Nearly three dozen agencies currently receiving grant monies from Maryland Legal Services Corp. were told to submit grant requests in the coming weeks that were 5 percent less than current amounts because the organization, per the executive director Susan M. Ehrlichman, is up against major funding shortfalls, per the February 6th baltimoresun.com article, “Legal services programs for poor facing cuts”. And it might get worse next year.
Two primary sources of funding for the nonprofit are the surcharges on court filing fees for civil cases, and the interest that is paid on short-term bank accounts for attorneys' clients. Both sources of funding have suffered as a result of a sluggish economy.
Per Ehrlichman, the fees are nearly $1 million less than the roughly $6 million in projected income they'd expected. As such, Maryland Legal Services Corp. will be forced to use reserves to try to make up the difference. And while the finances continue to diminish, the demand for legal services is rising, in the areas of foreclosure, unemployment issues and other civil matters.
Maryland Legal Aid Bureau provides the majority of legal services to the poor across the state. Their number of new cases has almost doubled in the last five years – and expects to lose roughly half a million dollars from MLSC, in addition to the over half million it lost in federal funding this year.
Maryland Disability Law Center has a budget of $3 million and receives a $700,000 grant from MLSC – its largest source of funding. Executive director Virginia Knowlton said, per the article, says that the 5 percent cut equates to about half of an employee's salary.
In 1982, the Maryland Legal Services Corporation (MLSC) was established by the Maryland General Assembly in order to raise funds and make grants to nonprofit organizations so as to provide civil legal assistance to low-income persons in Maryland, per MLSC's website.
