By Scott Crain, Acting Director of Advocacy, NJP
Article Summary and excerpt: "Any operation where demand far outstrips supply must make difficult choices. A business will increase their prices or scale up to meet demand. Legal aid has the same problem: no shortage of poor people in need of legal services and a very static level of the supply of providers of those services," Scott Crain writes. Legal aid works around this problem by deciding who gets representation based on "merit" — essentially whether a case is likely to be won — but this harms vulnerable clients, lets opposing attorneys take advantage of unrepresented people, and allows entire areas of law to erode.
Washington State's right-to-counsel law for low-income renters facing eviction forced a different approach: every eligible tenant gets representation, resulting in new case law protecting renters and a legal system that can no longer ignore their rights. The better question for case acceptance, Crain argues, isn't "can we win this?" but "would this person or their community be helped by our legal advocacy?"
This article first appeared in the MIE Journal. Read the full article here.
Contact scottc@nwjustice.org with your thoughts regarding legal aid.