Economists are saying the recession is either ending or has already ended, but that is not yet evident in the waiting rooms of agencies that provide free legal services to people with low incomes.
Legal assistance agencies are working hard to help people in multiple ways, but they cannot adequately keep up with the demand. Their waiting rooms are now always full and often overflowing.
This is because the same economy that has wrought unprecedented foreclosures and double-digit unemployment has also rendered many attorneys, who in the recent past consistently donated many hours of free service, less able to do so.
Brian Wargo, a reporter for In Business Las Vegas, a sister publication of the Las Vegas Sun, wrote last week about the scope of this problem. Among those he interviewed was Lynn Etkins, a director of the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada.
“It is overwhelming,” Etkins told Wargo, “Our lobby is filled with clients ranging from victims of domestic violence to people losing their homes and jobs.” Of the center’s staff, Etkins said, “We are swamped and everybody has a maximum caseload. We do not see any letup with the economic crisis so far as clients are concerned.”
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Calling All Lawyers
All lawyers should be required to work at the legal aide offices as a matter of course.
ReplyDeletePeople with limited financial means need help.
The legal aide folks in Boston took on a bad guardianship and won!
ReplyDeleteIt's important because legal aide generally turns away guardianship victim families. What they're not looking at when they do this is the victim -- all the victim's assets have been seized by the guardianship so they are truly indigent. And who needs representation more than a guardianship victim?