COUNTYWIDE : Working-Class Poor Denied Legal Aid

Thousands of Orange County’s working-class poor are being denied legal services for divorces, landlord-tenant grievances and bad credit problems because they earn slightly more than the federal poverty level, according to a UC Irvine researcher.

Jim Meeker, an associate professor of social ecology at UC Irvine, conducted the $13,000 study for Legal Aid of Orange County. Meeker said he found that working-class poor who do not qualify for Legal Aid are referred to private attorneys whose hourly fees are too high for the poor to pay.

“No one had studied this problem before,” said Bob Cohen, Legal Aid executive director. “It was surprising and disappointing to us that the state Bar (Assn.) had no way of knowing who could not access the legal system. They could not track anyone needing assistance.”

By law, Legal Aid is prevented from offering its free legal services to clients whose incomes are higher than 125% of the poverty guidelines. For a family of four, that amounts to $15,125 plus 25%, or about $18,900, as defined by the federal Office of Management and Budget, Cohen said.

Despite Legal Aid’s annual $3.7-million budget, which helped provide legal services for more than 15,000 clients last year, Cohen said that using the 125% mandated guideline is arbitrary.

“It’s evident that a lot of people who need legal services are not able to get them,” Cohen said. “Some rethinking has to be done through legal services to provide help to low- and middle-class families.”

Linda Gunderson, Legal Aid board president, said clients and attorneys have suggested several options for improving the situation, including mandatory pro bono work for lawyers, increasing the amount of Legal Aid funding, establishing prepaid legal insurance and offering federally insured loans for legal expenses.

Of the clients surveyed who supported prepaid legal insurance, 60% said they would pay $10 or less per month, 26% would pay $25 per month and 15% would pay $50 or more per month, the study said.

“One of the most important results was that the clients who got a private lawyer thought that they felt they got a fair result,” Gunderson said. “Those who were referred to an attorney but did not get a lawyer did not feel that they got a fair result.”