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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Sanchez, M.

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/11/06

HB

SHORT TITLE Legal Services for Low-Income Persons

SB 316

ANALYST Lewis

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY06

FY07

2,000.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Duplicates to HB378 (Legal Services for Low-Income Persons), except that HB 378 extends the

appropriation to subsequent fiscal years without reversion.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)

Department of Finance and Administration (DFA)

Office of the Attorney General (AGO)

No Response Received From

Public Defender Department (PDD)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Bill 316 appropriates $2,000,000 from the general fund to the civil legal services fund to

contract for services to provide legal assistance to low-income persons in New Mexico; provided

that at least one million dollars ($1,000,000) of that appropriation shall be to contract for services

with a single statewide legal services program with at least five offices throughout the state that

provides direct legal services to low-income persons.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $2,000,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2007 shall revert

to the general fund.

Senate Bill 316 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

According to the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) and the Department of Finance and

Administration (DFA), up to 80 percent of the legal needs of low income New Mexicans are

unmet. Persons must represent themselves in court or do not pursue their legal issue at all. Ap-

proximately 18.6 percent of New Mexico’s total population live in poverty, including 24% of

people with disabilities and 12.8% of the elderly.

The AOC and the DFA note that some examples of unmet legal needs are:

uncollected child support,

domestic violence,

spouses remaining married to an abusive partner,

tenants unnecessarily evicted from their home,

predatory lending,

loss of health care services,

immigration problems, and

loss of property.

According to the AOC, the Civil Legal Services Fund allocates money each year to legal service

providers for low income New Mexicans. In the most recent funding cycle the Civil Legal Ser-

vices Commission had $1.4 million to allocate, and received funding requests for $3.0 million

from 16 legal service providers. The DFA notes that no service provider received the total

amount requested, and most received significantly less, resulting in every program being scaled

back and reaching fewer low-income persons.

DFA adds that, according to New Mexico Legal Aid, the largest provider of legal services to

low-income persons in the state, there are approximately 10,000 low-income New Mexicans

turned away from legal services every year due to the lack of available funds for trained attor-

neys, paralegals, advocates, and other essential staff. Because federal funding through the Legal

Services Corporation (LSC) is diminishing, many organizations are faced with having to layoff

attorneys. In 2003 New Mexico Legal Aid had a total of 85 employees throughout the state. In

2006 they have only 65.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

The AOC notes that, due to the limited number of attorneys who are available to provide legal

assistance to the poor, self-represented (pro se) litigants are more and more common in New

Mexico’s courts. Self-represented litigants require more court time, more staff assistance, and are

more likely to make an error that requires additional hearings. Making it possible for more attor-

neys to take public interest legal positions will help the courts run more efficiently.

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

The funds will be administered through DFA which notes that it already has the staff and knowl-

edge to fund and monitor this project.

ML/mt