Posted July 9, 20259:00 am
by Jeremy Nobile
Legal aid service providers are once again fighting to preserve a key source of federal funding that President Donald Trump wants to eradicate.
Among an array of cuts called for in the White House’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 is a request to eliminate the Legal Services Corp. altogether.
(The fiscal year budget proposal, to be approved by September 30, is different than the recently passed tax and spending bill, dubbed the "Big Beautiful Bill.")
Established by Congress in 1974, the LSC appropriates federal dollars to approximately 130 legal aid groups, which represent more than 900 offices across America, including the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland (LASC) and Community Legal Aid (CLA) in Akron.
LSC’s budgets in fiscal 2024 and 2025 were $563 million and $560 million, respectively. For fiscal 2026, the LSC has requested $2.13 billion. This is not uncommon as the group always asks for more than it gets because demand for legal aid is so high. About 90% of LSC’s annual funding is disbursed to legal aid providers.
But the federal budget proposed by the White House recommends awarding just $21 million to the LSC for the coming year, which would “be used only for the closure” of the organization.
“Legal aid organizations funded by LSC serve as a lifeline for low-income Americans,” said LASC Executive Director Colleen Cotter. “The LSC ensures hardworking Americans who can’t afford a lawyer on their own receive critical civil legal support. The White House’s proposed budget defunding LSC would gut civil legal aid infrastructure across the country and strip away vital legal help from those who need it most in our community.”
In Ohio, the LSC estimates that the loss of federal funding would result in more than 90,800 active legal cases going unresolved, which would negatively affect more than 37,000 children, 10,000 older Americans, 5,800 survivors of domestic violence and 1,800 veterans and their families. And those are just active cases.
Legal aid providers would be able to help even more people if their resources were not continuously stretched thin, which is why this potential funding cut is so concerning.
“With less funding, we will be forced to turn away more people,” Cotter said. “We will have fewer staff to engage with partners, serve clients, and appear in our courts.”
“The breadth and depth of the damage that eliminating LSC will inflict on the 130 incredible legal aid organizations that LSC funds, and the repercussions for the low-income communities that those programs serve, is difficult to capture and horrific to imagine,” said LSC President Ron Flagg. “Because our justice system was built for lawyers, it is too often true that there is no hope of accessing justice when legal problems arise for the 52 million Americans who qualify for LSC-funded services and have no means to afford an attorney.”
For every person the LASC helps, another eligible client is turned away. Despite this, the organization reports that it worked on 9,700 cases in 2024, which collectively impacted 25,700 people through lawsuits and advocacy.
“Legal aid provides fairness in an imbalanced system,” Cotter said. “Our legal system is inherently complex and difficult for the average American to navigate. Only those with the financial means to afford an attorney can truly access justice. LSC levels the playing field.”
The CLA, meanwhile, is typically able to take just one out of every three cases that come its way. The organization worked on 4,930 cases last year, impacting some 12,890 people.
The LSC provides about 15% of LASC’s current annual budget of roughly $23 million and about 29% of CLA’s annual budget of $10.6 million.
So while losing the LSC and the funding it provides might not be a death knell for all legal aid groups, it would hinder their missions.
And it also could hinder fundraising efforts in general.
“If LSC funding is eliminated, it may also impact our ability to raise other funds,” Cotter said. “Stable government funding is the foundation from which we raise other philanthropic dollars from law firms, corporations, foundations, individual donors and United Way.”
Individuals who have a household income at or below 125% of federal poverty guidelines are eligible for LSC-funded legal assistance, which is about 16% of the U.S. population, or roughly 52 million people.
This is far from the first time legal aid groups have faced the possibility of losing federal money as the LSC was marked for defunding throughout Trump’s first term in the White House. Each time, Congress approved funding anyway, even though the allocations always come up short of what the LSC typically seeks.
The hope is that the trend continues under Trump’s second term, especially as external stakeholders back the legal aid mission, including at least 160 law firm leaders, 40 state attorneys general — including Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost — and 37 chief justices of state supreme courts.
But whether that’s what pans out is to be seen.
“There is broad bipartisan support for continued funding for LSC in Congress and throughout the country,” said CLA Executive Director Steven McGarrity. “Many conservative lawmakers recognize that denying people access to an attorney because they cannot afford one leads to unjust results and undermines the rule of law. Providing an attorney to a low-income person facing eviction, a debt collection lawsuit, or loss of veterans' benefits where the landlord, debt collector, or government all have attorneys representing them, is about giving the low-income person an equal chance to present their side of the story.”
“The bottom line,” Cotter said, “is defunding LSC means more vulnerable people here in Northeast Ohio and across the country will be denied access to justice."
Source: Crain's Cleveland Business - Trump fiscal budget proposes shut down of Legal Services Corp.