Empire Justice Testimony on Civil Legal Services

Joint Legislative Public Hearings on the 2012-13 Executive Budget Proposal: Public Protection

Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to testify on 2012-13 Executive Budget.  My name is Anne Erickson and I am President and CEO of the Empire Justice Center.  The Empire Justice Center is a statewide, multi-issue, multi-strategy non-profit law firm focused on changing the “systems” within which poor and low-income families live.  With a focus on poverty law, Empire Justice undertakes research and training, acts as an informational clearinghouse, and provides litigation assistance to local legal services programs and community based organizations.  As an advocacy organization, we engage in legislative and administrative advocacy on behalf of those impacted by poverty and discrimination.  As a non-profit law firm, we provide direct legal assistance to those in need and undertake impact litigation in order to protect and defend the rights of disenfranchised New Yorkers. 

Our work cuts across some 30 areas of substantive law and involves three inter-related statewide services:

Training, technical assistance and information sharing.  As a backup center for legal services, our staff provides training and support to legal services and other community-based organizations to keep them apprised of any change in law, rule or regulation that will impact their clients. In an effort to use our resources as efficiently as possible, we partner with the Western New York Law Center in running an on-line training center which puts critical training sessions at the fingertips of advocates across the state.   In our role as an informational clearinghouse, we also run a very vibrant website, bringing information and legal resources right to the desktops of advocates.  Our website saw over 4 million hits in the past two years and over 56,000 unique visitors.

Direct legal representation and impact litigation.  We are one of the core legal services providers in the Rochester area, representing clients in the areas of consumer, foreclosure, disability and special education.  In the Albany area we provide representation to immigrant victims of domestic violence and to a limited number of homeowners at risk of foreclosure who have more complex cases.  In White Plains we provide representation to immigrants in Westchester County.  Our Long Island office provides a blend of individual representation, policy advocacy and training.   Between 2010 and 2011 we closed over 1,100 cases directly impacting 2,590 people.  We handled 26 major impact cases and achieved over $29 million in benefits for our clients.  Through our unique partnership with the United Way of Greater Rochester, we helped over 13,000 households collect $25 million in tax refunds and credits.  In fact, for every dollar invested in Empire Justice, we returned $5.75 to New York families and taxpayers.

Legislative and administrative advocacy.  In order to ensure that the needs of low income families are heard within the state’s policy-making processes, we engage in both legislative and administrative advocacy on a range of issues impacting our clients.  We are a resource to the legislature on a broad range of substantive law matters and we work closely with the state’s administrative agencies to identify and help address issues that we see emerging from our work with legal services organizations across the state.  We have helped lead the effort to secure funding for legal services since 1993 when the state Assembly first provided general funding for the delivery of legal services in New York.

 
The Continuing Need for Legal Services

In the best of times, across the country and here in New York State we have barely met 20% of the legal needs of the poor.  Add to this the increased need for legal assistance during times of recession and the need far outstrips all available services.  In an effort to assess the current unmet need for civil legal services among low-income New Yorkers, in early 2010 Chief Judge Jonathan Lippmann appointed the Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services in New York.

I am honored to be a member of that Task Force which assisted in the preparation for the public hearings held in each of the past two years in each of the four judicial departments.  The leadership of the New York State Bar Association joined the Chief Judge and the members of the judicial leadership in presiding over these hearings.

As a result of these hearings, the Task Force learned that there are an estimated 2.3 million New York residents who come before our courts each year without a lawyer – and 70% of all civil matters that come before our courts involve family law, consumer credit, and housing-related cases.  According to the 2010 Task Force’s findings:

• 99% of tenants in New York City and 98% of those outside New York City are unrepresented in eviction proceedings;
• 97% of parents are unrepresented in child support proceedings in New York City; 95% of parents in child support proceedings throughout the rest of the state face these proceedings without representation; and
• 99% of consumers facing credit problems and debt collection cases are unrepresented in New York City. [1]

Ultimately the study found that nearly half of all low-income New Yorkers experienced one or more civil legal problems in the preceding year. [2] 

New Analysis Demonstrates the Cost Benefit of Investing in Legal Assistance

Providing legal assistance to those in need helps avoid more costly interventions and, in many cases, helps draw additional federal funding into New York’s economy.  For example, by preventing evictions and foreclosures, legal services helps avert homelessness and the expense of emergency shelter and helps stabilize homes, neighborhoods and the local tax base.  Providing legal assistance to those who have been denied or terminated from federal benefits can help ensure that appropriate federal financial support is maintained – and that federal benefits flow as needed into the New York economy.

In order to take a fresh look at these assumptions, this past Fall the Task Force engaged two outside consulting firms to review relevant data and undertake a new financial analysis of the impact of legal assistance in two areas: homelessness and domestic violence.  Cornerstone, an independent consulting firm with expertise in economic analysis, was asked to review data on homelessness prevention and the impact of legal assistance while Navigant Consulting, a leading global consulting firm with expertise in economics, finance and management, was asked to review the impact of legal assistance on domestic violence related costs.  Both firms provided their services pro bono.

The findings were staggering:

• providing legal assistance to those at risk of homelessness in New York State drives at least $116 million in saved emergency shelter and related costs;
• the savings associated with providing legal assistance in domestic violence matters are estimated at $85 million annually.

Each of these estimates are noted by the consulting firms to be conservative. [3]

In addition, according to data analysis by the Interest on Lawyer Account (IOLA) Fund, legal services programs in 2010 generated $168 million in federal Supplemental Security (SSI) Income and Social Security Disability payments (both 2010 benefits and continuing benefits secured in prior years); $117.2 million in federal Medicaid benefits; $25.4 million in tax credits and refunds; and $37.3 million in other benefits, including food stamps, veterans assistance and Medicare payments.

In addition to the federal funding generated and the cost avoided, the United States Department of Commerce estimates that every dollar brought into the New York economy generates a multiplier effect of 1.48 as low-income families and individuals use these funds to purchase necessities like food, rent, and clothing, which support local businesses.  In total, the data analysis found that in 2009-10 legal services were responsible for generating $475 million in economic activity in New York State. [4]

Changing Client Demographics

The findings of the 2010 report included a review of the change in the demographics of those seeking legal assistance.   Among those legal services providers that would be available to provide assistance to these populations, 91% report an increase in requests for assistance from formerly moderate income households, 90% report an increase in unemployed individuals seeking assistance, and 72% report an increase in homeowners seeking legal assistance.   Sixty-nine percent of providers reported an increase in homeless families seeking assistance while nearly the same amount (66%) reported an increase in homeless individuals seeking assistance. 

Changing Legal Needs

The most significant reported change in the substantive law areas in which people are seeking assistance in 2010  included housing and consumer debt.  Ninety percent (90%) of the legal services organizations participating in the survey reported an increase in homeowners seeking assistance in foreclosure matters, 85% are seeing an increase in tenants seeking assistance with evictions, and 81% reported an increase in consumers seeking legal assistance with credit and debt issues.

• Housing and Homelessness.  Issues relating to housing and homeless were among the legal issues generating the greatest increase in demand.  Sixty-one percent (61%) of those responding reported an increase in the number of people seeking legal assistance to address housing code violations; 85% reported an increase in those needing legal assistance to assist in eviction prevention; 91% in foreclosure assistance; 77% in homelessness; 71% in tenant rights; and 61% in utility shut-offs.
• Consumer Issues.  Of those reporting an increase in demand, every area of consumer law saw a reported increase in demand: credit/debt issues 81%; bankruptcy 78%; non-mortgage loans 70%; medical debt 68%; rent to own issues 54%; and tax problems 64%.
• Domestic Violence.  In the area of family law, 67% of those responding reported an increase in demand among those seeking legal assistance for issues related to domestic violence. 
• Employment and Economic Support.  Almost 70% (69%) of those responding reported an increase in clients seeking assistance in employment insurance claims.  Over 50% (54%) reported an increase in demand for legal assistance in dealing with wrongful termination issues.  In the area of income supports, 63% of those responding are seeing an increase in requests for legal assistance on issues related to public assistance, 76% are seeing an increase in those dealing with emergency assistance and 60% are seeing an increase in those seeking legal assistance for issues dealing with Food Stamps/Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
• Immigrants and Immigration.  In the area of immigration law, 59% reported an increase in those seeking assistance in securing special visa protections (for crime victims and victims of human trafficking for example) and 53% reported an increase in immigrant victims of domestic violence seeking legal assistance to pursue protection under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).

Turn-away Data

In 2009, IOLA determined that, due to insufficient resources, legal service providers were turning away one out of every two eligible low-income New Yorkers who were seeking legal assistance.  In the survey conducted for the Chief Judge’s Task Force, providers were asked if they were experiencing any change in this level of turn-aways.  Of those who had collected turn away data in 2009, 20.7% reported turning away significantly more people seeking assistance in 2010; 62.1% were turning away somewhat more; and 17.2 percent were turning away potential clients at the same rate they were turning them away in 2009. 

For this year’s report, the Chief Judge’s Task Force again surveyed the field.  Not surprisingly, 90 percent reported turning away clients at the same or greater rates than they had in 2010.

New York’s Approach to Ensuring Access to Justice: Re-arranging the Deck Chairs?

Against this backdrop of increasing and unrelenting need, New York’s legal services delivery system continues to be battered by funding cuts and financial uncertainty. 

For years New York’s commitment to ensuring access to justice had been a legislative commitment only.  With the exception of one year, each year since 1993 the Governor has stripped all legal services funding out of the Executive Budget; every year the Legislature, under the leadership of the Assembly Majority, restores these critical funds. [5]   

We are pleased to see added to the Legislature’s ongoing commitment the leadership and support of the Chief Judge and the Office of Court Administration.  Chief Judge Lippman has been tireless in his efforts to determine the level of need and to generate support for the critically needed investments.

Chief Judge Lippman has again woven into the Unified Court System’s budget a balanced approach to begin addressing the need for stable, on-going funding for legal services so that we can relieve some of the pressure on the courts and better ensure access to justice in this state.  We urge the Legislature to support his recommendations.

While this new support is so desperately needed and so deeply appreciated, we cannot afford to lose the support of our long-standing allies in the state Legislature.  Already, funding that has long been one of the key pillars supporting access to justice in this state has been severely diminished.  Legislative funding – which stood at $13.2 million in the 2009-10 state budget, was cut to $4.1 million in last year’s budget – a loss statewide of over $9 million.

The IOLA Fund, dependent as it is on interest income, saw its grant-making ability slide from $25 million on an annualized basis in 2009 to $6.5 million last year.  This loss of $18.5 million was thankfully off-set by an infusion of $15 million from the OCA budget in each of the past two years, but still the system contracted by $3.5 million.

All told, the system saw a loss of $12.6 million, balanced by the Chief Judge’s new investment last year of $12.5 million. Despite skyrocketing needs, overall funding has barely increased. 

It must be noted that these funding streams do not provide uniform or consistent funding to each organization.  So a loss of $50,000 in state legislative funding does not translate into a $50,000 grant from OCA for instance.  Each organization struggles with the changes and with the lag time between losing state funding and having any award of new funding determined by the other funders. 

In order to stabilize the legal services delivery system statewide and meet the unrelenting need for legal assistance, we urge the Legislature to:

1. Support the budget request of the Office of Court Administration
2. Restore state access to justice funds to the greatest extent possible; at least no less than in last year’s budget
3. Ensure that funding for civil legal services becomes a core part of the annual state budget going forward. 

Thank you for your time and we look forward to working with you as the budget process continues to unfold.


End Notes:
 [1] The Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services, Report to the Chief Judge of the State of New York (2010), available with all related materials at: http://www.nycourts.gov/ip/access-civil-legal-services/ .
 [2] 2010 Task Force Report http://www.nycourts.gov/ip/access-civil-legal-services/PDF/CLS-TaskForceREPORT.pdf
 [3] The Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services, Report to the Chief Judge of the State of New York (2011), available with all related materials at: http://www.nycourts.gov/ip/access-civil-legal-services/ .
 [4] All data and further explanation presented in the Task Force reports; 2010 and 2011.
 [5] Governor Spitzer included base funding for civil legal services in his first Executive Budget and then eliminated all general state funding from his Executive Budget the following year.