A report analyzing the 2020 activities of Legal Services Corporation grantees, which includes Indiana Legal Services, shows that even as federal funding for legal aid has climbed to $440 million, the highest amount ever appropriated, the number of cases closed has slumped and more than 70% of the assistance offered is classified as “limited.”
What started as a short-term solution for improving employee mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic has now turned into a full-fledged initiative at Indiana Legal Services.
A new tenant advocate program will put a housing liaison in every small claims court in Marion County during an expected surge in evictions, Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration announced Thursday.
In less than two weeks, the moratorium on evictions put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is scheduled to end, and while some fear a wave of evictions will follow, others say the long-awaited day of reckoning needs to come.
The Legal Services Corporation could get an additional $135 million in its pockets, the largest single increase in the legal aid organization’s history, following an approval of funding legislation by the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations.
Finding Indiana state law requires the state to accept the federally-funded enhanced unemployment benefits, a Marion County Court has granted plaintiffs’ request to require the state to resume $300 payments to Hoosiers who lost their jobs because of COVID-19.
Unemployed Hoosiers are using what they believe is a mandate in Indiana law to challenge the state’s decision to end the federal extended unemployment benefits, possibly making them the first and only to file a lawsuit to have the extra assistance reinstated.
Calling on Gov. Eric Holcomb to “follow the law,” Indiana Legal Services has filed a lawsuit asserting the decision to end the extended unemployment benefits violates a state statute that requires the state to procure all available federal unemployment compensation for Hoosiers.
As employees trickle back into offices that have stood nearly skeletal for more than a year, many are left to wonder what work will look like in a post-pandemic society. Meanwhile, several Indiana law firms have followed through with plans to transition into new buildings — plans already set in motion before COVID-19 was a common term.
Military veterans often hear about how much their service is valued, but the transition from active duty to the civilian world is a difficult journey that can force them to face, alone, struggles with physical and mental health, endless bureaucracy and the nuances of living life out of uniform. Compounding the difficulties are the civil legal issues that burden many former service members.
The request comes from Legal Services Corp., which provides the majority of Indiana Legal Services’ budget.
The Indianapolis Bar Foundation is once again offering up to $2,500 to lawyers who work with local service providers to help central Indiana families in need of legal services related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Saying civil legal aid can help make the American Jobs Plan “work the way Congress intends,” the Legal Services Corp. is requesting supplement funding between $350 million and $500 million be included in the infrastructure package proposed by the Biden administration.
Legal Services Corp., the national funder for legal aid providers across the country, including Indiana Legal Services, was unable to get additional funding through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, but the organization is planning to nearly double its annual budget request to more than $1 billion for fiscal year 2022.
The Indiana Supreme Court has denied a petition from several legal aid providers and social service organizations asking the justices to protect the latest round of stimulus checks from being scooped up by debt collectors.
A collection of Indiana agencies, including several legal aid providers, are asking the Indiana Supreme Court to help low-income Hoosiers by again blocking creditors from taking their new round stimulus payments that are being issued as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
Indianapolis Legal Aid Society has received a $250,000 COVID-19 relief grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc., providing much-needed support for legal assistance to low-income Hoosiers in central Indiana who have been acutely affected by the ongoing pandemic.
Indiana Legal Services has received a $250,000 grant from the Lilly Endowment to help the growing number of Hoosiers who have legal needs as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency.
In a world where everything you need to know about a person is in the palm of your hand, some Indiana citizens have a hard time leaving their past mistakes behind. In order to address this, many lawyers dedicate their pro bono efforts to assisting with expungement clinics, which help eligible prior offenders seal certain arrest and conviction records.
Legal aid providers are uncertain what will happen now that the Indiana General Assembly has enacted a law that is seen as giving more favor to landlords, but they fear it will exacerbate the growing problem of evictions in Indiana and lead to more families being put on the street.