Idaho Legal Aid program suffering

BOISE – Directors of the statewide agency that has offered free legal help to low-income Idahoans for 40 years say the organization is extremely understaffed and underfunded.

Idaho Legal Aid can only represent about 20 percent of the people who seek its services, said the agency’s executive director, Ernesto Sanchez.

“Everyone should be able to participate in our judicial system in order to defend themselves if they are being sued or to further their legal claims as plaintiffs,” Sanchez told the Lewiston Morning Tribune, “regardless of their ability to pay for representation.”

The nonprofit organization has headquarters in Boise and offices in Lewiston, Caldwell, Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Twin Falls and Coeur d’Alene.

Idaho Legal Aid provides representation in civil matters to tens of thousands of low-income residents. Program attorneys provide services that also include representing victims of domestic violence, obtaining public entitlements for people with disabilities and defending senior citizens who’ve been exploited.

Attorneys also make their legal services available to migrant farm workers.

“We are always busy,” said Jeannine Ferguson, a managing attorney who works in the Idaho Legal Aid’s office in Lewiston. “There is a pretty big demand – always a bigger demand than we can meet.”

The organization marked its 40th anniversary this week.

The statewide agency was formed when Lewis-Clark Legal Services Inc. merged with Western Idaho Legal Aid in southern Idaho. After the consolidation, they formed Idaho Legal Aid Services and became part of a national organization called Legal Services Corp.