It's a sad day when Texas Supreme Court justices have to work the Legislature like common lobbyists.
But that's what it's taking to help fill the funding chasm for legal aid to poor Texans.A proposal that would have generated about $20 million for civil legal services through increased fees and fines died amid the Legislature's end-of-session confusion and stubborn resistance to tools for generating more revenue.Now, advocates are trying to persuade lawmakers that a legal aid funding mechanism should be among their special-session accomplishments.Those advocates include Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson and Justice Nathan Hecht, veterans on the all-Republican court.Jefferson and Hecht wrote to Senate Finance Committee member Royce West, D-Dallas, that "some 25,000 struggling Texans" wouldn't have access to basic civil legal services without legislative action."Conservative principles do not call for the rule of law to be denied the most vulnerable members of our community," they wrote.The multiprong legal aid system has been drained the past two years, and income is expected to continue dropping. Hecht said in a telephone interview that failure to find other revenue wouldn't just slash assistance available to indigent Texans but also dismantle the delivery system that connects clients with essential services from legal aid offices or with volunteer lawyers.A key source of legal aid funding is the interest from pooled trust accounts that lawyers hold for clients. Because of recession-driven low interest rates, that went from about $20 million in 2007 to $5.8 million last year and is expected to be only $4.4 million this year.Agencies such as Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas, which serves 114 counties, including Tarrant, also receive federal dollars through the Legal Services Corp. But Congress cut LSC 4 percent in the current budget -- and, Hecht said, it would have been far deeper if not for intervention from, among others, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican leader, and Rep. Lloyd Doggett, an Austin Democrat who's often a GOP nemesis.Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas also lost $350,000 in United Way funding, the Star-Telegram reported.At best, only about one-quarter of those in need get served, advocates say, and that's even with Texas lawyers paying annually into a legal-aid fund and collectively donating millions of hours in pro bono work.Qualification limits are strict: U.S. citizens or legal residents at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty level, currently $13,613 annually for an individual, $27,938 for a family of four.Cases might involve abused spouses seeking protective orders; tenants involved in housing disputes; or consumers faced with foreclosure, eviction or lawsuits by overly aggressive debt collectors.Bills to increase civil court filing fees by $10 and add a $5 fine for nonparking justice-of-the-peace and municipal-court convictions have been refiled in the special session by a bipartisan coalition: Sen. Jose Rodriguez, D-El Paso, and Reps. Jerry Madden of Plano, Will Hartnett of Dallas and Bryan Hughes of Mineola, all Republicans.Seventy percent of the money generated (an estimated $20 million over two years) would go toward civil legal services, 30 percent toward indigent criminal defense and $1 million toward the system for filing court documents online.On Thursday, the Senate Finance Committee discussed the proposal, which already received scrutiny during the regular session.Increasing user fees is a hard sell with lawmakers who've closed their minds to new revenue streams, even sensible ones that would pay for worthy services. But just saying, "Too bad, so sad, not going to do it," isn't a conservative principle; it's a detriment to good government service.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
