Every year millions of low-income people throughout the United States struggle through serious, complex civil legal disputes without the help of a lawyer. Most low-income households find that private counsel is unaffordable and free legal aid is unavailable due to the high demand and legal aid programs’ limited time and resources. More than 45 million individuals have incomes low enough to qualify federally funded legal aid, but equal access to justice is often hard to find.

The Legal Services Corporation (LSC)—the largest federal source of funding for free legal representation in civil cases—undertook a comprehensive study that documented the existence of this “justice gap” in a report published in September 2005. It found that:

• LSC-funded programs turn away some one million cases annually due to lack of resources; untold additional clients never find their way to the programs.
• Each year fewer than 20 percent of low-income people with civil legal problems obtain the legal assistance they need.
• Counting all (not just LSC) legal aid programs, the U.S. has one lawyer for every 6,861 low-income people but one lawyer for every 525 people in the general population.

In February 2008 LSC announced that recent state studies suggest that the justice gap documented in the 2005 report may well have been understated.

Many countries have long-established civil legal aid programs that are adequately funded by the government and ensure ample coverage. In the U.S., where civil counsel is not guaranteed, funding for legal aid programs compares poorly to other industrialized nations. England spends twelve times as big a portion of its gross domestic product on civil legal aid as the U.S., where federal funding of legal services has declined by 50 percent over the last quarter century.