News: Legal Services

Mass Pro Bono, an online resource for legal professionals who want to give their time to meet the legal needs of people with low incomes in Massachusetts, has been updated with a variety of opportunities just in time for Pro Bono Week. On Mass Pro Bono (www.massprobono.org), volunteers can search among more than 50 organizations across the Commonwealth to find a pro bono opportunity that suits their skills, interests, and availability.  Individuals can also find a calendar of trainings and other pro bono related events, as well as a resource library focusing on key legal areas of need. Mass Pro Bono is managed by the Massachusetts Legal Aid Websites Project at the Mass Law Reform Institute. 

On May 10, 2022, the Senate Committee on Ways and Means released its budget proposal for fiscal year 2023 (FY 23), which is referred to as Senate 4.  The Massachusetts Law Reform Institute prepared this analysis of selected budget topics impacting low-income residents of the Commonwealth:

• Cash Assistance, SNAP and Related Items Administered by DTA
• Child Welfare: DCF and Related Items
• Criminal Justice Reform
• Health Issues in MassHealth and ConnectorCare
• Homeless Services
• Housing
• Legal Services/Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation

The Massachusetts Legal Resource Finder – www.MassLRF.org – is a crucial tool for connecting residents facing legal issues to low-cost or free legal services across the Commonwealth. The website provides Massachusetts residents with targeted referrals to legal services, nonprofits, courts and self–help materials. All referrals are based on the person’s specific location, income and type of legal problem.

Over 6,000 low-income Massachusetts residents have been helped

This month marks five years since the launch of Mass Legal Answers Online (MLAO), a virtual legal advice clinic that enables low-income Massachusetts residents to obtain free legal advice from volunteer attorneys. Since MLAO’s launch in November 2016, 485 attorneys from across the Commonwealth have signed up to answer more than 6,600 questions on civil legal topics such as housing, family, consumer debt, and employment. We here at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute administer MLAO, with the assistance of the Volunteer Lawyers Project of the Boston Bar Association.

The goal of MLAO is to expand access to justice by providing both clients and volunteers a platform to obtain and give free legal advice at a time and place of their choosing. Particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic when many in-person opportunities for help were unavailable, MLAO has provided a unique, vital resource for thousands of low-income individuals.

At the end of May, the Biden/Harris administration released its budget for FY22. Continuing the theme that emerged with the American Rescue Plan that President Biden signed in March and the American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan legislation he introduced in April, the new budget highlights the ways that the new administration is working to ease the burden of poverty on some of the country’s most vulnerable communities.

It’s a significant change in tone, not only from the administration immediately prior to this one but to several previous presidential administrations. It’s been decades since a U.S. President has focused on strengthening our nation’s social safety net, rather than weakening it thread by thread. And for those of us who have been on the front lines of advocating for laws and policies that help people living in poverty, rather than hurting them, it’s refreshing.

We thought we’d focus on one aspect of the President’s budget because it symbolizes this important sea change: its support of legal services and civil legal aid.