New York Law Journal Looks at City Legal Services Funding

A New York Law Journal article on cuts to the city budget for the Legal
Aid Society and other defender organizations also notes the challenges
faced by civil legal services providers. Legal Services NYC Executive
Director and President Andrew Scherer is quoted.

[Steven Banks, Legal Aid's Attorney in Chief] also said Legal Aid and Legal Services NYC, the city's other major provider of civil legal services for the poor, sustained serious cuts in state and local funding in the current year budget totaling $2.2 million.

Governor David A. Paterson's 2010 budget, which would begin on April 1, 2009, would cut state funding by $7 million to $1 million (NYLJ, Jan. 21). In addition, Mr. Banks said, $9 million made available to the two programs under the Interest on Lawyer Account program could decline by 60 percent or more as interest rates continue to drop.

Andrew Scherer, executive director Legal Services NYC, said "the need for civil legal services in a declining economy is exploding as people lose jobs and face evictions, foreclosures and a host of related legal problems that require more funding for civil legal services rather than less."

 Read the full article in the New York Law Journal (free with registration).