 |
Navigation
|
|
Vol. 72, No. 5, May 1999 |
At Issue
Funding for civil legal services -
Time for the state to step up to the plate
About 200,000 low-income Wisconsin citizens do not get
the legal services they need to help them save their jobs, keep
their homes, and obtain health care. Their number is increasing
while funding is declining.
By Brian Burke
Funding to help provide civil legal services is eroding in
Wisconsin, while the need for such services is increasing. It
is time for the state to join in the partnership of funding sources
for civil legal services for low-income litigants and help assure
everyone access to our court system in Wisconsin.
Current funding sources are varied and unstable
Funding for civil legal services for low-income citizens in
Wisconsin comes from a variety of sources - private contributions
and grants, interest from lawyers trust accounts, and federal
funds for the four Legal Services corporations.
Wisconsin ranks 37th in funding for civil legal services for
low-income citizens when compared to other states. Wisconsin
spends only $14.09 on legal services for each low-income individual.
This compares to more than $20 per low-income individual in Ohio
and more than $40 per low-income individual in Minnesota.
At the federal level, funding for civil legal services began
under the Nixon Administration with the creation of the Legal
Services Corporation (LSC) in 1974. When signing the bill, President
Nixon stated that providing funds for legal services would improve
opportunities for low-income persons, would best serve justice,
and would reaffirm faith in our government of laws. Unfortunately,
since 1994 federal funding for LSC has been unstable - threatened
with extinction and suffering drastic funding cutbacks.
In light of the federal cuts, many states have started funding
civil legal services for their low-income citizens. In Wisconsin,
except for a one-time grant provided through Wisconsin's
new welfare reform program, W2, there is no state funding support
for across-the-board, low-income civil legal services.
Proposal would help meet needs
Strong private support has come mainly from the Wisconsin
legal community through the IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers Trust
Accounts) program and individual attorneys' pro bono work.
As federal funds diminished, the State Bar of Wisconsin created
the Equal Justice Coalition to help raise private funds to make
up for the federal cutbacks. Despite these efforts, many low-income
individuals' needs for civil legal services go unmet.
Estimates suggest that about 200,000 low-income citizens in
our state do not get the legal services they need to help them
save their jobs, keep their homes, end an abusive relationship,
or obtain health care. In Wisconsin, there is one attorney for
every 414 citizens but only one legal services attorney for every
8,476 low-income citizen.
I am working with the State Bar of Wisconsin and the Equal
Justice Coalition on a proposal to establish a state matching
grant fund. It would work in the same way the state currently
awards grants to Forward
Wisconsin, where the state matches the funds raised by the
nonprofit group - up to a specific level - to help
business promotion efforts. One possibility open to us is to
include our proposal as an amendment to the state budget bill
(Assembly
Bill 133 and Senate
Bill 45).
|
|
Sen. Brian Burke,
Georgetown 1982, is cochair of the Joint Committee on Finance. |
Under our plan, the state would match private funds raised
within a year for civil legal services in an amount up to $500,000.
The state grant would be distributed by the Wisconsin
Trust Account Foundation (WisTAF). Created by the Wisconsin
Supreme Court in 1986, WisTAF receives IOLTA (interest on lawyers
trust accounts) funds and provides grants to a wide spectrum
of Wisconsin agencies that provide civil legal services to low-income
individuals. Under the proposal, WisTAF would distribute the
state grants proportionally to the matching grants provided by
eligible grantees.
As many as 20 other states have recognized the need to become
a partner in providing civil legal services to their citizens.
Through this initiative it is my goal to add Wisconsin to that
list.
|
