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Brennan Center: Federal Appeals Court Orders Reconsideration Of Constitutionality Of Restriction On Funding For Lawyers For The Poor

FEDERAL APPEALS COURT ORDERS RECONSIDERATION OF CONSTITUTIONALITY OF RESTRICTION ON FUNDING FOR LAWYERS FOR THE POOR

Further Legal Proceedings Are Now Necessary to Determine Fate of Low-Income Clients Seeking Needed Legal Assistance

New York, NY – In a case concerning the constitutionality of a federal rule governing how civil legal services programs can spend their non-federal funds, a federal appeals court ruled Friday that a federal district court must reconsider the constitutionality of a rule that is depriving thousands of low-income people of access to lawyers in critical civil cases. Without weighing in on the constitutionality of the rule, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit lifted a preliminary injunction entered by the district court and ordered that court to apply a different legal standard to the rule.

The New York-area legal services programs that brought the case are considering their options. “We believe the district court was correct in its careful decision, and in its order protecting legal services lawyers from suffering undue burdens on their ability to use their non-government funding to help their clients,” says Burt Neuborne, Legal Director of the Brennan Center for Justice. “While the legal fight continues, it’s time for Congress to fix this law for once and for all.”

At issue in the case is the ability of legal services programs that receive some funding from the federal Legal Services Corporation (LSC) to use their non-federal dollars to finance critical services such as representing clients in class action lawsuits, claiming court-ordered attorneys’ fee awards, or providing assistance to certain categories of legal immigrants. Under the challenged rule, the only way for a legal services office to use its own money to bring the restricted cases is to establish a physically separate facility with separate personnel. A broad and diverse coalition of legal, civil rights, bar associations and faith-based groups – including the National Association of Evangelicals, AARP, the American Bar Association, and Prison Fellowship – has called on Congress to fix this wasteful and onerous “physical separation requirement.”

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Posted at 2:11 PM, Sep 24, 2006 in Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)