Blog 4.1

1. What does the Legal Services Corporation do?

2. How is this different than the role played by public defenders?

3. Which types of states end up getting the most help from this agency? 

4. What types of cases are they typically involved in?

5. How do these services help save communities money?

6. Why can't the lawyers who work for the program advocate for the program?

7. Why is this more prominent in rural areas than urban areas?

8. Explain how this agency can be seen as an extension of 6th Amendment civil liberties.

9. Explain how this agency can be seen as an unnecessary government expenditure.   

Answer

1. "Established by Congress in 1974 as a public nonprofit corporation, [the Legal Services Corporation] funds more than a hundred civil legal-aid programs throughout the country... In many ways, legal-aid organizations fill the same role in civil proceedings that public defenders perform in the criminal-justice system: providing legal representation for those unable to afford it themselves."

2. "The Sixth Amendment requires the existence of public-defender systems, which often have their own budgetary woes, but civil legal-aid programs have no such constitutional mandate. Instead, they rely on support from both parties and funding from federal and state governments, private foundations, and other nonprofit groups to exist."

3. Poorer states generally gain the most benefits from the LSC.

4. They primarily assist in civil cases. "Their assistance can range from educational programs to direct legal representation in state, federal, and tribal courts."

5. By preventing future expenses through the work that they do, e.g. stopping a foreclosure to ensure that property values do not fall, the LSC save communities save money.

6. "Legal-aid lawyers who work for federally funded organizations avoided speaking directly with me about the Trump administration’s budget proposal, citing federal rules that bar their organizations from lobbying either for or against legislation. "

7. “In the cities, you're more likely to have some other organizations, for example, that are doing domestic-violence protection work [or other civil protections]... In [rural areas], [the LSC is] basically pretty much the only lawyers who are representing poor people in domestic-violence and other family cases.”

8. This makes it easier for one to have the ability to obtain legal council.

9. They are not public defenders assigned by the court; therefore, they are not a necessity.