Civil Legal Aid in Washington

Washington has an efficient and well-coordinated Alliance for Equal Justice, which is a dedicated group of volunteer and staffed legal aid providers who are committed to making our state a better, fairer place to live. The Alliance ensures poor and vulnerable people have equal access to the justice system when they face urgent civil legal problems.

 

Legal aid is often as basic as informing clients about their rights and responsibilities; helping low-income families navigate government agencies and writing letters or making phone calls to seek resolution. In many cases, civil legal help can be provided over the phone or in clinics with volunteer lawyers (see our “Looking for Legal Help?”). Some problems are more complex and require intervention from an advocate skilled in a particular area of the law.

Who Do Civil Legal Aid Programs Benefit? Parents who seek personal safety and custody of their children to protect them from a household with domestic violence and/or child abuse; Elderly people who are fraudulently swindled out of their homes by predatory lenders; Families who are denied essential support services (e.g., health insurance for their children) to which they are legally entitled; Developmentally disabled people who are evicted from their housing; and Many other people facing urgent civil legal problems that often mean the difference between shelter and homelessness, employment and unemployment, food stamps and hunger, or economic stability and bankruptcy.

The Washington Alliance for Equal Justice provider network is nationally recognized as a model public-private partnership helping low-income people get the civil legal aid they need to live productive, safe lives. The Alliance relies on thousands of volunteer attorneys who work with local volunteer lawyer programs and the statewide, staffed legal aid programs of Columbia Legal Services and Northwest Justice Project.

However, unstable funding for legal aid has resulted in reduced numbers of legal aid providers within the Alliance. Coupled with a poverty population that has nearly doubled in the last decade, inadequate resources make it impossible for the overwhelming majority of low-income people to secure legal assistance appropriate for their needs.

Civil Legal Aid: Today's Landscape

In the fall of 2003, the Washington State Supreme Court Task Force on Civil Equal Justice Funding issued its findings in the Washington State Civil Legal Needs Study (Click here for more information). This historic report illustrates how justice is out of reach for the overwhelming majority of low-income families in our State:

• Washington's low-income people experience more than one million urgent civil legal problems each year.
• Low-income people face 88 percent of their legal problems without help from an attorney.
• Nearly half of all issues affecting low-income people relate to housing, family and employment matters.
• Legal problems of low-income people are more likely to relate to family safety and basic needs than legal problems of higher-income people.
• Low-income people who get legal help experience better outcomes and have greater respect for the justice system than those who do not.

How can you help? Every dollar spent on legal aid for low-income people in Washington yields a return to society far greater than the investment. Private contributions help families in crisis return to safe, productive lives. Private gifts save money in the long term by preempting a preventable spiral of costly social problems and help ensure a well-ordered society. Thank you for investing in fair outcomes for low-income Washingtonians by giving to LAW Fund (Click here to make a contribution).

Meet some of the legal aid
providers in the Alliance
for Equal Justice:

Volunteer Lawyer Programs

There are 23 Volunteer Lawyer Programs throughout Washington State. Private attorneys volunteer to support the efforts of full-time legal aid attorneys in meeting the civil legal needs of low-income residents. Private attorneys give more than 50,000 hours of volunteer legal aid worth more than $7 million each year.

Volunteers provide a range of services from advice at legal clinics to full representation of a client in court. Types of cases handled by volunteer attorneys include housing, protection of financial resources, consumer protection and family law. Volunteer Lawyer Programs are an essential part of the Alliance for Equal Justice's public-private partnership. Some of these programs are King County Bar Association community legal services, Yakima County Volunteer Attorney Services, Snohomish County Legal Services, Spokane Bar Volunteer Lawyers Program, Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association and Chelan-Douglas County Volunteer Attorney Services.

Volunteer Lawyers Helping Make Communities Better, Fairer Places to Live
The Problem A 50-year-old disabled client received a 3-day notice to vacate her public housing due to a drug-related offense committed by her adult son. Unbeknownst to the woman, her son had used her address on his identification. The son did not live with the client in public housing.		The Solution The client called CLEAR and was referred to a volunteer attorney. The attorney scheduled the case for trial and negotiated a last minute settlement with the Housing Authority that allowed the woman to remain in her home.

Staffed Legal Services 

Washington has two statewide legal services providers, Northwest Justice Project (NJP) and Columbia Legal Services.

The Northwest Justice Project is a hub of the statewide legal aid delivery system, operating from several offices throughout the state and running the pioneering CLEAR (Coordinated Legal Education Advice and Referral) toll free intake and referral hotline, which serves as a critical point of access for clients throughout the state to obtain free legal help, including advice, brief legal service, and, where available, a referral for further representation. In addition, CLEAR maintains an extensive library of legal resources and self-help materials of Washington. Each year, NJP assists more than 18,000 people in need of critical legal assistance. Learn more about NJP at www.nwjustice.org

Columbia Legal Services: Columbia Legal Services (CLS) is a specialized, privately funded statewide legal aid program that provides a full range of legal aid services to highly vulnerable, hard-to-serve, special-needs populations that face unique barriers to our justice system. Effective July 1, 2004, CLS will become a much smaller, specialized statewide provider that will focus its resources on meeting the needs of low-income populations requiring legal assistance in areas that other legal aid providers are unable to address.

Columbia Legal Services and NJP's CLEAR Secure Life-Saving Medical Care

Isabel Ramirez's* only hope was legal aid. Ramirez, a migrant farm laborer in Eastern Washington, has Leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant. Without it, she would die within six months. According to the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), she was ineligible for the transplant because she is an undocumented immigrant. The transplant procedure is not covered under the medical assistance program for indigent recent immigrants. In early April, the 38-year-old mother of three faced almost certain death when her life-saving medical treatment was cancelled at the last minute. Frightened and losing hope, Ramirez contacted the Northwest Justice Project and was referred through Coordinated Legal Education Advice and Referral (CLEAR) to Columbia Legal Services in Wenatchee. When her attorneys learned that Ramirez is a victim of domestic violence and an applicant for permanent residence under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), a new door opened for their client. As a VAWA applicant, Ramirez is protected by a legal provision allowing her to permanently reside in the United States under color of law (PRUCOL). Under PRUCOL, she is eligible for the General Assistance Medical program, which covers bone marrow transplants. Thanks to the expertise of her legal team, DSHS approved Ramirez's transplant on April 14th. In late-May, her sister flew from Mexico to donate bone marrow and the transplant took place at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center. “This case illustrates how immigrant clients may be denied essential benefits to which they are entitled, even when their very lives are at stake,” says Ty Duhamel, attorney at Columbia Legal Services in Wenatchee. “It also illustrates the value of teamwork and integrated legal aid services. Because of this, our client has a second chance for life.” Clients like Isabel Ramirez have nowhere else to turn. Legal assistance to the farmworker community and beyond is made possible by gifts like yours to LAW Fund. Contributions to LAW Fund and The Campaign for Equal Justice and LAW Fund's solitary designated fund, the Laurel Rubin Farmworker Justice Internship Fund, which annually sponsors a ten week law school student summer internship providing farmworker outreach, can be made by clicking on “Donate Now!” * Out of respect for client privacy, Isabel Ramirez is a pseudonym.

Learn more about Columbia Legal Services at www.columbialegal.org 

Specialty Legal Aid Providers

The Alliance for Equal Justice also includes a number of specialty legal aid providers including the Unemployment Law Project, Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, domestic violence advocacy programs, Freemont Public Association Family Assistance Program and others. These specialty providers enhance the service capabilities of the Alliance by providing quality representation to specific low-income populations or representation for specific types of legal problems that low-income people face.

For more information, please contact: