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Lower funds reason for legal service cutbacks |
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Thursday, 20 August 2009 |
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Dustin Barnes/Daily Times Leader
Nannie Bennett (left) speaks about the history of the North Mississippi Rural Legal Services and its impact on the northern part of the state. Bennett spoke at a meeting in West Point on Monday night that addressed concerns that the legal services proposed cutbacks would hurt the area's poor to obtain legal representation.
Nebra Porter (also pictured) works in the West Point office of NMRLS and serves as the president of the union for legal service workers. Porter also spoke about the suggested changes that she said would limit the help legal services could offer the poor.
By Dustin Barnes
Daily Times Leader
Ben Cole, director of the North Mississippi Rural Legal Services, said the reason for legal services laying off staff members in all of its five offices located in Northern Mississippi were the result of significant budget cuts to the legal services yearly budget.
“For 2008-2009, we received $700,000 from IOLTA,” Cole said. “This year we received $80,000.”
The Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (IOLTA) Program was initially started by the Mississippi Supreme Court, Cole said. The Court also made participation in the program mandatory, as well.
According to the Mississippi Bar Foundation web site, IOLTA generates funds to help pay for costs, including providing legal aid to the poor which is the intent of NMRLS.
“Lawyers trust funds which are small in amount or held for a short period of time are now established in an interest-bearing accounts in participating financial institutions throughout the state,” the web site stated.
The interest accrued from these accounts is then sent to several agencies, including NMRLS, Cole said.
“When you're losing that kind of money, there has to be layoffs,” Cole said, pointing out that the difference between last fiscal year's IOLTA allocations and this year's total $620,000.
Cole said the huge difference between the two budgets means NMRLS would not be able to pay salaries for all of its workers.
The downturn in the economy and lower interest rates offered by banks are the main reasons cited by Cole for the diminished allocations.
“The money previously generated in those accounts is just not being generated now,” he stressed.
IOLTA funds totaling $3 million were distributed to various agencies in the state, from which $700,000 went to NMRLS.
“This year there is only $715,000 to distribute,” Cole said, adding that the total amount to give out to all agencies for this year is just slightly less than the legal services' allotment last year.
The proposed changes to NMRLS personnel would get rid of all the paralegals working in each of the five district offices. Additionally, one of the two lawyers on staff at each office has been ordered to conduct legal advice over the phones, while the remaining lawyer is expected to handle the litigation cases and travel to the various courts in each of the counties that particular office represents.
Nebra Porter, president of the legal services' union and one of the lawyers in the West Point NMRLS office, said management proposed laying off the paralegals who work in the five district offices across north Mississippi.
“The paralegals handle all of the administrative law,” Porter said, listing cases involving unemployment and social security cases as part of the paralegal duties.
Porter addressed this issue in front of citizens of West Point at a meeting on Monday night. The meeting was called to bring the proposed changes to the public and encourage supporters to take their protests to NMRLS administrators.
The West Point office, which serves as the headquarters for the district, employs seven workers, Porter said. The local office has two lawyers, two paralegals and three secretaries.
The West Point district currently covers nine counties: Clay, Carroll, Montgomery, Attala, Winston, Choctaw, Webster, Oktibbeha and Lowndes.
The other four district offices are located in Oxford, Greenville, Tupelo and Clarksdale. NMRLS covers 39 counties in the northern part of the state. The offices headquarters are located in Oxford, the town where the legal services were first created during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 14 September 2009 )
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