Hundreds of Alaska victims of domestic violence will go without lawyers as they battle for protective orders, divorce, child custody and public benefits, according to a poverty law organization.
The Alaska Legal Services Corp. has lost a federal grant that paid for three attorneys, and partial salaries for others, to represent low income, rural victims of domestic violence and child abuse. In a few communities that put in local dollars, including Anchorage and Fairbanks, the help for domestic violence victims will continue, said Andy Harrington, Alaska Legal Services executive director.
The money from the Department of Justice's Office of Violence Against Women dries up on Sept. 30. The grants began in 1997 and grew over time, reaching $250,000 for each of the last two years, Harrington said.
The private, nonprofit agency, which provides free representation to low income clients in civil cases, now must turn away people who drastically need help, he said. The agency operates on $3 million a year with a staff of 40, half of them lawyers.
"The cases we are involved in, there is not a right to an appointed attorney. There is just a person trying to figure out how to get a fair result out of the justice system," he said.
The loss of the legal services lawyers "is absolutely a big deal," said Barbara Mason, executive director of the Alaska Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, which distributes funds to local programs.
Divorce and child custody cases never are easy "and if you add in the complication of violence and fear, that makes it even more complicated," Mason said. Victims of domestic violence often don't have the money to hire a lawyer, she said.
When Alaska Legal Services learned in August that it was losing the grant money, it began to close or farm out its 75 open rural domestic violence cases. Some clients can be served under other grants or with its general funding, though that may mean someone else won't get help, Harrington said.
Private attorneys take on some of these cases for free, but the pro bono help is limited and often isn't available at all in rural areas, he said.
And now those lawyers are being flooded.
"I've seen over a 200 percent increase in my applicants since this news has come out," said Christine McLeod Pate, a Sitka attorney who coordinates the pro bono program run by the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. She's fielded 50 requests for free lawyers in less than two months, a period in which she would normally handle 20 or so. "It's just devastating."
The legal help is essential, she said.
"Two of the main reasons victims stay (with batterers) are economics and because the abuser tells them if they leave, he's going to get the kids," Pate said.
Low income women may go to a legal services lawyer for help in obtaining a restraining order to keep violent partners away, Harrington said. Many victims want out of the relationship and need help with divorce or child custody. Other victims find themselves fighting for public assistance benefits or facing eviction.
Some of the legal actions can be done without an attorney, Harrington acknowledged. But even in cases for restraining orders -- which are set up so that people don't need a lawyer -- it's becoming more common to have one, Harrington said.
That's because the stakes have gotten so high. Long-term protective orders now require dangerous partners or relatives to stay away for a full year, compared with the old requirement of six months. The accused partner often goes into court with a lawyer. Without one, "the petitioner is feeling outgunned," Harrington said.
Since Alaska Legal Services first received a rural domestic violence grant in 1997, it has served hundreds of victims and their families, more than 1,000 in the last five years, according to the organization.
The agency used to serve victims through a sizable general grant from the federal Legal Services Corp. When that money was cut in 1996, it started to seek more specialized grants and more private donations. The Alaska legal aid program also is trying to create a $1 million endowment from which the interest could be used to fill in when grants were cut or lost. But it only has about $200,000 so far, Harrington said.
Telephone messages left on Wednesday at the U.S. Justice Department about the grant were not returned.
Information sent with the rejection letter indicates the federal government decided the lawyers were not allowed to use the domestic violence grant to help victims with divorce and child custody issues.
"There's nothing in the statute, nothing in the regulations, nothing in the request for proposals that laid that out as a criteria," Harrington said.
It's ironic, he said. A study by the Carnegie Mellon Census Research Data Center found that access to legal services had contributed to a decline in domestic violence during the 1990s.
Alaska Legal Services also has felt a pinch from the state. It now gets no money directly from the Legislature. At the peak, in 1984, the Legislature provided $1.2 million but that dropped until it was finally zeroed out last fiscal year, Harrington said. Bills pending in the state Legislature would restore some of the agency's state funding.
The Alaska Legal Services Corp. board holds its quarterly meeting this weekend and will discuss what to do then, he said. Personnel changes won't be made until Nov. 1. The three attorneys may be able to stay on part-time for a while.
Still, new domestic violence victims, Harrington said, will be stranded without legal help.
Daily News reporter Lisa Demer can be reached at ldemer@adn.com and 257-4390.
