Legal Aid: Poor Need Dream Team Too

* Re Orange County Legal Aid Society cutbacks:

I commend you on your recent article concerning cutbacks to Orange County Legal Aid.

President Nixon created the Legal Services Corp., which provides the main budget for our local Legal Aid Society, so the poor could resolve legal problems in the courts rather than go without help or resolve them on the streets. The entire program, nationwide, costs only $414 million per year--less than half the cost of a single Stealth bomber.

What impact will this have in Orange County?

Legal Aid resolves a majority of its cases outside of court. This aspect of Legal Aid alone saves taxpayers bundles. The private bar, which already provides impressive volunteer help, cannot single-handedly address the needs of 8,000 poor people in this county who face critical survival issues such as total disability, domestic violence, child support, elder abuse, fraud and substandard housing.

Moreover, I know that without Legal Aid, poor women will suffer terribly, as 70% of all Orange County residents served by the Legal Aid Society are female and the majority of its services either directly or indirectly benefit children or their care-givers.

Funding the Legal Services Corp. in its entirety is the best and most equitable way to deal with the legal needs of the disadvantaged and disabled of Orange County.

The poor deserve a dream team too.

TINA L. LAINE

Chairperson

Social Security Disability Section

Orange County Bar Assn.