Help Make Justice for All a Reality
By Bill Conger

Justice for all is a value all of us hold dear. That said, we also know that justice doesn’t exist in every situation. In order to find justice, you have to meet a few prerequisites. You have to recognize you’ve got a legal problem and that you need help to fix it. Then you have to have the means to hire legal counsel. In most cases, you have to be able to pay for an attorney.

Unfortunately, many Oklahomans, approximately 650,000, don’t have the means to hire counsel because they are living at the poverty line. The majority of these 650,000 Oklahomans earn no more than 125 percent of poverty, which equals $13,000 for an individual or $26,500 for a family of four.

These low-income Oklahomans are eligible for free civil legal help in the areas of family law, housing, income and consumer problems from Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma Inc. However, there’s no way Legal Aid currently can serve all of the Oklahomans who qualify. Current resources allow Legal Aid to close about 20,000 civil law cases a year, out of its 22 offices located around the state. Most of these cases involve urgent issues involving personal safety and keeping families together, with a roof over their heads. Many involve domestic violence. The 20,000 cases closed in a year represent 20-25 percent of all of the Oklahomans who call or visit Legal Aid seeking help.

Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma plays a vital role in Oklahoma’s justice community, the role of the only statewide program where low-income people can seek free legal assistance. Other than the organized bar, legal clinics at the three law schools and a few local church-sponsored clinics, Legal Aid is the only resource available for low-income Oklahomans without enough money to pay an attorney.

I have a strong bias for Legal Aid. I have been practicing law here in Oklahoma for 38 years, and Legal Aid has played a prominent role in my life throughout most of my career.

Since 2003 Legal Aid’s fundraising campaign has been to support the statewide program that formed in 2002 by merging the eastern Oklahoma program with the western. To meet the needs of low-income persons in all 77 counties, Legal Aid’s needs have grown. Legal Aid now reaches out to foundations and corporations as well as law firms and every individual attorney licensed by the OBA. Since 2003 these annual fund drives have been enormously successful and have allowed Legal Aid to open offices in McAlester and Enid as well as to improve conditions and services in its other 20 law offices and satellites around the state.

These drives have been chaired by William Paul, past president of the Oklahoma Bar Association and past president of the American Bar Association; The Honorable Tom Brett, a retired distinguished U.S. district judge in Tulsa; Burns Hargis, a long-time lawyer and banker who was recently named Oklahoma State University president; former state Attorney General Mike Turpen; and this year by Attorney General Drew Edmondson and his wife, Linda. The support of Legal Aid by members of the OBA is demonstrable of our profession’s commitment to Legal Aid.

I recently had the opportunity to address the board of the Legal Services Corp., which met in Oklahoma City. I told them of the OBA’s support of Legal Aid and of the fundamental role Legal Aid plays in Oklahoma’s justice community. I believe we must be vigilant in our support of access to justice, including legal services, for society’s most vulnerable people -- the poor and the elderly -- and I know justice does not come cheap.

Attorney General Drew Edmondson and his wife, Linda, and the Oklahoma City and Tulsa teams guiding the 2008 Campaign for Justice have set a goal of raising $500,000 to strengthen Legal Aid in Oklahoma.

Sincerely,

To contact President Conger, e-mail him at bconger@okcu.edu