Residents Get Help With Mortgage Foreclosures and Credit Card Defaults From New IOLTA Grant to LSC-Funded MidPenn Legal Services and Blair County Bar Association
Legal Services E-lert

Date of E-Lert – 06/27/08

Bibliographic Info:
Author: Phil Ray
Source: Altoona Mirror
Date: 6/21/08

Altoona Mirror reports:  "The Blair County Bar Association, an organization comprised of 200-plus lawyers, is teaming up with [LSC-funded] MidPenn Legal Services to address a surge in mortgage and credit card defaults.  The economic woes affecting many parts of the nation have crept into the county court system in the form of lawsuits with banks and mortgage companies suing those who owe them money.  The deluge of new cases has alarmed court officials, and the organization that represents county lawyers is putting together a new program to provide free and low-cost legal services to residents in crisis . . . .  [The Blair County Bar Association] voted to work with MidPenn, which provides aid to the poor, in obtaining a $9,800 grant from a fund known as Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts . . . .  The grant is the first awarded to the bar association and will be used to help residents facing mortgage foreclosure and credit card default and victims of ‘predatory lending.'"

Tags: Consumers, Housing, Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts, Legal Services Structure