The Legal Services Corporation offices around the country will have to lay off staff – including 350 attorneys – due to funding cuts, according to a survey released Wednesday by the legal aid program.
As of Jan. 1, Indiana has 12 pro bono districts, down from 14. Some districts saw no change in their boundaries. But all saw a sharp decrease in funding from the year before, marking the third straight year of declining funds.
The groups will tap reserves in 2012 as their budgets decrease.
If an agreement between the members of Congress passes, Legal Services Corp. will see its budget reduced by 14 percent. The U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee had previously proposed cutting it by 17 percent.
The Division of State Court Administration has released figures for 2011-2012, showing how the $1.5 million Civil Legal Aid Fund has been distributed among 11 qualifying agencies.
The ILS board has taken cost-cutting steps, which include not renewing staff contracts.
The aspirational pro bono goal for attorneys, set by the American Bar Association and endorsed – but not forced – by many states, is around 50 hours. Some Indiana attorneys work this into their annual budget by working with pro bono district plan administrators to accept cases when need exists and when they can easily fit them into their work schedules.
Among approximately 70 proposed budget cuts, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee has proposed cutting $75 million, or 17 percent of the budget for the Legal Services Corporation, which funds 136 civil legal aid programs around the country, the committee announced Wednesday.
The Indiana Court of Appeals reversed a trial court’s order that an indigent small claims litigant perform community service in lieu of paying a filing fee, holding the informal local rule requiring community service is unenforceable.
In a case that involves whether Medicaid applicants who were rejected can include information that was not in their initial applications when they appeal, the Indiana Supreme Court has set oral arguments for March 3 at 9 a.m.
While the need for services for indigent Hoosiers during these tough economic times continues to increase, civil legal aid providers are reporting that budgets for 2011 will be similar to those of 2010, and the numbers of cases handled in 2010 are comparable to 2009.
When pro se litigants find themselves in a courthouse for the first time, there’s a good chance they aren’t quite sure what to do. In the Clark County courthouse in Jeffersonville, just across the river from Louisville, a self-help center for pro se litigants in civil cases has been operational since late May.
Bar associations and pro bono districts are working together to encourage attorneys to sign up to participate in the annual statewide Talk to a Lawyer Today event taking place Jan. 17, 2011. Free CLE, which is offered in December and January to lawyers who volunteer their time with TTALT but is not required to participate in the event, is a video replay of a CLE that originally took place in Indianapolis in October.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana’s annual dinner this year will honor Irving Fink, an attorney who helped found the organization and Indiana Legal Services.
A couple whose home is being foreclosed on is entitled to a jury trial on their legal claims against the mortgage holder and
loan servicer, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled today.
A 90-year-old Indianapolis attorney couldn’t have predicted his legal career of more than 60 years would include handling
many controversial clients, including the Ku Klux Klan and conscientious objectors of the Vietnam War.
Immigration attorneys and victims advocates are reading up on the Arizona illegal immigrant law and bracing themselves for
what a similar bill in Indiana could mean for their clients.
Indiana Legal Services Migrant Farm Workers Center, led by Melody Goldberg, helps migrant workers understand their legal rights.
Today it's a growing practice area, but three decades ago, only a handful of attorneys practiced what is now known as
elder law and not many more were aware of what it was.
Thanks to a $40 million increase in funding for Legal Services Corporations signed by President Barack Obama Wednesday, an
official at Indiana Legal Services Inc. estimates that the only Indiana-based organization that receives funding from LSC
will receive up to an additional $300,000 to $350,000 in funds for the organization’s 2009 fiscal year, which runs Jan. 1
to Dec. 31.