901LegalConnect
The Connection for Such A Time as This By ASHLEY JEFFERSON
“Members of our community who need civil legal assistance often have no idea where to start.” - Cindy Ettingoff, CEO of Memphis Area Legal Services
“901 LegalConnect reflects our efforts to further access to legal services in this digital age.” -Anne Mathes, Executive Director of Community Legal Center
Taken together, these statements reflect the intersection of the long-standing barriers that the poor and working poor face while trying to obtain legal assistance and how technology can be used to mitigate some of those barriers for underserved Memphis residents.
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n 2019, Twenty-eight percent (28%) of Memphis residents were living below the federal poverty level. There is often a great need for legal assistance, but many individuals and families struggle to find legal help. As a matter of fact, the 2017 Justice Gap Report, published by Legal Service Corporation, revealed that eighty-six percent (86%) of civil legal problems reported by low-income Americans received little or no legal help. When individuals cannot afford a lawyer, they often resort to self-help remedies and appear before the court to represent themselves as pro-se litigants. Indeed, courts understand that pro-se litigants are ill-equipped to navigate the judicial system, but the courts cannot treat pro-se litigants differently from represented parties. Pro-se litigants must comply with the same rules as those represented by an attorney; and unfortunately, when forced to comply with the rules, pro-se litigants often face harsh results. They leave the courthouse frustrated, believing that the justice system has let them down. More help is needed to ensure 18
that vulnerable, underserved populations have access to adequate representation in civil courts. However, many cities have only one legal service provider to offer free or low-cost legal assistance. Fortunately, Memphis has two legal service providers to assist residents who cannot afford an attorney. Memphis Area Legal Services (MALS) and Community Legal Center (CLC) are the two primary legal service providers that provide free to low-cost legal assistance to the city’s poorest of the poor and the working poor. However, even with these free to lowcost legal resources, MALS and CLC cannot always accommodate the growing need for legal assistance among the city’s poor and working poor. Together, MALS and CLC received over 18,000 calls for legal assistance in fiscal year 2018, but they were only able to assist approximately 6,000 applicants who requested help. At the same time, many of the calls for assistance came from individuals who had issues outside their scope of service or failed to meet the
