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New LRI Content
Listed below are the most recent submissions to the LSC Resource Library.
August 17, 2006 - The Bankruptcy Assistance Project gives free legal assistance to indigent New Yorkers navigating through the bankruptcy process. This project was created in response to the passage by Congress in April, 2005, of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA), which made it more difficult for consumers to obtain relief from debts through bankruptcy.
August 10, 2006 - Legal Services Alabama developed a “Client Service and Compliance Manual” to provide LSA staff members with a manual of LSA procedures and LSC regulations covering client eligibility standards and guidelines, eligibility determinations and representation, and client grievance procedures.
July 27, 2006 - LSLA formed a bilingual outreach team to conduct community events
designed to help people within the client community overcome many of
the barriers to participation. The team is staffed with 4 paralegals
and an attorney manager. Each team member is equipped with a portable
workstation that includes a notebook computer, scanner, printer; two
workstations also have projectors. Educational materials, including
brochures and PowerPoint presentations in English and Spanish, were
also developed.
July 27, 2006 - The Center for Heirs' Property Preservation (the Center) seeks to preserve heirs’ property and history while promoting equitable growth throughout the low country. The Center accomplishes this mission by providing educational and legal services to (1) low-income heirs property owners, (2) nonprofit organizations serving heirs’ property owners, (3) attorneys defending and judges adjudicating heirs property cases, and (4) the community at large in Beaufort, Berkeley, Charleston, Dorchester and Georgetown counties in South Carolina.
July 27, 2006 - The Neighborhood Legal Services Association (NLSA) launched the Older & Wiser Project to deliver legal information seminars to senior citizens through a collaborative effort between state legislators, private attorneys, and NLSA. Private attorneys lead seminars on a range of topics including powers of attorney and living wills, guarding against senior fraud, understanding retirement benefits, and more.
July 20, 2006 - The Court Legal Access Service project allows Legal Aid of Western Ohio to conduct intake and deliver legal services from donated office space in the Toledo Municipal Courthouse.
July 6, 2006 - Two Wisconsin Judicare, Inc. attorneys launched Legal Grounds Wisconsin®, a coffee house that offers free coffee and legal advice to those in need of legal assistance. Legal Grounds Wisconsin® seeks to increase pro bono involvement by recruiting volunteer attorneys to staff the coffeehouse while also increasing service delivery to people seeking brief legal advice on civil legal issues.
May 11,
2006 - Indiana Legal Services launched the Saving Homes in Center
Township Legal Project to protect low-income people from predatory lenders.
ILS attorneys and paralegals form victim rescue teams to review loans
and look for evidence of fraud.
May 8, 2006 - The Allegheny County Bar Association/Allegheny County Bar Foundation established a loan repayment assistance program (LRAP) to assist in recruitment and retention of new attorneys for legal services organizations in Allegheny County. To be eligible, applicants must be an active member of Allegheny County Bar Association, work for a public interest legal services organization, be a member of the Pennsylvania bar, and have educational loans.
April 26, 2006 - The Texas RioGrande Legal Aid Mental Health Outreach team serves clients who encounter legal problems as a result of a mental disability. Team members coordinate a variety of efforts to meet clients’ needs, recognizing the importance of internal sensitivity training within the workplace in addition to a crucial, external campaign working with local mental health providers to support innovative initiatives in the community.
April 21, 2006 - The revised LSC Performance Criteria are a key part of the Legal Service Corporation's (LSC) overall quality initiative, a multi-pronged strategy with a goal of ensuring that all LSC-funded legal services programs provide high quality legal assistance. The Criteria were revised to reflect the significant changes in the legal services delivery system since the first version of the Criteria in 1993.
April 19, 2006 - The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) launched the Torture Survivors Project (TSP) to deliver legal services to immigrants who were tortured in their home country. After the client is granted asylum, the TSP assists clients in obtaining work permits, obtaining public benefits, applying for derivative asylee status for other family members, adjusting the client's legal status to permanent residents, and assisting clients through the naturalization process.
April 12, 2006 - South Jersey Legal Services (SJLS) has filed several lawsuits in response to the adoption of redevelopment plans in Camden, New Jersey and other municipalities in the program's service area of southern New Jersey which called for taking private property through eminent domain.
April 12, 2006 - The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland launched the Community Advocacy Program (CAP) to improve the health of children by establishing a collaborative relationship with Metro Health Medical Center, a hospital for low-income families. CAP enables doctors to refer a patient to a legal aid attorney who can remove legal barriers which contribute to long-term health problems for children.
April 7, 2006 - Children living in poverty often experience relatively poor health and developmental outcomes. Since 1993, pediatricians at Boston Medical Center have relied on lawyers to help them take care of their young patients. Over and over again, the Family Advocacy Program at BMC has found that integrating lawyers into the clinical setting makes medical treatment for children from low-income families more effective. Since June of 2001, the law firm of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo has supported the work of FAP through a generous pro bono arrangement.
February 22, 2006 - A Texas Supreme Court Task Force and the Texas Access to Justice Commission developed a Protective Order Kit to provide guidance to victims of domestic violence on how to apply for a protective order to protect themselves from abusive spouses or partners when they cannot afford to hire an attorney. The protective order kit includes instructions on how to fill out the forms, information for personal safety planning, and information on how to prepare for appearing in court.
February 10, 2006 - Legal Aid of Northwest Texas' Emergency Shelter Grants Program (ESG) has provided homeless persons with essential supportive services in the form of legal representation to obtain government benefits, employment benefits, and child support, and in other legal matters to obtain income for homeless persons to help them obtain housing. The ESG program also provides short-term homeless prevention assistance in the form of actual monetary assistance to persons at imminent risk of losing their homes due to eviction or foreclosure.
February 8, 2006 - Hurricane Katrina created an overwhelming need for disaster relief legal services. However, Legal Services Alabama Inc. (LSA) did not have a centralized intake system at the time of the disaster. LSA's strong desire to address the critical legal needs of clients prompted the program to accelerate its timetable for centralization. LSA decided to use its Disaster Hotline Network as the first step to transition the entire program to a statewide, central intake and hotline configuration.
February 8, 2006 - The Connecticut Pro Bono Network has devised an attorney training program addressing the social, economic and other differences often times present between attorneys and clients. The hope is that the training will help the attorney-client relationship become a healthier and more positive interaction. The training itself is made up of several presentations conducted over a three and half hour period. At the moment, the training is not mandatory for volunteer attorneys, but may potentially be offered on an annual basis.
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Legal Services Corporation is a private, non-profit corporation established by Congress in 1974 to assure equal access to justice under the law for all Americans. It is headed by a bipartisan Board of Directors appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.
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