Spring, 1977 Fiscal Year 1978 Budget Request Minimum Access to Legal Services Percentage of Poor Persons in Each Fiscal Year (with 100% minimum access projected in Fiscal Year 1979) HIGHLIGHTS OF REQUESTS Mr. EHRLICH. At this point let me highlight briefly the current state and future needs of legal services for the poor. As you know, our statutory mandate is to insure legal assistance for 29 million poor persons. Our short-term goal to meet that mandate is the equivalent of 2 lawyers per 10,000 poor people throughout the country. The minimal nature of that goal is underscored by the fact that for each 10,000 people in the population generally, 14 lawyers are in private practice. PRO BONO REPRESENTATION Senator HOLLINGS. If you matched that 14 level, what would your budget be? Mr. EHRLICH. It would be a substantially larger one. We have no exact figure for that because, of course, it would be possible to do it a good bit more efficiently than takes place in the bar generally. But we cite the figure merely to underscore that 2 lawyers for 10,000 poor people—in contrast to the lawyers available to the population generally-is, we think, the absolute minimum that is consistent with the notion of equal access to justice in this country. Senator HOLLINGS. I asked that advisedly. I was talking to my old law partner the other day. He was there on Saturday and he was waiting around for a poor lady. He said he was going to meet her and get her son out of jail. And he remarked, "These young lawyers out of law school don't do that anymore. If you don't have any money, they just don't represent you any longer." We used to always have a certain amount, like I guess the medical profession, of cases that you just handled and never got anything for. Don't they do that anymore? Is it expected that the Legal Services Corporation supplant the bar association in this? They don't have any kind of voluntary help, assign cases? The judges would call you up and say, "You have a case to try in the morning," and you went. Mr. EHRLICH. That fortunately happens, and it is an integral part of our program. We push very hard on the local, State, and the national levels for lawyers to provide some of their time, just as you did and many others do, pro bono for poor people. And young lawyers just out of law school, a lot of them, do it. We need that service, and our whole program is built on the assumption that not only will that continue but it will increase. We can't do the job without the private bar providing substantial service in addition to the federally funded programs. Senator HOLLINGS. All right. CURRENT LEVEL OF SERVICE Mr. EHRLICH. By the current appropriation to the Corporation of $125 million, the Congress made it possible to expand into areas where no legal services programs existed and to strengthen severely underfunded programs. As a result, minimum access is now available for 4 million poor persons living below subsistence levels who were previously entirely unserved. We are particularly grateful, Mr. Chairman, for your support of our current appropriation. If funding for legal services had not been frozen over the 5 years preceding establishment of the Corporation, we would certainly now be at the level of minimum access for all who are poor. But that funding was frozen in spite of soaring inflation. As a result—unjustly— nearly 16 million poor persons still do not have even minimum access to legal services. They are effectively denied a chance to use the legal system. For those faced with the threat of eviction, the loss of a job, the lack of medical care, or an inadequate diet, that denial can be catastrophic. There are four charts attached to my prepared statement. (See pages 598, 599, 600, and 601.) The first chart of three shaded photographs shows the current need and how we will meet it. The two maps indicate the areas of the country where service is being provided, and will be provided, and the levels of service. The other chart shows the level of service on a State-by-State basis. Those statistics are important, but they are only statistics. They cannot reveal in human terms what lega! services really mean. Only by visiting with people who are affected and with the lawyers and the staff members who help them, can one fully understand why legal services are absolutely essential to the basic necessities of survival for those who live below subsistence levels. 1978 BUDGET REQUEST For fiscal year 1978, we seek an appropriation of $217.1 million to take major strides toward completing the minimum access plan. Virtually all of the increase that we seek will be used to provide direct assistance to nearly 10.5 million of the 16 million poor persons who do not have minimum access to a legal services program. These funds are not being sought for an unproven benefits program. Legal services is well past the stage of an experiment. We have completed field evaluations of all our programs, and have found that, with few exceptions, all are providing high quality, professional service. We have assembled a capable staff and have established procedures to insure that all programs will continue to improve. Every effort is being made to involve private lawyers in providing legal services to the poor and to coordinate our efforts with other funding agencies that are interested in providing legal services. We are committed to providing legal services as efficiently and effectively as possible. In accordance with the 1974 act, we have now underway a major study of ways to deliver legal services that are alternative and supplementary to the staff attorney approach. Judicare, prepaid legal services, contracts with private lawyers, vouchers, and a pro bono clinic are all being tested through demonstration projects. We are not, therefore, requesting the increased appropriation based upon vague projections of need and with only a general idea of how the funds are to be used. We have detailed, prudent plans that we have the proven capability to implement. Further, to insure that well-qualified and trained lawyers and staff are available for programs throughout the country, we are developing a nationwide recruitment effort and extensive training programs. These activities and the other operations of the Corporation-both over the past year and projected into the future-are examined in detail in our budget presentation. |