Neighborhood Legal Services Programs 101
A neighborhood legal services program ("NLSP") assists low-income families and individuals with civil (as opposed to criminal) legal problems. NLSPs offer assistance with a range of issues, including public benefit, housing, income, family, child, and individual rights matters. NLSPs also provide outreach and education programs, formal and informal internships for law school students , and some offer opportunities for law school graduates to give back to their communities by becoming Equal Justice Works Fellows or AmeriCorps members.
NLSP’s help your community by ensuring that those who cannot afford legal assistance have access to it. Low-income families and individuals face numerous legal obstacles that affect life-defining issues, such as access to housing, safety, and income. As a result, many low-income people face even more challenges because they do not have the resources to afford legal assistance; however, NLSPs help bridge this gap.
Types of Legal Services Available
Neighborhood legal services programs typically offer a wide array of legal services to those in their communities. The primary focus is on civil legal matters (versus criminal-related issues), and assistance may be offered in person, over the phone, via monthly clinics, through referrals or via free resources. At the outset, staff will typically conduct an income eligibility assessment to determine whether pro bono legal assistance is needed.
Assistance in housing disputes is another core service offered by many programs. Help may be provided on landlord-tenant matters, including evictions, unlawful detainer actions and other types of lease violations. Neighborhood legal services programs may help clients navigate disputes with their landlord and find alternative housing if need be.
Related to this area is the assistance many of these programs offer to low-income clients with problems securing safe, low-cost housing. This may include help in filling out applications or seek other remedies to address unsafe or unsanitary conditions, such as exposure to lead and infestations.
Other key services that may be available through neighborhood legal services programs include help with family law (child custody, divorce, child support), employment law issues (wage disputes, discrimination), immigration issues, consumer matters, resources for domestic violence and a variety of other local programs and community assistance (such as access to food, nutrition and housing).
Legal Aid Eligibility Criteria
Eligibility criteria for Legal Aid
While the specific eligibility requirements vary among programs, most of them are based on the financial criteria set by individual jurisdictions. Generally, to qualify for assistance through neighborhood legal services, individuals need to financially qualify and their legal issue must fall within the area of service provided by the program. The requirements are more stringent when it comes to civil cases, whereby most programs need to limit their resources to be able to provide some level of assistance to the lowest income individuals within the community. For some services, eligibility is extending to those who don’t meet the financial guidelines but demonstrate compelling circumstances to receive some legal assistance.
How to Utilize Legal Services
To find your local neighborhood legal services program, contact your county’s legal aid society. The local legal aid society can either provide a referral to the appropriate neighborhood program or refer you back to the statewide programs.
In general, most neighborhood legal services programs require an application process. Some of the application processes include: telephone, web-form, and in-person screenings. Depending upon the program, you may be asked to provide documents in support of your application, including photo identification, federal tax returns, and/or proof of income.
Low-income children and families can access services through two state-wide neighborhood-based programs, Legal Aid Society of Metro Atlanta and Georgia Legal Services Program. US citizens and those who have a qualifying immigration status to receive public benefits, including legal services through Georgia’s neighborhood legal services programs, can access these services.
Advantages of Neighborhood Legal Services
Neighborhood Legal Services exist to provide access to justice for individuals and groups in need of legal representation. They work within the community to offer free legal advice, without regard to their income, race, or other backgrounds as they seek to restore dignity and fairness to people who have encountered injustice. In doing so, they not only help individual communities, but they also serve to help ensure that all people, regardless of their background or circumstance, have fair access to the courts and equal protection under the law.
It has been estimated that as many 46 million people in the United States qualify for free or low-cost legal assistance, yet millions of eligible Americans go without representation in civil cases each year. These victims of poverty, seniors, people with disabilities, military service members, and others are among those who qualify for free legal assistance through Neighborhood Legal Services. As a result—they are relegated to the kind of poverty , violence, discrimination, and exploitation that the law should not allow. As a result, the critical work done by the Neighborhood Legal Services Programs in addressing civil legal issues helps to ensure that 46 million people have access to social and economic power needed to ensure their survival and success.
Understanding the Neighborhood Legal Services and the right to counsel are just the first steps in a long process toward protecting one’s rights and ensuring individuals receive the legal aid they deserve. It is essential to keep in mind that there is a vast difference between saying a person has the right to counsel and making sure each person can afford it. But with programs such as the Neighborhood Legal Services working on behalf of the vulnerable and voiceless in our society, people can be assured that they are never alone in their efforts to be heard.
Obstacles for Legal Services Programs
Challenges Facing Neighborhood Legal Services Programs
Despite their importance, however, neighborhood legal services programs are often hampered by challenges ranging from funding shortages to high demand for services to limitations on the geographic areas or scope of assistance they can provide. Funding shortages, especially as a result of diminishing state and federal support (particularly since the 1970s), are among the greatest hurdles legal services programs face. For instance, in 1994 nearly two-thirds of all neighborhood legal services programs were forced to cut services and lay off employees in order to cope with a loss projected at $34 million for that year alone. Similarly, funding cuts in 2011 are expected to reduce the state budget for civil legal services from $13.9 million to $5.4 million. A more troubling sign is that in November 2010 the Legal Services Corporation’s (LSC) fund balance plummeted by $40 million to just over $1 million and, because of a lack of funds, LSC was not able to provide a cost-of-living adjustment for grantees. Competition for funding is expected to become even more pronounced in the future as legislative efforts get underway to make the federal Judiciary self-funding, a step that would deprive the LSC of its largest source of funding. Funding cuts have resulted in drastic layoffs and to permanent vines imposed upon the size of lawsuits, the nature of services available, and the geographic regions to which services are offered. In 1992-93 the LAF had to layoff 226 employees and was unable to take in new clients for one month because of a 21% cut in legal aid funding for civil law services. High demand for services is another hurdle neighborhood legal services programs are experiencing. According to a recent study conducted by the New York Bar Association, as many as eight out of every ten low and moderate-income people who seek counsel for civil legal matters are turned away because of a lack of financial resources. The geographic locations of legal services programs can also present challenges. For example, the Tennessee Justice Center focuses solely on issues affecting the poor health of Tennesseans, limiting its geographic area to only those who apply for TennCare assistance. Similarly, the California Welfare Law Project’s work is confined to rulings made by its home court in Sacramento County, even though its client base includes indigents across California. In order to solve these, and other, challenges, twenty-three states have begun studying alternative methods of providing legal services that involve private contributions instead of government funding. For instance, in October 2010, Louisiana’s Supreme Court recommended that the state implement a $1,000 fee for divorce cases that would go toward payments owed to legal aid programs. The state’s legislature has since proposed two bills intended to implement the fee proposal and fund other services, however, neither bill passed. Legal services programs in Washington, Texas and Mississippi are also discussing similar fee proposals.
Success Stories of Neighborhood Legal Services
Success can take many forms, from how well a program meets its stipulated objectives to more qualitative assessments of the impact they are having on communities. Below are four case studies which demonstrate the scope of programs serving their specific communities and underscore the most successful practices. Pine Tree Legal Assistance, the state-wide Legal Aid organization in Maine, has become a national leader in the area of technological innovation to enhance the delivery of legal information and services. In particular, Pine Tree Legal’s Shifting the Balance project has developed and maintains a series of interactive web-based tools to help low-income individuals learn about their legal rights and how to navigate complex procedures like landlord-tenant issues, Social Security and Consumer Rights. The North Texas Pro Bono Volunteers, the largest pro bono program in Texas, has demonstrated excellence in their work – from recruiting and training to designing effective programming for family law cases – not only in its delivery of legal services, but also in its commitment to data, evaluation and sustainability of their program. Under the leadership of their dynamic Executive Director, Julie Shapiro, the Fort Worth-based program has garnered several awards, including the 2015 Pro Bono Program of the Year Award presented by the State Bar of Texas. Julie leads by example, acting as an expert on legal services evaluation in terms both of measuring effectiveness of client services and program impact as well as developing the much-needed, dedicated infrastructure to secure program continuity. In 2015, the Florida Justice Technology Center launched their statewide effort to develop access-to-justice and legal information products that meet the needs of the low and moderate income Floridians within a single location, using a single sign-on and serving as a robust reporting/data aggregation platform. FJTC is a collaboration of the Florida Bar Association and Florida Bar Foundation and is currently developing strategic partnerships with a wide range of service providers across Florida as well as other states. Since its inception in 1993, New Hampshire Legal Assistance’s Pro Bono Referral Service has been a model for managing pro bono resources, allowing low-income individuals in need of civil legal services to be matched with volunteer attorneys. The service works seamlessly with private attorneys across the state via a case-management software, as well as with legal aid staff, to quickly assess cases and efficiently assign them to the most appropriate provider. Pro Bono Referral Service also trains, supports and recognizes pro bono volunteers.
The Road Ahead for Neighborhood Legal Services
The future of neighborhood legal services may well lie in the recognition and availability of a wider variety of online and offline response possibilities. For example, the rise of telelaw is one of the most promising developments for clients in rural or otherwise isolated areas. In this model, licensed and trained legal information assistants work with clients through videoconference technology, and when necessary, the clients are referred to licensed attorneys who can take their case. The Nevada State Bar is in the process of developing a pilot network of attorneys who will meet with individuals who have been screened and prepped for consultation, maximizing efficiency for everyone involved. A broader expansion of ideas like telelaw could expand the reach of legal services.
Of course, while these developments in technology hold great promise, they also present new challenges. Emerging fields like artificial intelligence (AI) can serve as both a support system and a potential replacement. Bots like DoNotPay can do the math on an insurance claim or use AI to decide whether a legal remedy might be possible and can even sign the appropriate forms , acting as a kind of surrogate legal assistant. At the same time, bots like DoNotPay can assess the eligibility of a case under the law but still need human input to process complexities and nuances that only an attorney can see.
The potential for both good and harm from these rapid developments in technology is why it is so vital to set boundaries on the concept of legal services. The delivery of legal services lies not primarily in the tools, in the delivery methods, nor in the response solutions (although all of these are important in their own right), but in the ethical standards and trustworthiness of the individual(s) at the helm. In this sense, even with the growth and emergence of new coverage areas, emerging technologies, and innovative policy changes, the core premise of neighborhood legal services as an adjunct to the practice of law will likely endure.