Obama and the Democratic Congress did something awesome

squashed:

Watching the snuff drama that is healthcare reform makes it easy not to notice some of the very significant, very important changes. That doesn’t mean they aren’t happening. As of today, federally funded legal aid organizations can ask for attorney fees from opposing parties just like any other law firm.

Federal legal aid money is distributed by the Legal Services Corporation. Before today, any firm that accepted money from LSC was prohibited by statute from seeking attorneys fees. As a practical matter, this meant two things. First, legal aid organizations got less money because they had one fewer revenue streams. Second, attorneys on the other side could feel free to stall and waste time without worrying about having to pay the other party’s attorney fees. Third, people represented by legal aid attorneys didn’t have as much leverage to negotiate as those represented by private attorneys because the other side wouldn’t face the threat of paying their attorney’s fees.

This is huge news for anybody concerned about equal access to the justice system.

Source: squashed

14 Notes/ Hide

  1. krystalgomez reblogged this from squashed and added:
    what follows cannot be overstated…
  2. minorjive reblogged this from squashed
  3. rivertrash reblogged this from squashed
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