Civil Justice Advocates and LSC Representatives Testify About “Justice Gap” Before U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee at Invitation of Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD)
Legal Services E-lert

Date of E-Lert – 06/05/08

Bibliographic Info:
Author: Legal Services Corporation
Source: LSC Updates
Date: 5/29/2008

LSC Updates reports:  "On May 22, [2008,] LSC President Helaine M. Barnett and Board Member Jonann C. Chiles testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing entitled, ‘Closing the Justice Gap:  Providing Civil Legal Assistance to Low-Income Americans.'  Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Md., former Chairman of the Maryland Legal Services Corporation and a long-time supporter of legal aid in his home state, called the hearing to explore actions Congress could take to provide more low-income Americans with meaningful access to justice.  ‘When federal judges take their judicial oath prescribed in the United States Code, they swear to ‘administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich,'' said Senator Cardin.  ‘I am gravely concerned that our current civil justice system makes it difficult for judges to perform their proper function, when either one or both of the parties do not have access to a lawyer or legal assistance for serious cases.'"  Rebekah Diller, Deputy Director of the Brennan Center's Justice Program, also delivered testimony, as did representatives from the American Bar Association, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, LSC-funded Maryland Legal Aid Bureau, the National Legal and Policy Center, and the Government Accountability Office.  An archived web cast of the hearing and links to the participants' testimonies are available here.

Tags: Beltway Bulletin, Issues in Legal Services Delivery, Legal Services Structure