As the Law Tribune’s Editorial Board noted recently, the legal aid suppliers are, once again, in extremis. If nothing is done, an already meager and woefully understaffed attempt at providing legal services to those who need it most and can afford it least will be further pared down. At some point, it will be so small and ineffectual that some will wonder why we even pretend to care.
Those of us who rise through the leadership ranks of the Connecticut Bar Association get to chair the Pro Bono Committee for a year. It gives new bar leaders an introduction to the legal aid world, and the paid and volunteer players who work to make legal services available to citizens who require it for such basic human needs as housing and protection from family violence. It’s a real eye-opener. Even at its most robust, the system serves only a small percent of those who apply. For every person who gets something like even 10 minutes of a lawyer’s time, many, many more get nothing. For each of the few who win the legal aid lottery, many more are sent to court to fend for themselves.
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