Advocates for poor fear loss of legal funds

Art Nadler

Tuesday, July 9, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Community activist groups and former clients are fearful low-income individuals will have nowhere to turn if the federally funded Legal Services Corp.'s budget is cut any further.

Created by Congress in 1974 under the Nixon administration, LSC's goal has been to provide legal representation to victims of abuse, those disabled and anyone who can't afford an attorney.

At one point LSC's budget was $415 million a year. It was reduced $15 million in 1995 and is currently funded at $278 million for 1996.

A movement in Congress, primarily by Republicans, is pushing to cut the budget again in 1997 to a rumored low of $95 million. The program will be eliminated entirely by 1998.

"I belive Legal Services is an investment in our country," Anne Golonka, president of Southern Nevada's National Organization for Women, told a gathering of concerned citizens at UNLV's Jean Nidetch Women's Center Monday. "Not everyone is able to fight for themselves. Not everyone is able to face down a great bureaucracy that's trying to grind them into the ground."

According to Wayne Pressel, executive director of Nevada Legal Services (the state LSC program), 7,200 cases were started and closed last year. Nevada has offices in Las Vegas, Carson City and Reno.

Pressel said 70 percent of the cases involved housing disputes such as contested evictions; 20 percent public-benefits disputes involving unemployment, welfare and Social Security and 10 percent consumer business disputes.

He foresees closing both Northern Nevada offices if the budget is cut to $95 million. He felt the Las Vegas office would be closed once funding is entirely stopped.

"The American public is going to have to decide whether to support public legal services," Pressel said, adding that their choice will be reflected by their support for congressional representatives.

In a written statement, Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev., explained why he supports dissolving the federally-funded program.

"Currently, the Legal Services Corp. has been given three years to pursue other sources of funding," Ensign said. "In these difficult budgetary times, groups such as the LSC must pro-actively seek alternatives in the private sector, such as encouraging law firms to contribute more pro bono (free) work.

"The point here is to help the poor. Big government answers are not the solution to everything, and it is incumbent on states and communities to reach out and help those who need it the most."

Pressel doesn't believe pro bono will fill the void once LSC is dissolved. Presently, 200 attorneys volunteer services mainly in divorce cases. Last year, 250 divorces were handled on a pro bono basis.

But, Pressel explained, most of the cases his five LSC attorneys handle involve housing and public benefit lawsuits. Not many pro-bono attorneys in Nevada have expertise in these areas, he said.

And in order to handle a caseload of more than 7,000 lawsuits a year, a pro-bono attorney would have to give up his or her practice and work full time for free, he said.

Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., himself an attorney, said he has always supported LSC. He said the nation will become more polarized if poor people don't have access to legal counsel.

"If we truly believe in our support of justice putting all of us on an equal playing field, this is not likely to encourage belief in our country," Bryan said in a telephone interview. "I've always felt the poor should have access to the legal system. Those who don't have access will be shut out. This encourages alienation."

Bryan said he sees this as "clearly a part of a philosophical agenda" by Republicans to abolish LSC. They don't believe in the concept, he said.

"If they terminate LSC, I really feel for the domestic violence victim," said Mary Teninty, supervisor of Safe Nest, part of the nonprofit corporation Temporary Assistance for Domestic Crisis Inc. "There are no freebies out there except for legal aid services. I hate to think of a world without legal aid."

Suzann Denton-Pratt, a Las Vegas licensed clinical social worker, said legal aid for an abused women can easily cost from $43,000 to $74,000 covering a restraining order to divorce. For many women, LSC is the only source for such funding.

"Without legal services, many of these women who are ready to leave an abuser, might find themselves with no other place to go but back to their spouse," Denton-Pratt said. "Our representative, John Ensign, voted to eliminate legal services. Defending himself with empty rhetoric about balancing the budget, Rep. Ensign has taken away a vital instrument in our struggle against domestic violence."