History of Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network
The Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network, Inc. and its affiliate programs have been providing vital civil legal services to low income Pennsylvanians since 1973, when state funding for legal services first began. During this time, the names of programs, including our own name, have changed or been added, but the core services have remained the same.
When Governor Milton J. Shapp and the General Assembly first decided to fund civil legal services, they decided to do so through funding to the Department of Public Welfare, but they also agreed that there should be an intermediary umbrella organization that would be responsible for the accountability for the funding, by its contracting with the Department and with the subgrantee programs actually providing services. This brought about the creation of the Pennsylvania Legal Services Center in 1973.
Funding for legal services in the first fiscal year totaled $3,479,423. By the next year, FY 1974-75, funding had increased to $12,756,397, through a combination of state and federal funding allocated by the state. In the following year, it leveled back down to $10,400,000 and by fiscal year 2008-09, it was $8,221,000.Over the years, state appropriated funding has fluctuated somewhat, but generally, it has held to about the same amount, with funding in FY 2008-09 about equal to the level of funding in FY 1981-82.
Part of the reason for the vacillation of funding levels in the early years was that the statewide legal aid system was still starting up, and some programs were still being formed. In fact initially, some of these programs even provided representation in minor criminal cases. But they have not done so since the early 1970s.
In the formation stages, many of the legal services programs were single county programs, or at most, they covered several counties. Over the years, some of these programs began to merge into larger programs, creating more efficient administration and allowing for greater specialization of the staff of these programs in various areas of poverty law.
By 1986, there were 19 separate programs providing direct legal services to residents of Pennsylvania, not including the specialized statewide programs, such as Regional Housing Legal Services or the Pennsylvania Health Law Project. Today, there are 8 programs providing these services. There are also 6 specialized programs.
Initially, the Pennsylvania Legal Services Center (PLSC) provided not only the administrative oversight and accountability for funds and services, but “The Center” also housed some staff who actively participated in legislative and administrative advocacy and even in some direct cases.During the nineteen-eighties, under some political pressure, The Center consolidated its operations, withdrawing from various forms of direct client advocacy.
Since then, the core functions have been the administrative accountability for funding, including monitoring and other contract compliance activities with the programs; providing of regular, generally annual statewide training conferences; providing legal resource materials for legal services staff; administration of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Internship and Fellowship Programs; housing and maintenance of the PALawHELP.org and PAProbono.net websites; and the provision of other helpful resources to the programs.
