New legal aid office can help bring justice for all
Thursday, November 29, 2007 9:25 AM PST
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E-mail this articleSeattle University School of Law professor and former U.S. attorney John McKay visited here Wednesday to help the Northwest Justice Project, the state's legal aid program, mark the opening of its new Longview office. McKay is something of a celebrity in the legal circles. He's among the eight U.S. attorneys nationwide whose forced resignations a year ago sparked congressional probes that ultimately led to the departure of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and several top Justice Department officials.
McKay's part in that political upheaval, though it won him the Washington State Bar Association's 2007 Courageous Award, had less to do with his appearance at Wednesday's open house than his career-long commitment to the principle for equal justice for all. McKay served as president of the Legal Services Corporation, the federal partner of Washington's Northwest Justice Project, from 1997 to 2001. Earlier, he served as state chairman of the Equal Justice Coalition, a bipartisan group organized to promote legal aid in civil matters for low-income citizens and protect Legal Services Corporation funding.
Advocates such as McKay have been critical to the survival of civil legal aid programs here and around the nation. State and federal support of legal services for the poor has been uneven, at best, over the past couple of decades. A shrinking federal appropriation caused Evergreen Legal Services in Longview to close its doors in 1996. Local attorneys -- most notably, Barbara Vining -- continued to offer civil legal assistance through a volunteer legal aid office.
The new NJP office in Longview is one of three opening this year as a result of a $5.27 million increase in state funding for civil legal aid this past legislative session. The other two new offices are in Aberdeen and Port Angeles.
The need for these new facilities has been well-documented. A 2003 study by a Washington Supreme Court task force found that more than three-quarters of low-income households in the state experience at least one serious legal problem each year, but less than 15 percent of these households get the legal help they need to navigate the civil justice system.
This is no small matter for poor families struggling to cope with domestic abuse, debt, unsympathetic landlords or government red tape. Without legal assistance, they're often on a fast track to bankruptcy, homelessness or hunger.
The plight of those citizens who are effectively denied equal access to civil courts should concern everyone in this community and state. We all have a stake in upholding that lofty ideal expressed in the preamble to the U.S. Constitution -- "equal justice for all." Legal services for the poor give that notion substance and, in the process, strengthen our system of justice.
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