McClatchy Newspaper – Growing numbers of poor people swamp legal aid offices

After years of funding shortfalls, legal aid societies across the country are being overwhelmed by growing numbers of poor and unemployed Americans who face eviction, foreclosure, bankruptcy and other legal problems tied to the recession.

The crush of new clients comes as the cash-strapped agencies cut staff and services.

The nonprofit Legal Services Corp., which funds more than 900 legal-aid offices nationwide, says that the number of people who qualify for assistance has jumped by about 11 million since 2007, because of the recession. Roughly 51 million people are now eligible for assistance — individuals and families who earn less than 125 percent of the federal poverty level, now set at $27,564 a year for a family of four.

To read the entire article, click here.

 

Free Times – USC Students Swap Beach for Farm

They could have done anything, really: hit the beach; lay out by the pool; play video games; go to the movies; goof off.

But three University of South Carolina students foreswore the typical activities of college students home for the summer and decided instead to spend the best part of their break helping migrant field workers reach for a better life, the kind of life USC rising seniors Anna Walton, Kyle Warren and Rachel Wright already enjoy and want to share.

To read the entire article, click here.

 

Chattanooga Times Free Press – Foreign farm worker pay rises

Judy Cooper hired temporary foreign workers to help out at her Flat Top Mountain fruit and vegetable farm for three years, and this year she received a break on their wages because of a regulation from the closing days of the Bush administration.

But starting today the U.S. Department of Labor will suspend the regulation for nine months so officials can re-examine the federal H-2A program, which allows U.S. agricultural employers to hire foreign workers.

The Bush regulation, which went into effect Jan. 17, reduced the required hourly wage paid to foreign workers.

To read the entire article, click here.

 

American Lawyer – Combating a Fake Legal Aid Operation

In the fall of 2007, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid started getting complaints on its voicemail system from clients that it
had no record of in its files. Around the same time, people began showing up at its offices in San Antonio, El Paso,
and Austin asking for attorneys who didn’t work for the organization. “That is how we realized what was going on,”
says Cindy Dyar, an Edinburg, Texas based staff attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. “It wasn’t a mistake.
People weren’t getting confused. They were getting scammed.”

To read the entire story, click here. *Note* You must have a subscription to American Lawyer to read the story.

 

Summer 2009 TRLA Times

Feature Story: The Power of Pro Bono

Every year Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) works with hundreds of private attorneys who selflessly volunteer their time to provide their services at no cost to low-income clients. In a tough economy, TRLA’s services have been in high demand and these attorneys are a key resource to meeting that demand.

In the spirit of recognizing their commitment and saying “thank you” TRLA works with partner domestic violence shelters to select ten pro bono attorneys to honor at our annual Legal Access to Rural Shelters Conference in San Antonio.

This year’s winners of the Private Attorney Involvement Awards are symbols of the commitment that Texas lawyers have to low-income clients in need.

Also in this edition of the TRLA Times:

• Annual Shelter Conference Held in San Antonio
• Legal Aid Receives $18000 Award to Serve El Paso
• Bee County Public Defender Program Opens to Help the Poor
• Attorney Kevin Dietz Honored for Work in Eldorado
• Court: FEMA Must Publish Disaster Guidelines
• TRLA Success Story: Mother Reunited With Abducted Daughter

To read this edition of the TRLA Times, click here.