PORTLAND — The state's six nonprofit legal aid providers are struggling to meet the needs of Maine's poor and elderly, as the demand for legal services continues to rise and funding for the agencies drops.
Over a two-month period this spring, the six agencies received about 6,400 requests for legal help, ranging from assistance in foreclosure proceedings to help with child custody cases.
They were able to fully meet the needs in only 1,500 of those cases – fewer than one in four. The other 4,900 received either limited help or no help at all, according to figures released Thursday.
"Having it in black and white confronts you with the reality that the folks who come to us for help already know," said Nan Heald, executive director of Pine Tree Legal Assistance, Maine's largest legal aid provider.
"Twenty-five percent is a depressingly similar percentage to what was reported back in 1990," Heald said. She noted that most low-income Mainers who could benefit from legal assistance never ask for it.
The figures were tallied in a survey by Pine Tree Legal; the Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic; the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project; Legal Services for the Elderly; Maine Equal Justice Partners; and the Volunteer Lawyers Project. Those agencies offer help to Mainers who cannot afford to hire lawyers for assistance with civil matters.
Caroline Wilshusen said the results of the survey should matter to all Maine residents.
"With every need that goes unmet, there is a ripple effect," said Wilshusen, executive coordinator of the Justice Action Group, a coalition of state officials, lawyers, service providers and others who are working on the problem.
Wilshusen gave the example of a working mother who is involved in a child custody dispute. Without a lawyer, the woman is left on her own in a complicated system, in which she might not even understand her most basic rights. She is far more likely to miss work and suffer from anxiety and depression than a person who can afford a lawyer.
"This is a community-wide problem that needs community-wide solutions," Wilshusen said. "Oftentimes there is an assumption that if someone needs legal help, they have done something wrong. That is simply not the case."
The six legal aid providers rely on government grants and private funding, much of which comes through the annual Campaign For Justice, organized by the Maine Bar Foundation.
Also, lawyers from private firms donate their time to handle some cases, at a value of about $2 million each year.
The Campaign For Justice raised about $400,000 last year, but donations this year are running about 17 percent lower.
The providers, like most nonprofit agencies that have historically received state support, have been hurt by the recession. State funding for Pine Tree Legal has dropped in each of the past three years, to $264,000 last year.
At the same time, the number of poor and elderly Mainers seeking legal help has gone up. In the first six months of this year, the providers fielded about 13,700 requests for assistance, 30 percent more than in the same period last year.
The Maine Bar Foundation has been dipping into its cash reserves to keep its annual contributions to the six agencies level. The foundation will have to find creative ways to raise more money to close the gap between demand and resources.
That will be difficult because Maine lawyers already give more than lawyers in other states, and the public has many good causes to consider, said the foundation's executive director, Calien Lewis.
"We're finding efficiencies wherever we can. Agencies are cutting into the bone," Lewis said.
A symposium scheduled for Oct. 2 in Portland will be a good opportunity for people in the field to discuss new ideas, Lewis said. The event, "Expanding Justice in Maine: Upstream Solutions to Downstream Problems," is sponsored by the University of Maine School of Law and the Justice Action Group.
Staff Writer Trevor Maxwell can be contacted at 791-6451 or at:
tmaxwell@pressherald.com
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