Last call

Worcester's legal-aid services fought back from devastating federal cutbacks. But are the county's poor still being provided with equal access to the justice system?

by Kristen Lombardi

Marjorie, a 48-year-old grandmother from Webster with stringy hair and a face as wrinkled as a raisin, is no stranger to misfortune. Take the time she lost her housing benefits after a landlord rejected her tenant application because her daughter had the look of trouble "kids these days have. Teenagers looking like druggies," she says. The loss of her benefits almost left her, her two daughters, and a grandson on the streets last October. Because Marjorie appealed the dismissal and found a subsidized apartment, she tosses the incident off as "bad luck."

But Marjorie, who did not want her last name used, describes her latest ordeal as malpractice, not misfortune. It started in May, when, she says, she stopped paying her monthly $255 rent for a three-bedroom apartment because her landlord ignored requests for repairs to a broken showerhead, two ceiling holes, one above her grandson's pillow, and refused to remove bee hives.

"I kept asking him to fix leaks and plug holes, but he never did anything. That's the reason I stopped paying rent," she explains.

By withholding rent for the past four months, Marjorie thought she would pressure her landlord into "doing what's right." Instead, on June 24, she got an eviction notice. So she called a lawyer.

Marjorie, who earns $1450 a month, is one of 73,000 people in Worcester County who qualifies for Legal Services, a state- and federally-funded program that provides the poor with legal representation. She solicited help from Legal Assistance Corporation of Central Massachusetts (LACCM) when she lost her housing benefits last October and credits "good lawyers at legal assistance" for getting her benefits back when she appealed the termination.

This time, when Marjorie called LACCM about the eviction, she was introduced to a new organization, Massachusetts Justice Project. Unlike LACCM, MJP is a federally-funded agency that offers legal advice, guidance, and referrals over the telephone. Since the agency opened in January, staffers have manned hotlines, answering calls from 10,000 poor people living in Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire, Berkshire and Franklin counties. Phone consultation, however, is as far as MJP lawyers can go.

MJP formed after crippling congressional actions were directed at Legal Services Corporation, which distributes federal funds to nearly 300 legal-aid offices across the nation. LACCM used to receive federal money. But when Congress slashed the LSC budget by 30 percent last year, and then called for restrictions on the types of clients and cases legal-aid lawyers can take on, LACCM and other Massachusetts agencies fought back.

"We gave up our federal funding so we could continue to do systemic casework," explains Mary Monica Miner, a LACCM supervisory attorney who handles divorces and child custody cases for Worcester's poor.

As part of a statewide push to reorganize Legal Services before federal actions became law, LACCM and Western Massachusetts Legal Services (WMLS) merged their intake divisions into the separate, new MJP. With a current budget of $1.6 million in state and private grants, LACCM handed over $433,000 in federal funds to MJP, while WMLS gave up nearly $700,000 in federal money.

Massachusetts's decision to split Legal Services into two agencies represents a unique response to congressional actions, which have weighed heavily outside of the state. But the new system also presents an unprecedented problem for the state's most-vulnerable residents.

MJP has helped 2500 more people (10,000 vs. 7500) in the past eight months than LACCM and WMLS helped all last year. The agency, in many regards, has become Legal Services in clients' eyes. But MJP is serving them with substandard work -- not with valuable courtroom representation. Its lawyers can answer questions or give advice via phones in minutes -- they reach more people faster than ever before. Marjorie received direction, but she needed a lawyer at her side to negotiate a confusing system. With the federal scene again looking grim, and supporters calling hotlines the "future wave" of legal assistance, legal experts question whether Worcester's poor can expect to get equal access to the justice system.

Part 2