[NYAPRS Enews] PS, NYAPRS: NYS Budget Boosts Access to Legal Services for People with Disabilities in Two Ways

[Harvey Rosenthal]

NYAPRS Note: There're two new opportunities for increased access to
legal services in New York's new state budget. The first is the
Governor's initiative to expand legal services to low income New Yorkers
(can include many New Yorkers with psychiatric disabilities) as
described below. The second lies in the $350,000 that was made available
by the Legislature for parents with psychiatric disabilities at the
urging of NYAPRS and our allies and that will be distributed by the
Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for People with Disabilities.

 

Justice for All 

Spitzer Takes A Big First Step Toward Expanding Legal Services 

Syracuse Post-Standard   March 27, 2007

 

New York state usually isn't at the bottom of the pack when it comes to
providing services to its residents especially its neediest citizens. 

 

Why then, is the state so stingy in providing legal services for the
poor? 

 

Last year, it provided $6.8 million for civil legal services for
low-income residents. That's a third of what New Jersey provided for far
fewer people. On a "per-poor-person" basis, New York provided $2.54 last
year far behind neighboring New Jersey ($23.44), Massachusetts ($16.50),
Vermont ($11.48), Pennsylvania ($9.64) and many other states, according
to the American Bar Association. 

 

The result? The New York State Bar Association says only 14 percent of
the legal needs of the state's low-income population are being met. That
translates into thousands of people who aren't getting the help they
need in landlord-tenant disputes, medical cases, wills, divorce and
domestic violence proceedings and welfare cases. 

 

Legal services funding was such a low priority under Gov. George Pataki
that it wasn't even included in his general fund budgets. It was added
into the budgets in an ad-hoc, year-to-year fashion through "member
items" from the state Assembly. That made it vulnerable to whatever
political winds might be blowing at the time. 

 

Legal services agencies do get funding from other sources principally
the federal Legal Services Corp. and the Interest on Lawyers' Accounts
fund. But those sources also are changeable and uncertain, and neither
provides enough funding to cover growing needs. 

 

The uncertainty has left legal aid providers, including the local
Hiscock Legal Aid Society and Legal Services of Central New York,
focusing on the most pressing cases. Tight funding means they have less
flexibility to deal with problems in their early stages, when serious
legal tangles could be headed off. 

 

This year, Gov. Eliot Spitzer has included $9.6 million for civil legal
services in his proposed budget. That's a major step forward but in the
long run, it's not enough. 

 

In a report completed a decade ago, a panel appointed by Judge Judith
Kaye called for state funding for civil legal services of $40 million
per year. Citing inflation and growing need, the state bar association
is seeking the creation of a state Office of Civil Justice that would
provide $50 million a year. 

 

That's a reasonable long-term goal, considering the crucial services it
would provide in an overall state budget of more than $120 billion. 

 

The governor has taken a valuable first step in establishing a permanent
home for legal services funding, but both he and the Legislature should
consider it a work in progress. New York should become a leader in
ensuring access to justice for all not just for those who can afford it.

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