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.
"We also know that without access to legal representation, equal justice under the law is just an empty slogan," Schneiderman said. While the right to counsel has been established in criminal courts, despite flaws in that system, no one loses their liberty without at least some access to an attorney, he said.
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New York Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, who has held similar hearings the past two years, plans to present his findings to state lawmakers. Before the hearing, he said that at best, pro bono work, grants and legal aid services are now meeting 20 percent of the chronic need.
When he became attorney general two years ago, there were 345,000 mortgages in default or delinquent in New York, part of the national economic crisis, he learned that half those facing foreclosure hadn't spoken to a lawyer, Schneiderman said. "People who had the right to renegotiate their mortgages were unable to exercise those rights, and tens of thousands of New Yorkers were unaware that they even had those rights," he said.
As part of a national settlement with five major lenders, the banks had to revise mortgage servicing and commit more than $25 billion to resolve state and federal violations, Schneiderman said. His office has committed $15 million of New York's settlement share for foreclosure prevention services this year, with another $60 million over the next three years for counseling and legal services to help struggling families stay in their homes, he said.
"There are still more banks that may well come on board with the foreclosure settlements and provide more money for relief for homeowners," Schneiderman said. "There are more banks we think will be getting on board."
He declined after the hearing to say which ones.
Meanwhile, he said, a group of federal and state officials investigating the packaging, pooling and marketing of mortgage-backed securities that collapsed, which Schneiderman co-chairs, is proceeding. "There are quite a few investigations under way. And I think you can look for action in the very near future, the beginning of action because it's a long way to go."
State funding for civil legal help includes the Interest on Lawyer Accounts Fund, which in the recession and with low interest rates dropped from about $32 million in 2008 to $6.5 million in 2010-2011. Lippman provided $15 million for the fund each of the past three years, while establishing a $12.5 million fund for those services in the judiciary budget last year that was increased to $25 million in the current fiscal year.
Lippman, who said earlier that Schneiderman was preaching to the choir, said a judicial task force had concluded that for every $1 spent on that, legal help returned $5 to the state. "It's so counter-productive to let people fall off the cliff because of a lack of representation," he said.
The judge asked whether a so-called "civil Gideon," guaranteeing the right to legal representation in civil matters, might be on the horizon.
"I'm not sure we could get it from the current Supreme Court, but I think the idea is something that's becoming increasingly clear to people in all parts of the political spectrum," Schneiderman said. He cited the high cost of collateral damage otherwise from homelessness, illness and other consequent crises.
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