17-04-2025
Too many Mainers are going through 'life-changing' civil cases without attorneys, legal aid providers say
Apr. 17—AUGUSTA — When Anne Segalini left an abusive ex-husband, it was a legal aid lawyer who helped level the playing field.
Her ex had the money to repeatedly delay their court case and weaponize the legal system against her, Segalini said, but legal aid helped her establish "legal boundaries" for herself and her children through protection orders.
"Their support was not only transformative, but also lifesaving during a time when I was fighting for our freedom in the face of relentless physical, emotional, legal, financial and mental torment," she said.
Segalini is one of thousands of Mainers each year who get free legal help for urgent civil matters — not only those involving domestic violence, which can include divorce proceedings and filing for protection orders, but also access to housing and education, disputes over health benefits and labor contracts and discrimination.
Yet there are far more people who aren't able to get aid because there aren't enough attorneys to help them. And without emergency funding, advocates say, there's about to be a lot fewer available.
Segalini was at a press conference in the State House Thursday, standing with two dozen providers to raise support for an emergency bill that would drastically increase funding for Maine's civil legal services network by $15.9 million over the next two years.
"Their work is vital in helping survivors break free from abuse," Segalini told reporters. "I hope that this commitment can expand to anybody who's going through something like that."
They are up against some competition in the upcoming biennial budget as the state is already trying to address multiple other court crises.
A judge is planning to begin releasing people from jail who have been denied their constitutional right to a lawyer for more than two weeks. The judicial branch, meanwhile, is urging the state to fund several courthouse repairs and technological upgrades that the chief justice said the state can't afford to delay.
Those who organize Maine's legal aid system say the civil aid system is in crisis, too.
"A lot of people don't know there's an equally unacceptable crisis occurring on the civil side of law that doesn't always receive the same attention," said Associate Supreme Judicial Court Justice Andrew Mead, who oversees a non-political coalition called the Justice Action Group. "These are people in dire circumstances, life-changing situations."
UNNERVED BY FEDERAL UNCERTAINTY
Legal aid funding is overseen by the judicial branch's Maine Civil Legal Services Fund and goes to seven approved providers.
Right now, Gov. Janet Mills has included $1.3 million each year under her proposed biennial budget, but that's $2 million less than what civil legal providers have now under a boost given to them two years ago that allowed them to hire more lawyers.
Prior efforts to increase the funding further, like an $11.7 million proposal in 2023, have failed.
Providers are also anxiously watching what the Trump administration might do to their various sources of federal funds.
Pine Tree Legal Assistance Director Tom Fritzsche listed several grants he's monitoring that were briefly frozen earlier this year, including those to help veterans facing homelessness, for women experiencing violence, and another to run a low-income tax clinic.
Pine Tree Legal also relies on Housing and Urban Development funds and money from the federal Legal Services Corporation that was created by Congress more than 50 years ago to directly offer legal help to low-income clients.
Legal Services for the Elderly and Disability Rights Maine, two other providers, were especially concerned Thursday about the future of the federal Administration for Community Living, which the Trump administration recently announced will be "reorganized." That agency not only helps fund legal aid, but other crucial services like Meals on Wheels and programs to support caregivers.
ANOTHER CRISIS
Lawmakers already agreed last week to pass an emergency, $3 million bill to help Maine's public defense agency hire more lawyers to represent Mainers in criminal matters and child protective cases, who have a constitutional right to counsel. A judge recently ruled the state has violated this right for hundreds of people who have waited for an attorney.
Former Supreme Judicial Court Justice Ellen Gorman said Thursday that the civil crisis is "every bit as devastating" because it involves basic human needs: safety, stability and shelter.
A representative from the Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition said civil legal aid providers like the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project play an "indispensable role ... in maintaining a just and equitable society — particularly for low-income Mainers, new arrivals, and communities navigating complicated systems of law and bureaucracy."
"The truth is, even when laws are designed to protect people, those protections are meaningless if you can't access or understand them," Advocacy, Communications and Policy Manager Ruben Torres wrote in testimony to lawmakers. "Civil legal aid organizations like the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP) and Pine Tree Legal Assistance serve as lifelines in these moments, ensuring people are not left to navigate a confusing and often unforgiving system on their own."
Disability Rights Maine has directly helped people in more than 700 cases this year, legal director Lauren Wille testified. She noted they've seen a surge in students with disabilities who need accommodations to ensure they have equal access to public education. Their two special education attorneys are simply not enough.
"The calls that we get in our intake line ... have increased substantially over the last year. Our ability to take these cases has not increased," Wille said. "It's heartbreaking to turn away some families who have really legitimately legal claims that won't have the legal representation to present those claims."
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