the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corp. We urge the Legislature to fund MLAC at $14.5 million, a $4 million increase that will help provide desperately needed civil legal aid to people throughout the state.
The harsh reality is that Massachusetts is still feeling the effects of a tough economy, and lawmakers have the unenviable task of creating a budget with limited resources. But calling civil legal aid “a system in crisis” does not adequately convey the extent of the problem.
The legal needs of low-income Massachusetts residents are overwhelming, and the resources to meet those needs have plummeted. MLAC depends on two main funding sources: a state appropriation and income from IOLTA.
Once MLAC’s largest funding source, IOLTA revenue has declined by 78 percent since fiscal year 2008, driven down by a combination of historically low interest rates and a stagnant housing market that has resulted in fewer transactions for attorneys. And that revenue is expected to continue to drop through fiscal year 2013.
Further, MLAC’s grants have shrunk so dramatically that it has been forced to cut program staff and reserves have been depleted.
The issue of inadequate funding for civil legal aid affects the entire justice system. When courts are flooded with low-income people attempting to represent themselves, it creates havoc for all litigants and overwhelms hard-working court personnel.
MLAC-funded programs currently recruit more than 560 pro bono attorneys generating over 45,000 hours annually. The staffing cuts that would be required if diminished IOLTA revenues were coupled with reduced appropriations cannot be offset by private attorneys donating their time to pro bono work.
It’s already not a pretty picture. Phones at MLAC ring off the hook, and several days a week lines of people in dire circumstances wait for help. Many don’t get it: Across Massachusetts, three out of every five eligible individuals who contact a legal aid office are turned away
Civil legal aid programs save taxpayer money by preventing evictions and homelessness and helping people obtain federal benefits for which they are eligible. In fiscal year 2011, cost savings to the state as a result of work done by legal aid totaled an estimated $53.2 million.
But fewer legal aid lawyers results in fewer services for clients, and that means Massachusetts realizes less in federal money and cost savings. In fact, new revenue and cost savings last year was 10 percent down from the year before.
In severe economic times, the most vulnerable people need more access to civil legal services, not less. Adequate funding of legal services must not be allowed to fluctuate with the ups and downs of the economy.
The Legislature must step up now.
