BALTIMORE — Michael Bell’s body is dying of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal disease that has steadily robbed him of speech and muscle control. But his spirit still has fight.
So when his daughter’s mother threatened to keep the infant from him after he broke off the relationship, he waged war, filing a custody suit in Baltimore Circuit Court this year with the help of a volunteer lawyer.
After months of legal wrangling - and more than $16,000 worth of work donated by his attorney - Bell, 34, won regular visitation rights with his little girl.
The national bar association expects lawyers to donate at least 50 hours of work a year to give those like Bell, with little or no income, legal aid. It helps the courts move cases along, helps attorneys develop new skills and helps individuals get out of bad situations.
But only 22 percent of fulltime lawyers meet that goal, according to the most recent statistics, despite a skyrocketing demand.
“The need has increased dramatically” because of the struggling economy and the resulting foreclosure, bankruptcy and debt issues, said Sharon Goldsmith, executive director of the Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland, a sort of clearinghouse for three dozen volunteer legal programs and centers throughout the state.
Legal advocates across the country are calling for more support, arguing that leaving the poor to fend for themselves leads to judicial backlogs and further financial burdens. Families will be forced from their homes without help, they say, and parents won’t get access to the child support they’re owed.
And while economists claim the recession is over, legal aid center workers say they still haven’t seen a letup in demand.
“It was hard enough to keep up before,” Goldsmith said. “Now it’s really just that much more difficult.”
Specific numbers are hard to come by: Most volunteer centers don’t track how many people they turn away, Goldsmith said. But some centers say that the need has doubled at a time increased unemployment makes being able to afford a lawyer impossible for many.
Thomas Mulinazzi, Bell’s Columbia-based attorney, typically charges $275 an hour. He said he put in about 65 hours reuniting Bell with his baby, and could have billed nearly $18,000 for it.
But instead, he got around $1,600 - the maximum allowed through the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service, which paired him with Bell.
“These people really need help; they don’t have the resources themselves,” he said.
Some formerly middle class people have had to take lower-paying jobs to support their families after being laid off. And they’re now dealing with all sorts of credit problems that require a knowledge of the law, said Bonnie Sullivan, the lawyers service’s executive director.
Her group is getting as many as 6,000 calls for assistance a month, she said. That’s five times the monthly average for 2008. But most calls are dropped before they’re answered - the five paralegals simply can’t get to them all.
Sullivan said the inability to meet the demand is a “legal crisis,” and she doesn’t expect the pressure to let up until unemployment lessens.
One client facing foreclosure committed suicide, she said. “That’s how desperate some people’s lives are right now.”
Attorneys, too, have been hit hard by the economy, with about 1,400 laid off from the largest firms this year, according to a National Law Journal survey.
But some lawyers said there has actually been more volunteerism because of layoffs and decreased business.
“Most competent and professional attorneys find that they would rather be busy than not busy,” said C. William “Bud” Clark, who’s on the Board of Governors for the Maryland Bar Association.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 11/22/2010