Executive Director, Bruce Iwasaki

The Path to Equal Justice

December 6, 2002

We at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles know too well that we cannot meet all the legal needs of the poor in our community. We establish priorities to deal with the most urgent matters, we operate clinics and client education sessions to increase efficiency and prevent legal problems from arising, we work together with other public interest firms and the private bar. Yet these efforts to stretch our resources are not enough: significantly greater resources are required.

An important new report both documents this need and urges that California do more to increase funding for legal aid. The report finds that nearly one and a half million poor families in California do not have access to justice when their rights to employment, housing, health care or other basic human needs are denied. Prepared by the California Commission on Access to Justice, he Path to Equal Justice: A Five-Year Status Report on Access to Justice also found that only one lawyer is available for every 10,000 poor Californians, leaving the state lagging far behind comparable states when it comes to providing access to justice for poor people. As a result, only 28 percent of the civil legal needs of the state's low-income residents are being met.

I was privileged to be part of the committee that drafted The Path to Equal Justice. In 1997, the governor, attorney general and legislature joined forces with the judiciary and State Bar as well as business, labor and community groups to create the Access to Justice Commission. (The Commission was established on the recommendation of another study, the seminal And Justice For All, published in 1997. Before returning to LAFLA, while in private practice, I served on the working group for that earlier report.) Both that study and the establishment of a broad-based commission, led to creation of the state's Equal Access Fund, which has allocated $10 million annually to the one hundred legal services programs in California since 1999. The Equal Access Fund has increased funding for civil legal services for the poor and chipped away at the gap between need and services. However, the new report finds that the state would need to triple its combined public and private investment in legal services to close the gap.

The current government investment still amounts to only $13.20 worth of legal services for each of California's poorest people. States like Minnesota and New Jersey spend three times that amount per poor person, Connecticut and Massachusetts more than twice as much, and countries including England, Canada, Australia, Scotland, New Zealand and Hong Kong spend anywhere from two to 14 times more proportionally than California, despite the fact that California is the 6th largest economy in the world.

Despite the gloomy portrait it paints of California's poor, the report outlines some gains in the past five years:

The Equal Access Fund has provided $40 million for legal services programs, placing California among the 40 state governments which fund legal aid; self-help centers have been created in every county; and a more cost-effective system of delivering legal services through cutting-edge computer and internet technology and other strategies has been developed.

The interim five-year goal of the Access to Justice Commission is to fill at least 50 percent of the legal needs of the poor.

The report highlights challenges facing California's lower-income families:

6.4 million Californians live in poverty, including nearly one in 5 children.

During the decade of the '90s, the number of people in poverty jumped 30 percent. The economic boom of the 1990s did little to help the state's poorest residents. In fact, the gap between rich and poor has only worsened.

Two-thirds of families living in poverty have a worker employed at least part-time.

The report also notes how the increase in poverty nationally during the 1990s was disproportionately centered in California:

Increase in number of people in poverty in the U.S.: 1,955,826

Increase in number of people in poverty in California: 1,078,545

Percentage of total poverty increase in the entire country from 1990 to 2000 that occurred solely in California: 55 percent

Most importantly, the report specifies next steps to achieve equal justice in California:

The Equal Access Fund must be dramatically enhanced. California still lags behind many industrial states and foreign democracies in state government funding of equal justice for the poor. Less than 30 percent of the legal needs of California's poor are being met. Public and private sector leaders must be actively involved to ensure adequate government funding for legal services.

Financial and Pro Bono Contributions from attorneys must increase. While achieving accessible justice is a societal responsibility, and the goal of increasing state funding reflects that assumption, the legal profession must also fulfill its responsibility for playing a lead role in the effort to improve the justice system.

Assistance for unrepresented litigants must continue to be expanded and access to lawyers must be available when necessary to ensure equal justice.

Litigants with limited English proficiency must receive assistance in order to fully understand and participate in the judicial process.

A statewide plan must be implemented to guarantee people throughout the state -- in rural areas as well as cities -- equal access to justice.

Innovative programs for delivering lower-cost legal services to moderate-income residents must be developed.

This report is part of a broader campaign to raise public awareness about equal justice activities and increase funding for our work. LAFLA's leadership in the statewide community of advocates for equal justice is demonstrated by its representation on the select committee that issued this report. I am confident that we will prove the value of our work to the public and the legislature by publicizing our many stories of how we transform lives. We are improving our ability to generate client stories about positive outcomes. Our next challenge will be to use those stories to secure more resources for our work.

BGI