All Featured Highlights
- Jul 01, 2009 | Alan W. Houseman Civil Legal Assistance in the United States: An Update for 2009 While there is new hope for increased federal funding and a renewed interest in civil legal aid at the federal level, civil legal aid is facing reductions in funding from state sources which, until 2009, had been expanding and had overtaken LSC as the largest source of civil legal aid funding. Download PDF
- Oct 16, 2008 | Alan Houseman & the CLASP Staff CLASP Federal Policy Recommendations for 2009 and Beyond CLASP has developed an extensive federal policy agenda for the next President and Congress directed at improving the lives of low income people. The detailed agenda makes recommendations for changes in policy at all levels of the federal government: the White House, Federal departments and agencies, the budget and appropriations' process, and the law-making process in Congress. This publication provides an overview of our agenda organized into eleven key recommendations. Taken as a whole, the eleven recommendations call for increasing investments in effective programs and funding streams that concretely help children, youth, and families thrive; strengthening and modernizing the nation's safety net; and building supportive pathways for low-income youths and adults to good jobs that sustain families and communities. Download PDF
- Sep 01, 2003 | Alan Houseman & Linda Perle Civil Legal Aid: An Overview of the Program and Developments This paper provides an overview of the current U.S. civil legal aid system; a brief history of legal aid in the United States; the future of the legal aid system, including the evolution of state justice communities, the increased use of the Internet and hotlines in service delivery, and pro se developments; future funding sources; efforts to improve service quality; and other developments affecting civil legal aid. Download PDF
- Jan 01, 2007 | Alan Houseman & Linda Perle Securing Equal Justice for All: A Brief History of Civil Legal Assistance in the U.S. This document chronicles civil legal assistance for the low-income community in the United States from its privately funded beginnings, through its achievement of federal funding, to its expansion and growth into a national program operating throughout the United States. It also describes some of the political battles that have been fought around the legal services program and the restrictions that have come with government funding. It concludes with some brief thoughts about the future. Download PDF