With funding low, many legal cases going undefended, By Megan Woolhouse, October 15, 2014, Boston Globe: “Massachusetts legal aid organizations turned away nearly two-thirds of people qualifying for civil legal assistance over the last year due to a lack of funding, leaving thousands of low-income residents without representation in cases from domestic violence to foreclosure, according to the findings of a statewide task force to be released Wednesday. More than 30,000 low-income clients were denied legal services in 2013, meaning many were unable to pursue cases or were left to represent themselves in court, where they often lost their cases, according to the 37-page report…”
Tag: Legal aid
Legal Assistance – New Jersey
As poverty rises, legal assistance dwindles for N.J.’s poor, By Salvador Rizzo, December 8, 2013, Star-Ledger: “They often live in the shadows: the battered women in need of restraining orders to keep their abusers at bay, the low-income families evicted from their apartments or turned away from emergency housing, the immigrant children seeking asylum as they flee the drug violence in their home countries. And they can’t afford to get their day in court. Every year, hundreds of thousands of New Jersey’s poorest residents run into legal problems that threaten to derail their lives, but only one in six will get a lawyer to fight for them, according to Legal Services of New Jersey, a network of nonprofit organizations that provides free legal assistance for the poor in civil cases such as fighting evictions or securing restraining orders…”
Public Criminal Defense System – Michigan
Indigent defense: Michigan looks to overhaul system for low-income criminal defense, By Jonathan Oosting, June 14, 2013, MLive.com: “Michigan lawmakers on Thursday took a major step towards overhauling the state’s public criminal defense system, which critics say has been broken for years and failed to protect some residents who cannot afford their own attorney. The Senate and House on Thursday approved identical bills, setting the stage for them to be finalized and sent to the governor as early as next week, to create the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission. The 16-member body would be tasked with researching, developing and enforcing minimum standards for constitutionally-guaranteed legal representation in jurisdictions around the state…”