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Study shows long-term value of civil legal aid services

SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter

Published: July 12, 2019

When a legal aid attorney helps a low-income client to avoid eviction or deal with debt collectors, the assistance generally has an immediate positive effect on that person’s life. But is this impact fleeting or does it change the playing field for that individual down the road?

Steven McGarrity, executive director of Community Legal Aid Services Inc. said while the nonprofit law firm has been tracking client outcomes for many years the issue had not been formally examined by an independent third party.

But that’s no longer the case. This after Community Legal Aid Services joined hands with The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland to enlist an outside agency to conduct a first-of-its-kind study to determine whether providing civil legal aid services to low-income individuals can lead to long-term stability and a better quality of life.

Entitled “Securing Stability: Legal Aid’s Lasting Impact,” the study was done by The Center for Community Solutions.

McGarrity said the report, which was released on June 17, confirmed that a large number of clients who received assistance from one of the two nonprofit organizations saw long-term positive changes in some aspect of their lives.

Together Community Legal Aid Services and The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland provide free assistance to low-income people in 13 counties in northeast Ohio, including the cities of Akron, Canton, Cleveland and Youngstown, as well as hundreds of smaller urban, metro and rural municipalities.

“We all assume and hope that the work we do every day has a lasting impact, but until now we had no empirical way of knowing that,” said McGarrity. “One of the things that surprised us is that in many cases the impact of receiving legal services was not only long-lasting, but it grew over time.”

Emily Campbell, associate director of The Center for Community Solutions said researchers used a mixed-methods approach to collect data from more than 1,250 clients who received services from the legal aid organizations at least one year ago.

“Clients initially completed a survey,” said Campbell. “We then selected a small number of the people who responded and did phone interviews with them to get more in-depth information.”

Researchers examined six areas of clients’ lives to see whether their stability had improved, including financial, family, health, housing, education and civic involvement.

Fifty-four percent of those who responded to the survey reported they had seen positive changes in at least one of those categories.

More specifically, almost 40% of clients who came to legal aid for assistance with housing issues such as discrimination or landlord/tenant disputes said they saw their housing stability improve and 14 percent said their financial situations got better.

“Overall the biggest impact was felt in terms of financial stability, with one out of every four clients surveyed indicating they had secured a better job, higher wages or had the ability to make ends meet,” said Campbell.

Fifteen percent noted positive changes in their family lives, 13 % percent said their health improved and 11% percent of all clients said they had more stable housing. Education and civic involvement were the least impacted, with only 2% of clients reporting differences in each of those categories.

“I think the thing that surprised everyone the most was that so many clients indicated their health had improved after seeking help for an unrelated problem,” said Campbell.

“What pleased us most about the results was the confirmation that when we help someone with one legal issue, there are numerous positive outcomes beyond the substantive case,” said Melanie Shakarian, director of development and communications for The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. “For example when you help someone who faces housing insecurity and save a home from eviction, we now can link numerous health benefits and long-term positive economic security outcomes to that initial legal help.

 

“I think the study further demonstrates what a terrific investment civil legal aid is for communities and how it can be used to leverage outcomes in other areas like health and education. I think the study also makes a case for integrating legal services into other social services to create more sustainable outcomes,” said Shakarian.

McGarrity agrees. “In the future, we will look at ways to address all of the needs of a client as opposed to just assisting the person with the issue for which they came to us.”


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