Every year, thousands of low-income individuals across the state of Alabama seek free legal help from Legal Services Alabama (LSA) however, for every individual that is successful in obtaining help, there are even more who could not receive services due the demand for legal help among the poor in Alabama far exceeding our current staff’s capacity.

In recent years, there has been an increase in the demand for individuals seeking legal representation, a portion of this increase is due to the issues surrounding the pandemic. But before the pandemic, LSA was experiencing an increase in the demand for representation in the areas of housing and foreclosures, domestic violence, debt collection, benefit denials, voting rights restoration, court fines and fees, and expungement requests, and we could not represent all clients because of our limited capacity. The cases and the lack of representation keep low-income and impoverished communities at a disadvantage for employment, economic empowerment, and exercising their fundamental rights.