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NY officials say legal needs of poor still unmet

New York needs a dedicated stream of funding to help fill the "catastrophic lack" of legal services for the poor, despite recent judicial efforts and volunteer work by lawyers that have helped, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Thursday.

By Michael Virtanen | Updated on September 28, 2012

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York needs a dedicated stream of funding to help fill the “catastrophic lack” of legal services for the poor, despite recent judicial efforts and volunteer work by lawyers that have helped, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Thursday.

Many New Yorkers face essential matters like child custody, keeping their homes, access to health care, public benefits and immigration status without lawyers, Schneiderman said. At a hearing in Albany, he noted that related federal funding from the Legal Services Corp. peaked in 1979 and has been effectively cut 60 percent since, while state funding is fragmented and court data show 2.3 million people unrepresented in civil proceedings annually in New York.

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