Lawyers — forget pet costumes and save the LSC!
TLDR: The bad news? Civil legal aid funding is in danger of being cut. The good news? You can help — tell Congress you support LSC here and share!
Getting our priorities straight.
Last week at the Equal Justice Conference in Pittsburgh I heard something that blew me away:
Each year Americans spent more on Halloween costumes — for their pets — than government spends on civil legal aid.
Let’s pause here for a second.
We spend less on ensuring access to justice for those in need — 60 million, or 1 in 5 Americans by the numbers, including victims of domestic violence, children in family court, military families, people facing homelessness, the elderly, nonprofits, and others — than we do on ensuring our dogs look cute “trick or treating” in a Batman costume.
Why are we talking about civil legal funding?
Pet costumes > legal aid funding is bad enough, but today something far worse is on the docket— in President Trump’s proposed budget, federal legal aid funding is scrapped altogether. Down from $385 million in 2017, Trump’s budget allocates exactly ZERO to the LSC to secure justice for the poor.
For background, the LSC (Legal Services Corporation) is the bipartisan, nonprofit organization established in 1974 to distribute funding to over 100 independent legal aid organizations nationwide. In 2015, LSC-funded programs helped 1.8 million people. It’s money well spent too — a recent study showed that every dollar spent on civil legal services in Florida yields more than $7 in economic impact. In other states it’s closer to $11.
The U.S. is already lagging far behind in access to justice globally — according to the World Justice Project, the U.S. ranks last (36th out of 36th) among high-income countries on access to civil justice. We can do better.
How we can save the LSC
The 2018 budget will be decided this summer and fall, so it’s crucial to keep civil legal aid top-of-mind for our Senators and Congressmen (and women) over the coming months.
The LSC, led by the incredible James Sandman, is already hard at work doing this in Washington, and last month’s ABA Day brought representatives from bar organizations across the country to lobby for LSC funding. Additionally, the heads of 150 leading law firms recently wrote a letter to Congress, as did the heads of 185 corporate legal departments (letter) and the deans of 166 law schools (letter).
But widespread and continued support is needed — that’s where we come in! Here’s how you can help:
- Lend your voice to save the LSC — register as a legal defender here.
- Share this post, and info about the LSC. Most people don’t know anything about civil legal aid and why it’s important, which is probably why its cut was proposed in the first place.
- Stay tuned for updates as the budget is decided this summer and fall. It’s only the beginning!
(P.S. If you’re a lawyer interested in pro bono, sign up for Paladin here.)
