State cut $1 million in Legal Aid funding

[flashl]

Services for poor will be reduced

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Kentucky's legal aid system has been cut $1 million a year in the final version of the budget -- dealing a further blow to legal services for the poor in Kentucky, advocates said.

The cut means Legal Aid, which provides emergency civil legal help to the poor, will be forced to make staff cuts -- although details aren't final, said Jamie Odle, who represents the state's regional Legal Aid offices.

"It's going to be ugly," Odle said. "The decisions in Frankfort affect the lives of people and they affect our justice system."

Cutbacks at Legal Aid come as the state Department of Public Advocacy, which provides public defenders to poor people charged with crimes, plans to eliminate more than 50 jobs because of cuts in the budget approved April 2.

Ernie Lewis, head of the state public defender's office, said yesterday the overall effect of the cuts is devastating to the poor.

"This budget treats our most vulnerable citizens very shabbily," he said. "I think there's going to be considerable disruption in the court system."

Courier Journal

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1. Yet these same "vulnerable people" will be constantly told to "go to legal aid"

There is so much ignorance about how very little Legal Aid is actually able to do.

Somehow, I thought it was a right of citizenry in the US to be afforded equal legal protection.

HAH!

[Cresent City Kid]

2. I'd sue the bastards if I could get a lawyer.