June 23, 2009

EASING LIMITS ON LEGAL AID
Schiff Wants to End Ban On Legal Fee Requests, Filing Class Actions

By Greg Katz
Daily Journal Staff Writer

LA CANADA - Rep. Adam Schiff already has done much to increase federal funding for the Legal Services Corp., the quasi-governmental agency that supports many of the nation's legal nonprofits, and to lift a restriction keeping legal aid groups from winning attorneys fees.

But, even though the Senate and the President have yet to sign off on those measures, the Pasadena Democrat is looking ahead to his next effort. He wants to ease other restrictions on federally supported legal nonprofits, including lifting a ban on class actions.

"There are a number of other restrictions we want to see done away with," Schiff said Saturday at a fundraiser for the nonprofit Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, which honored him for his leadership on the issue. "We have a lot of work to do."

Schiff's efforts are part of a decade-long ideological fight between liberals and conservatives over the role of the corporation, which funds legal aid groups nationwide. In 1996, Republicans imposed limits on that funding, accusing legal nonprofits of doing liberal politicians' bidding in class action lawsuits against businesses.

Any effort to change the class action restriction is sure to attract opposition from conservatives, who believe legal aid groups should work on individual cases rather than take on large litigation that seeks to force systemic change.

"The class action is really a term for dealing with political action," said Sacramento attorney Ronald Zumbrun of the Zumbrun Law Firm, who President Ronald Reagan tapped to head the Legal Services Corp. in 1981 before withdrawing the nomination. "In other words, attacking major policy issues that [attract] diverse opinions ... rather than helping poor people, which there should not be diverse opinions on."

But Schiff, a former federal prosecutor and state senator, said that, as Democrats in Washington now fight to free up legal aid funding, they're encountering less opposition from across the aisle than they did before.

"It's a concern for some of the conservative and the business organizations," Schiff said. "But I don't think that legal services ... is the same fulcrum of resistance it once was."

The bill that recently passed the House would give the corporation $440 million. That's $50 million more than last year and $5 million more than President Barack Obama requested, Schiff said.

He added that he'll make efforts to lift other restrictions, including the ban on class actions, in upcoming budget talks, but that they may not come to fruition until next year.

However, California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno, a fellow honoree at the fundraiser, said he doesn't think lifting the class-action ban necessary.

"I don't see that there's a special need to see legal aid groups funded by the government [filing] class actions," Moreno said. "I think there's sufficient resources being devoted to class action litigation" in the private and public sectors.

Either way, Neal Dudovitz, executive director of Neighborhood Legal Services, counted the end of the attorneys fees restriction alone as a potentially huge victory.

"Prior to the time that restriction was put into place, we used to average $200,000-300,000 a year in attorneys fees - that's the equivalent of two, three or four lawyers on our staff," Dudovitz said.

And both Moreno and Schiff, recognized along with the law firm Luce Forward agreed on the importance of legal aid groups in the midst of a recession.

Schiff commended the staff of Neighborhood Legal Services. "The work you do is extremely important," he said.

"The need for legal assistance is greater ... than ever before, in the times of economic crisis we're currently experiencing," Moreno told the crowd in the expansive backyard of criminal defense lawyer Mark Geragos of Los Angeles' Geragos & Geragos.

greg_katz@dailyjournal.com