Naomi, a single mother of three, has stage 4 breast cancer. She wants desperately to ensure that her children will remain together, properly cared for, after her death.
Joe and Marie, an elderly couple with little education, were duped into a home equity loan and face foreclosure.
Sarah, an infant in her grandparents’ care, will not survive without a heart transplant. The grandparents do not have legal standing to authorize the procedure.
Naomi, Joe, Marie and baby Sarah are real people, although those are not their real names. They have something important in common: they are all clients of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, a nonprofit organization that has served low-income folks since 1924. Legal Aid lawyers drafted the documents in which Naomi expressed her intentions for her children. They took action that allowed Joe and Marie to stay in their home. Legal Aid lawyers scrambled to obtain the appropriate releases and authorizations enabling Nicky’s grandparents to act on the baby’s behalf before it was too late.
Every day, Legal Aid lawyers solve problems that threaten their clients’ lives. Last year, the client caseload totaled 26,283, a 21 percent increase since 2007.
But as the New Year dawns, a tragedy is brewing. The money needed to provide this all-important “hand up” is disappearing. In the case of Atlanta Legal Aid, two major funding sources have decreased dramatically. The first is Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts, or IOLTA. In legal transactions where money changes hands, that money is often held in short-term trust, earning interest. Since the 1980s, all states have enacted measures to allocate that interest to funding for indigent legal services. The recession sharply reduced these transactions, especially real estate, while interest rates sank. Atlanta Legal Aid ultimately suffered almost a $1 million loss in annual IOLTA funds.
Second, Atlanta Legal Aid recently learned that the federal funding that represents close to one-third of its budget is decreasing nearly 15 percent.
Atlanta Legal Aid has already cut costs to the bone. Staff is leaner; benefits have been reduced. Salaries remain a fraction of those paid to lawyers in private practice. And less than 10 percent of Atlanta Legal Aid’s budget goes to administration and fundraising.
Importantly, services have not been cut. Yet. But even when funding was better, only about half the income-eligible people seeking help received it. At intake, Legal Aid lawyers perform a sort of triage, taking the most urgent cases and referring others elsewhere to the extent possible.
The private bar’s support for Atlanta Legal Aid is a beacon of encouragement. But it’s not enough. There is simply not enough money to provide desperately needed legal services for that segment of our population unable to pay. Unless other sources of funding are found, Atlanta Legal Aid will be forced to cut attorneys and staff. Legal Aid will have no choice but to turn away more individuals and families in dire need of their legal services.
Ryan Walsh is president of the board of directors of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society.
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