Maryland Legal Aid Bureau Marks 100 Years of Service Against Backdrop of Rising Poverty and Record Number of Cases Closed in 201
Legal Services E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Author: Andrea F. Siegel
Source: Baltimore Sun, “At 100th Anniversary, Md. Legal Aid seeing record caseload”
Date: September 26, 2011
The Baltimore Sun reports: “As Marylanders lose jobs, homes and savings, they are turning in record numbers to the state's largest provider of legal services to the poor. The Maryland Legal Aid Bureau, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this month, enters its second century with a growing caseload involving the newly needy. . . .Legal Aid, which employs about 150 lawyers around the state, has seen its annual caseload grow from less than 42,000 five years ago to nearly 70,000 in the fiscal year that ended in June. The challenges faced by clients reflect the times. Unemployment insurance cases are up 150 percent in the last four years. Consumer collection cases — default on debt, Social Security attachments and the like — are up 30 percent. The increase in demand for legal services comes amid growing concern of federal budget cuts. And it comes as new U.S. Census figures show that the number of Baltimoreans living in poverty has increased by 25 percent. . . . Among new clients, William Byers is typical. The 59-year-old Mount Airy man was making $18 an hour as a plumber until he was laid off in 2009. After his request for unemployment benefits was rejected, he turned to Legal Aid. Attorney Alecia Frisby helped Byers secure his benefits. ‘I gave up on it,’ he said. ‘But she kept working at it.’ Frisby has mixed feelings about praise from colleagues for winning the case. ‘I say, 'Yeah, but he already lost his house.'”