The Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services (TALS) published a Statewide Comprehensive Legal Needs Study to determine the level of civil legal needs among low-income people in Tennessee. TALS commissioned the Office of Research and Public Service, University of Tennessee College of Social Work to conduct the telephone based study that surveyed both English and Spanish individuals currently residing in Tennessee who have a total household income less than or equal to 125.0% of the 2003 Health and Human Services Poverty Guidelines.
Findings of the study include:
Conflicts with predatory lending practices and creditors were the most frequently reported problems among the survey's respondents
69.8% of respondents reported experiencing at least 1 civil legal problem in the previous 12 months
42.8% of respondents reported experiencing 3 or more civil legal problems in the previous 12 months
Households identified as "working poor" reported significantly more problems than did the non-working poor
43% of respondents had access to the Internet
Access the full report, Executive Summary, and the press release announcing publication of the report below as a PDF documents on the TALS web site.
Contact Information:
Melissa Carro Communications Director Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services 1808 West End Avenue, Suite 1216 Nashville, TN 37203 Phone: (615) 627-0956 ext. 28 mcarro@tals.org
LSC:
America's Partner for Equal Justice 
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