A Call for Legal Services Funding

National Law Journal reports, "50 state bar presidents call for increase in legal aid funding."

The presidents of the 50 state bar associations are asking congressional leaders to increase legal aid funding for low-income Americans next year by 14%, partly because the housing crisis has pushed up demand for such services.

The presidents, in a letter to the House and Senate subcommittees that oversee funding for the Legal Services Corp., the federal agency tasked with distributing federal legal aid money to the states, asked the subcommittees to appropriate $400 million for fiscal year 2009, up from $350 million ultimately spent for fiscal year 2008. They argue in the letters that funding has dropped off since the mid 1990s not only because of lower appropriations, but also because of inflation.