Legal Services Programs – The Caseload Problem, or How to Avoid Becoming the New Welfare Department
Abstract
One of the most serious national legal problems of the poor is the over-extended caseload in legal services programs. Resolving this problem should be the highest priority of legal service programs. This effort should emanate from the federal office of the legal services division of O.E.O. and should be much more extensive than the single conference on the case load problem which was held at the Harvard Law School. This office could, for example, finance a systematic study of the case load by as many law schools as possible in the country to come up with creative and innovative alternative solutions. Law schools are beginning to move towards the establishment of an urban law curricula and there is a wealth of law student time which may be spent on the writing of papers on "interesting" questions of poverty law not yet directed towards the resolution of the most pressing problems in the legal service programs. Much of these resources can be applied to a coordinated study of what new arrangements are necessary to achieve the speedy and efficient resolution of legal problems, while preserving quality performance by legal service attorneys.