More funds approved for legal aid for poor

The Missouri judiciary is investing more than $125 million in additional funding to help low-income Missourians access legal services, thanks to recent action by the Legislature and governor.

Judicial officials said this is the largest single payment ever into the state's fund that supports legal service organizations.

The Missouri General Assembly passed the final version of House Bill No. 3015 -- a second supplemental budget bill in part appropriating moneys to the Supreme Court of Missouri from the state's basic civil legal services fund -- on May 6 and delivered it May 12 to Gov. Mike Parson, who signed it into law the next day.

Created by the Legislature in 2003, the state's basic civil legal services fund, which is administered at the court's direction, was designed to increase the funding available for Missouri's legal services organizations to provide eligible low- income Missourians with equal access to the civil justice system, prioritizing families and children, domestic violence, the elderly and qualification for benefits under the Social Security Act.

There are four organizations providing such services.

Money for the fund come from four primary sources: $30 of each annual enrollment fee paid by attorneys licensed in Missouri; specified amounts of the fees paid for filing cases in the Supreme Court, the Missouri Court of Appeals, Missouri circuit courts and their associate divisions (excluding small claims cases); matching federal Medicaid funds; and a specified portion of any punitive damages awarded in any tort case in Missouri.

The supplemental funding from House Bill 3015 represents the portion designated for the basic civil legal services fund from punitive damages awarded in recent talc litigation in Missouri.

To be eligible for services, an individual typically must be living at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty level.

The four legal aid organizations in Missouri closed more than 16,000 cases last year. Of those, approximately 32 percent involved family law, juvenile and education issues; another 32 percent involved health, housing and income maintenance issues; and 23 percent involved criminal expungements under Missouri law.