Agency fighting for survival

Legal Services helps low-income residents with civil court matters

February 3, 2006

TRACY KALYTIAK\Frontiersman assistant editor

Bridget Boyd fell in love with her husband after encountering him after a night of karaoke nearly 10 years ago. He bought roses, opened doors and played games with her 5-year-old daughter. So, within three months, Boyd married him.

Eight years, two children and scores of insults and thrown objects later, Boyd said her husband told her he no longer loved her. She had her 12-year-old daughter, 3-year-old son and 3-month-old daughter, but no longer had a home of her own, money, food or diapers. Boyd sought help from Alaska Legal Services Corp. in getting a divorce.

&#8220He had this big huge attorney when this first started, filing motion after motion after motion,” the Wasilla-area resident said. &#8220And here I was, I didn't have anything. When I went to court the first time by myself, they slammed me with all this paperwork. Alaska Legal Services took me right underneath their wing. I feel they're more friends than just attorneys. They know about your life - they care about your life and what's in your life. I've been to other attorneys and they were about money, money, money. These guys were just about what was right.”

Mat-Su's population is surging above 70,000, and the number of Alaska Legal Services cases here is accelerating as well.

But the nonprofit is hard-pressed to serve the Valley's rising demand for free civil legal services because the state and federal governments have slashed the money ALSC needs to handle noncriminal court cases involving divorce, child custody, domestic violence, landlord-tenant and other housing issues, subsistence, improper governmental action and consumer protection. ALSC's 2006 budget is about $2.7 million.

The state, for years, kicked in part of the money ALSC needed to operate its eight offices statewide - providing $1.2 million 20 years ago - but ALSC has closed offices and cut staff because that contribution dwindled as oil revenues declined. Last year, Gov. Frank Murkowski vetoed the final $62,500 the Legislature budgeted for ALSC, marking the first time the state didn't contribute anything to ALSC.

The federal government has also reduced its contribution to ALSC, from a high of $1.5 million to a low of $900,000. Last year, ALSC lost a federal grant that paid the salaries of three lawyers - and partial salaries for others - who helped low-income, rural victims of domestic violence and child abuse.

In the face of more robust oil earnings and a $1.5 billion surplus, state legislators are considering House Bill 175, which, if passed, could funnel half of the punitive damages collected in the state from the general fund to a special account earmarked for providing civil legal services to low-income Alaskans. HB 175, sponsored by Rep. Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage, was referred to the House Rules Committee late in January.

Another bill, Senate Bill 19, sponsored by Sen. Ralph Seekins, R-Fairbanks, would accomplish the same goal. That bill has been lodged in the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Sen. Lyda Green, R-Mat-Su, since January 2005. Green did not return repeated phone calls to her Juneau office about her stance on that bill and whether it will ever emerge from her committee.

Murkowski contended, after slashing ALSC's state funding, that providing legal aid to individuals was not an appropriate state function.

But Andy Harrington, ALSC executive director, said it is completely appropriate for the state to give money to an agency that helps people who can't otherwise afford to hire a lawyer in civil matters. A number of private attorneys take on ALSC cases as a public service, but there are not enough of those attorneys available to meet the demand.

&#8220Our state does allocate money for the criminal side of the court system - the Office of Victims Rights, Public Defender, prosecutors,” Harrington said. &#8220It's not right for us to leave Alaskans who are not charged with a crime but face the possibility of losing their home or having their wages garnished through a debt collection or denied Social Security benefits because the federal bureaucracy has denied their claim.”

Harrington pointed out that ALSC helps in other ways.

&#8220The court system is bogged down by people representing themselves,” he said. &#8220If they do have an attorney there to explain to a client ahead of time that this is what they're able to get, not able to get, that makes the court system function much more efficiently.”

The Mat-Su Borough is providing a small amount of funding to ALSC, as is the federal government, said Harrington. &#8220If the federal government and local municipalities are able to put money toward providing equal access to justice, it's perfectly appropriate for the state to do so as well.”

Domestic relations cases make up the bulk of ALSC's cases in Mat-Su, and a significant number of those cases involve domestic violence. A December 2002 study by economists from Colgate University and the University of Arkansas argued that easier access to legal services was one of the three most important factors responsible for a decline in domestic violence.

A Web site explaining the survey's conclusions said access to free legal services helped domestic violence survivors get protective orders, custody of their children, child support and sometimes public assistance. it also assisted the women in achieving physical safety and financial security and enabled them to leave their abusers. Economic improvement in women's situations and demographic changes (an increasingly better-educated female population, for example) also contributed to the decline, the study stated.

&#8220The continued expansion of the availability of civil legal services will likely continue to lower the incidence of intimate partner abuse in the future,” the study stated.

Putting money into civil legal services for low-income Alaskans is cost-efficient, Harrington said, because it will likely prevent the later necessity of spending much greater amounts of money on state-funded welfare, more highly paid lawyers, therapy and incarceration after children who see or experience abuse absorb its trauma and perpetuate its violence.

&#8220Children who have to be taken into the state's child protective system come from homes where domestic violence is present,” he said. &#8220Kids who grow up in a violent household learn that's how relationships are supposed to work.”

A Palmer Superior Court judge awarded Boyd a divorce and custody of her children after a recent trial. Boyd had accused her former husband of hitting her with a full can of Coke he had thrown at her, slapping and insulting her oldest daughter on numerous occasions and threatening to burn down the house she and the kids lived in. Boyd said her son hasn't seen his father since Christmas Eve. The former husband's mother and grandmother sided with Boyd during the trial.

The judge concluded that Boyd's former husband must attend parenting classes and get anger-management counseling before being allowed to visit his kids without a supervisor present.

Boyd said she's relieved at the outcome of the trial, and that the ALSC lawyers quelled her greatest fear:

&#8220That my children wouldn't be protected,” Boyd said. &#8220I think he'd be capable of running off with them, abusing my younger ones as he did my older one. He probably would have got everything he wanted, ended up with all that he was asking for - full or joint custody, unsupervised visitations. They really took a load off my mind.”

Boyd's former husband denied most of his former wife's accusations, saying he never struck her and never abused the children. The Coke can incident never happened, he didn't evict his wife and children from their trailer, he gave Boyd money for the kids' expenses - as much as he could, when he could - before the state began taking child support out of his paychecks. He said he has no criminal record, drives a truck for a living, now has a wonderful relationship with a different woman and has attended seven parenting classes.

&#8220My relationship with my kids is great,” he said. &#8220I don't get to see them that much, but I talk to them every other night on the phone. We have a very close bond. They're my pride and joy.”

Despite the trial's outcome, even Boyd's former husband believes ALSC performs a valuable service for people who wouldn't otherwise have access to the noncriminal side of the court system due to lack of money. The trial underscored for him just how important a competent lawyer's representation can be in the courtroom.

&#8220I was really naive,” he said. &#8220I went in there nicely dressed and thought it would be like Court TV or something. I was in my little fantasy world. When you represent yourself in court, if you don't know the law, you're going to get screwed. If [Alaska Legal Services can] help somebody else, in the long run, go through what I've gone through, I think it's worthwhile.”

Contact Tracy Kalytiak

at 352-2270 or tracy.wilson@ frontiersman.com