A report citing the number of legal aid attorneys in the United States, by Fordham Law’s National Center for Access to Justice, was quoted in The Washington Post.
The math is unforgiving. In 2017, impoverished Americans ineligible for court-appointed lawyers under state law were expected to seek help for roughly 1.7 million civil legal problems at one of hundreds of offices supported by Legal Services Corp., a congressionally funded nonprofit. More than half got limited or no help. Little wonder: Just 1 percent of the nation’s lawyers work for a legal aid or public defender’s office. While there are 40 lawyers for every 10,000 Americans, there is less than one legal aid attorney for every 10,000 people living at or below the poverty line, according to a report by Fordham Law School’s National Center for Access to Justice.