Legal aid spending soars in California, despite Trump

A small group of California legislators has for years fought to maintain and expand legal aid funding in California, even as it was squeezed by years of tight state budgets and, more recently, by a hostile administration in Washington D.C.

These efforts appear to have paid off -- with help from some key Republicans in Congress. A new report from the federal government's Legal Services Corporation showed federal funding for legal aid grew 6% last year. California was the top destination for this money.

Meanwhile, the state has been expanding its own legal aid efforts. The latest move on that front came Friday when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 558, a bill calling on the State Bar to expand legal aid to military service members.

The bill, which received unanimous bipartisan support, builds on AB 360, a 2017 law that created the Bar's legal aid program for veterans. According to a legislative analysis, nearly two-thirds of the state's more than 150,000 active duty military service members serve in the lowest-paid rungs of the military.

"We owe these heroes and their families, who are making the greatest sacrifices for our country, access to legal services without worry of the cost," the bill's author, Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Laguna Beach, said in a news release.

The annual report from the federal Legal Services Corporation (LSC) paints a very different picture than many in the legal aid community expected just a couple of years ago. Congress appropriated $410 million for the agency in 2018.

Of this, $45.6 million was distributed to legal aid entities in California as Basic Field Grants. Not only was the Golden State the top recipient of funds in the nation, it also saw the second biggest dollar increase in funding after New York. This $10.3 million boost represented an 8.9% increase though 17 states and territories saw bigger percentage increases.

In his proposed 2017 budget, President Donald Trump sought to eliminate all funding to LSC. But this bid failed in the Republican-dominated Congress. A bipartisan group of lawmakers -- with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, serving as a key leader -- fought back with letters to their colleagues and other efforts. Texas is the second largest recipient of LSC funding, according to the report.

"Legal services funding is definitely a bipartisan issue," said Salena G. Copeland, executive director of the Legal Aid Association of California.

A Texas native, Copeland noted the state's chief justice, Republican Nathan L. Hecht, received an award from the National Legal Aid & Defender Association last year for his strong advocacy for legal services for low-income people.

The current funding situation is quite different than when Copeland joined her organization 10 years ago. The California state budget was in crisis, but Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger still signed SB 590, a bill designed to shore up legal aid programs in the state and crack down on the use of the term by for-profit attorneys. The state's founding legal aid law, the Sargent Shriver Civil Counsel Act, is named for the late attorney and father of Schwarzenegger's then-wife, Maria Shriver.

Copeland said Trump's attempt to zero out the LSC had the paradoxical effect of increasing legal aid funding in California. A group of state lawmakers, led in part by a pair of lawyers in the Senate -- Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, and Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont -- rallied around the cause.

"If he had just said he was going to cut it a much smaller [amount], I don't think we would see this huge support," Copeland said. "The severe threat brought everybody out."

California is set to receive $43.5 million in LSC funding in 2019, under a spending plan the agency approved December. In May, the now-Democrat led House Appropriations Committee approved a bill that would increase nationwide LSC funding by $135 million, to $550 million, next year.

State funding for Shriver Act aid is set to grow from $11 million to nearly $19 million under AB 330, which Newsom signed earlier this month. The bill raises some court fees and also calls for the Judicial Council to fund pilot programs to provide low-income people in child custody cases. Its author is Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, an attorney with extensive pro bono experience.

Copeland said there is now growing attention to other issues that limit the pool of legal aid attorneys in California. These include cost-of-living and student debt, both of which have a disproportionate impact on young attorneys of color.

"There's a huge crisis in recruiting legal aid attorneys in California because the housing costs are so high," Copeland said. "It really difficult to afford to live on a legal aid salary."