New Study Urges Congress to Remove Federal Restrictions on Legal Aid
For a PDF of the Press Release, click here.
For Immediate Release: June 19, 2009
Contact: Jeanine Plant-Chirlin,
212-998-6289
Rebekah
Diller, 212-992-8635, 347-330-7464
New Study Urges Congress
to Remove Federal Restrictions on Legal Aid
Paper Coincides with Obama's Recent Call to Correct Harmful
Policy
NEW
YORK-- Federal funding restrictions on legal aid for the poor are wasting money
and undercutting the ability of families to fend off foreclosure and other
legal problems amid the economic crisis, according to a white paper released
today by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.
A Call to End
Restrictions on Legal Services for the Poor urges
Congress to eliminate several of these restrictions as an important, cost-free
way to expand access to legal aid. This
white paper coincides with the Obama Administration's recent and similar call
for remedying this federal policy in its fiscal year 2010 budget.
In
developments this week, the President reiterated his call for correction of
this federal restrictions policy following the failure of the House of
Representatives to take sufficient action.
The Senate will consider its own appropriations bill next week.
"The president's proposal takes
a huge step toward closing the justice gap and would restore essential legal
tools and help stabilize our court system," said Rebekah Diller, a co-author of
the white paper and Deputy Director of the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice.
In
1996, Congress imposed a set of restrictions on nonprofit organizations that
receive funding from the nation's Legal Services Corporation (LSC) to provide
representation to the poor in civil cases.
Two of the most problematic restrictions limit the legal tools families
can rely on -- barring claims for attorneys' fees and barring participation
in class actions. Inevitably these restrictions put families on an unequal
footing in court with lenders, landlords, employers, abusive spouses and others
and prevent them from receiving their full measure of justice.
Most
troubling, the Congress imposed a uniquely harsh "poison pill restriction,"
which restricts all the activities of legal services nonprofits once they
accept their first dollar of federal LSC funds.
Nationally, this poison pill restriction ties up $490 million in state,
local, private and other non-LSC funds possessed by the nonprofits -
interfering with families' efforts to obtain needed representation from LSC
nonprofits even when that representation is funded entirely by non-LSC
revenue.
A Call to End
Restrictions on Legal Services for the Poor explains
how this unprecedented extension of federal power wastes precious funds,
prevents legal aid programs from generating their own revenue, defies the will
of state and local government, and is out of step with virtually all modern
models for running public-private partnerships.
For
more information, please contact Jeanine Plant-Chirlin at 212-998-6289 or at jeanine.plant-chirlin@nyu.edu or Rebekah Diller at
212-992-8635 or 347-330-7464.
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