Constitutional Law

Legal Aid for the Middle-Class

Mass middle-class casualties of the recession are increasingly reaching out to programs offering legal assistance on the cheap.

Online support, legal self-help services and community lawyers offering group rates are helping those stuck between qualifying for Legal Aid and being affluent enough for personal attorneys. An estimated 60 percent of Americans fall into this category, according to the Los Angeles Times, which reports that, 'Fortunately for the [less wealthy], the access-to-justice movement has advanced in recent years from Skid Row to Main Street.'

'Most of the middle class is a paycheck away from going into the lower class. Nothing has highlighted that more than the current foreclosure crisis,' said Luz Herrera, president of the Compton-based start-up Community Lawyers, Inc.

The American Bar Association is spearheading efforts to provide just enough legal assistance to do-it-yourself-ers who may otherwise slow down judicial operations with improperly filed or prepared paperwork.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on March 10, 2009 (boomark / email).