Legal Aid Society Braces for Cuts in Federal Funds : Services: ‘We have no reason to be optimistic,’ says chief of local agency that gives free help to needy. Support is on GOP hit list.

The Legal Aid Society of Orange County--the free legal service for the poor, the elderly, the homeless and the hapless--is bracing for federal budget cuts that threaten to dramatically shrink the agency.

“We have no reason to be optimistic,” Robert J. Cohen, the society’s executive director, told employees during a recent meeting. “We do know for sure we will be smaller, and we may become nonexistent.”

Long viewed by critics as a too-liberal champion of the underclass, the Legal Services Corp. wound up on a Republican hit list in Congress. A proposal is advancing to drastically reduce government funding of the $415-million-a-year, federally funded agency that, in turn, funds free civil legal services for needy people across the country.

“Too often, lawyers funded through LSC grants have focused on political causes and class-action lawsuits rather than helping poor Americans solve their legal problems,” according to an explanation by the House Budget Committee issued as part of its proposal to reduce federal support.

In Orange County, legal aid officials last week offered severance to staff attorneys and employees who wanted to resign and avoid potential layoffs. And attorneys are working this week to find ways to reduce caseloads, primarily consisting of clients with family, housing, government benefits and consumer law problems.

The Legal Aid Society of Orange County--which also serves 15 cities in southeastern Los Angeles County--receives $3.4 million a year from the Legal Services Corp., more than 75% of its $4.3-million budget. The balance comes from grants from the State Bar of California and local agencies. The local program includes 17 staff attorneys.

Critics question why the federal government, instead of local officials or the private bar, should pay for legal help for the indigent; some have accused legal aid programs in some areas of blocking welfare reform.

Under the House Budget Committee plan, funding would be phased out over the next five years to help pay for tax cuts, according to Cathy Dreyfuss with Californians for Legal Aid, a privately funded lobbying group.

The budget planners maintain that the loss of federal funding would not eliminate free legal aid for the poor because state and local governments and agencies already provide substantial assistance.

But local legal aid officials say it is unrealistic to expect private groups to replace federal funding, especially in a county reeling from bankruptcy-related cuts to social services. And they defend the occasional lawsuits against government agencies that some legislators would bar, saying they play an important role in a democratic system of checks and balances.

“We can’t afford a community where the O.J. Simpsons have a dream team and a large segment of the population have nothing,” said Mary Pat Toups, a volunteer attorney with the legal aid society’s senior citizens program.

Perhaps best known locally for its work for the homeless, the Legal Aid Society handled more than 9,200 cases in the county last year. Almost 70% of the Orange County residents who sought help were women.

In all, legal aid officials estimate there are 259,700 people in Orange County whose incomes are lower than 125% of the poverty level and eligible for its services. Even now, officials say those services are limited, with one legal aid attorney for every 26,000 or so poor people.

In addition to the Legal Aid Society, officials say, the Public Law Center coordinates free legal services for the poor in the county, relying on private attorneys who are willing to donate their time. The center handled about 1,000 cases last year, and received about a quarter of its $450,000 budget from the Legal Aid Society, which referred more than 500 clients.

Scott Wylie, the executive director of the center, said there’s no way his organization could operate at its current level without Legal Aid’s support.

Local court officials worry, too, that deep cuts in legal aid will force more people to represent themselves in complicated court proceedings, often to their detriment and at the cost of slowing the system.

Superior Court Judge John C. Woolley, who handles family law cases, said legal aid programs are crucial in that they help people fill out forms and other documents properly and prevent baseless claims from ever reaching the courtroom.

“They spend a great deal of the time advising people, counseling them and explaining to them alternate relief other than filing a lawsuit,” Woolley said. “We may lose all of that.”

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Trickle- Down Crunch The Legal Aid Society of Orange County will reduce its free services to the poor and elderly if Congress slashes the budget of its federally funded parent agency, the Legal Services Corp. Last year, almost two- thirds of the 8,578 clients came from just six cities. A look at the society’s work in Orange County in 1994: *

Caseload by Cities Santa Ana: 27% Anaheim: 13% Huntington Beach: 9% Garden Grove: 6% Costa Mesa: 5% Orange: 5% *

Age 18-59: 69% 60 and older: 31% *

Ethnicity White: 64% Native Americans: 1% Black: 5% Asian: 5% Latino: 25% *

Case Types Family law: 34% Housing: 24% Income maintenance: 13% Consumer: 12% Health: 4% Miscellaneous: 13% Source: Legal Aid Society of Orange County