Funding Cuts Mean Layoffs for Legal Aid That Can Little Spare Staff

Funding cuts may lead to layoffs at North Mississippi Rural Legal Services, even though the recession has more people seeking low-cost legal aid. MPB’s Cari Gervin has more.

Last year the Mississippi Bar had $2.5 million to spend on grants to legal aid, but this year, the economy’s impact on the legal community dropped that number dramatically.

And that’s how North Mississippi Rural Legal Services went from $700,000 in grant funding last year to just $80,000 this year.

“So unquestionably we’re going to have to lay off staff because we don’t have the money to pay people.”

That’s Executive Director Ben Cole. He says that even when the economy was good, the agency turned away one out of two eligible clients. That rate has only gone up since the recession started.

Cole says after the layoffs, the agency might not be able to help the same number of low-income Mississippians they served last year – almost 8,000 people in some of the poorest counties in the state.

“This is sort of another chapter of a longer book of inadequate funding for legal services for the poor.”

Larry Houchins is the executive director of the Mississippi Bar. He hates that the money isn’t there for the legal aid, but he says legal services in Mississippi are still in a better place compared to just five years ago.

“There are a lot that are a lot better off, funding-wise, and if we weather this recession, you know, we fully expect the amount of funds available to go back up.”

The board of North Mississippi Rural Legal Services meets Saturday morning to make the final decision on job cuts. The state’s other legal services agency, the Mississippi Center for Legal Services, also lost funding from the Bar but has no plans to lay off any staff.

For MPB News, I’m Cari Gervin in Oxford.