Voluntary Legal Services Program Weathers the Economic Downturn
By Vicki Jacobs, VLSP Managing Attorney

While the Voluntary Legal Services Program is primarily a volunteer-based organization, with a staff of only nine people (all but two of us are part-time employees), we are seeing numerous trends in our program due to the current economic downturn. The fortunes of all nonprofits raise and fall to some extent with the economy, and it is important to be able to plan ahead for lean times and adapt to your circumstances. The effects of a poor economy, however, can be far-ranging.

We have experienced a definite change in the requests for services by clients over the past year or so. The number of clients with debt problems who are requesting assistance has increased tremendously. These problems (which can include lawsuits for unpaid debts, tort defense cases, car repossessions, unforeseen medical bills, or overly aggressive bill collectors, for example) have increased as the number of people in our region have been laid off or their small businesses have failed. As our lower income clients tend to live from paycheck to paycheck, it does not take too much bad luck before people become overwhelmed with debt obligations they cannot afford to pay.

Our clients' requests for bankruptcy services have increased tremendously in the past two years as well. We really need the help of attorneys with any background in civil litigation (contract or tort) and bankruptcy law at our Tuesday evening clinic. Please let us know if you can spare a few hours every few months to help out.

Another area of increased client request for services is with obtaining the expungement of their criminal records and the reinstatement of their driver's licenses. With many public assistance programs beginning to “time out” public benefits recipients, many low income people need to remove any possible barriers to employment. Our four day per week clinic assisting people with these legal issues never has any down time.

Not unexpectedly, the economy has also affected our funding. We receive some of our support from the IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers Trust Fund Accounts) program that is administered by the State Bar of California. As business has generally decreased, and interest rates remain low, the interest earned on attorneys' trust accounts that supports legal services programs such as ours has declined. During this coming fiscal year, VLSP is losing approximately $7,000 in funding from this source alone.

At the time this article is being written, the county, state, and county court budgets have not been passed. VLSP receives funding from the county, the local courts, and the state to support individual clinic projects, the future existence of which depends on continued funding. We are always looking to diversify our funding for our program's activities, but the time needed to prepare grant proposals and attend budget meetings diverts our limited staff's time away from client services.

VLSP also raises funds through our annual fundraising phone-a-thon that is scheduled for September 9, 2003. The success of this annual fundraiser has increased each year for the past decade it has been existence. Last year's phone-a-thon raised over $27,000 in vitally needed funds for VLSP. If you would like to help out at this year's event on September 9th, we'd love to hear from you.

Some of our expenses have also dramatically increased in the last couple of years. Malpractice insurance costs and liability insurance costs continue to increase, and it is becoming difficult for nonprofits (especially legal services nonprofits) to obtain liability insurance, even when no claims have been made. Health insurance premiums for our staff members are also skyrocketing.

The economy has also had some interesting affects on our volunteer base. As jobs for new graduates are relatively scarce, we have seen a rise in the number of new attorneys who seek to volunteer with us to obtain experience. We welcome their help, but to utilize their services we need the assistance of experienced attorneys who are willing to “mentor” these new attorneys and answer their questions about procedure and give them some direction as to how to handle the cases the new attorneys take on as VLSP volunteers. If you are willing to share your experience in this way, we would love to hear from you.

Despite the challenges posed during these difficult economic times, VLSP remains a strong program committed to serving the legal needs of as many low income members of the Sacramento community as we can. To join us in our efforts, please contact Vicki Jacobs, Managing Attorney, at (916) 551-2162. We look forward to hearing from you.