Regaining Equilibrium—Modest Growth, Merger and New Initiatives
1997
As New Jersey re-engineers its Legal Services delivery system, LSNJ, now without LSC funding, innovates with a new statewide hotline, LSNJLAWSM website, integrated technology system, and several new representation projects— Domestic Violence Representation Project, Supplemental Representation Unit, Immigration Representation Project, and Family Representation Project—to fill gaps created by LSC restrictions and supplement local representation efforts.
Substantial progress is made toward putting in place a state-of-the-art, statewide information dissemination network. Computer equipment in every office is upgraded; each of the 27 Legal Services offices in the state has a local area network (LAN) established; and the offices are linked together in a statewide wide area network (WAN).
LSNJ’s Poverty Research Institute (PRI) is created with significant support from the Fund for New Jersey.
1998
In another demonstration of bipartisan support from the state legislature and the Governor’s Office, $700,000 is restored to the state appropriation for Legal Services, maintaining the level of State support at $10.5 million.
The statewide planning and engineering process continues, culminating in September 1998 with the distribution of a second three-year statewide reengineering plan, “Justice For All 2000: A Master Plan for Legal Services in New Jersey, 1999-2001.”
In June, the United States Supreme Court decides 5-4 that funds deposited in an IOLTA attorney trust account remain the property of the client, creating major uncertainty concerning the legitimacy of IOLTA funding across the nation. The Court notes, however, that two major issues remain—whether the funds were “taken” without “just compensation.” It will take five more years for the litigation concerning these questions to return to the Supreme Court.
The second edition of You and the Law in New Jersey, edited by Leighton Holness and Melville D. Miller, Jr., is published by Rutgers University Press.
1999
The LSNJ statewide Health Care Access Project commences.
New Jersey IOLTA revenues remain the highest of any state, but still drop suddenly at mid-year because of reduced interest rates.
LSNJ convenes the first annual statewide Substantive Law Conference at Shawnee in May.
A new statewide Supplemental Security Income Project (SSI), to gain SSI for eligible people on state public assistance, commences at LSNJ in September.
In collaboration with over 70 other community, religious, labor, and advocacy organizations, LSNJ helps inaugurate the Anti-Poverty Network of New Jersey in December. LSNJ also issues a landmark statewide study, “The Real Cost of Living in New Jersey,” that same month.
2000
The national LSC appropriation is set at $329 million.
LSNJ secures an additional $1 million in state funding to replace lost IOLTA revenue, bringing the total state appropriation to $12 million with IOLTA revenues.
LSNJ commences the Wilentz Forum, an annual lecture series, in honor of the former Chief Justice Robert Wilentz.
2001
New Jersey continues for the third year in a row as the state with the most IOLTA revenue, reaching $13.9 million in 2001.
In November, the next year’s LSC appropriation is maintained at $329 million.
Dawn K. Miller rejoins LSNJ as a vice president.
New Jersey Legal Services goes through an extensive planning process, culminating in a new three-year expansion and reengineering plan, covering 2002-2004. As a consequence of the national LSC’s great emphasis on merger, the plan calls for merging 14 local programs into seven.
2002
The LSC accepts New Jersey’s consolidation plan, except it requires that Passaic County be included with Bergen and Hudson in the new Northeast New Jersey Legal Services. A litigation challenge by the former Passaic provider is quickly dismissed in federal court in the fall.
Leighton Holness, LSNJ’s Executive Vice President, retires for health reasons and is replaced by Dawn K. Miller. Claudine Langrin joins LSNJ as a Vice President.
With funding set aside for innovation, LSNJ creates a new statewide Anti-Predatory Lending Project, consisting of several central staff at LSNJ and grants to four regional programs to hire an additional attorney each. The project will serve as a model for future efforts to coordinate focus statewide on particular legal problems, within the existing New Jersey Legal Services framework.
In the four new regional programs, planning begins for the 2003 operational date for merger.
LSNJ releases a milestone social science study of the unmet legal needs of low-income people in New Jersey, finding that at least one-third of New Jersey’s 1.8 million low-income people eligible for Legal Services need a lawyer each year. Of these, only one-sixth will be able to obtain a lawyer, given Legal Services’ limited funding.
2003
On January 1, four new regional programs come into existence, as South Jersey Legal Services (covering Cape May, Atlantic, Cumberland, Salem, Gloucester, Camden, and Burlington); Central Jersey Legal Services (Union, Middlesex, and Mercer); Northeast New Jersey Legal Services (Hudson, Bergen, and Passaic); and Legal Services of Northwest Jersey (Sussex, Warren, Hunterdon, Somerset, and Morris) all start operations. They join Ocean-Monmouth Legal Services and Essex-Newark Legal Services to make up a new statewide network consisting of LSNJ and six regional programs.
In June, in the return of the IOLTA case, the United States Supreme Court decides 5-4, with the deciding vote cast by Sandra Day O’Connor, that there was no “taking” of the interest on IOLTA fund deposits, thereby preserving more than $150 million in annual funding for Legal Services programs nationally.
Due to plunging bank interest rates and a declining real estate market, IOLTA revenue begins to plummet toward a record percentage drop: 25% over two years—unprecedented instability that is a harbinger of impending calamity.
2004
At the urging of the IOLTA Board, the New Jersey Supreme Court moves toward adopting new requirements for the approval of financial institutions as depositories, mandating that interest rates be both comparable and reasonable.
At the request of LSNJ, the legislature and the governor approve an additional $4.4 million of funding to replace lost IOLTA revenue.
Richard Bennett, long-time director of Union County Legal Services, retires.
Michael Cole steps down as Chair of LSNJ’s Board after nine years. Former Supreme Court Justice James Coleman assumes the Chair and Michael Cole remains on the Board.
2005
Banks challenge the new interest rate requirements and, acting on behalf of an ad hoc Supreme Court committee, De Miller negotiates with banking leaders a new “best customer standard,” under which banks must treat IOLTA the same as they treat other customers with similar-sized deposits. The new approach sets a national precedent.
As a result of the new interest rate requirements, IOLTA revenues begin to rise sharply.
The LSC issues a national “justice gap” report in the fall, and LSNJ follows a few weeks later with a New Jersey justice gap study, which draws significant legislative and media attention.
LSNJ launches a new innovation project, the Education Representation Project, with six regional grants for attorneys and a coordinating attorney at LSNJ.
In October, the state Legal Services network honors Michael Cole at a statewide reception for his extraordinary achievements expanding legal services for those in poverty.
2006
The LSC issues revised Performance Criteria, setting standards for its grantees. De Miller is again a primary author. The American Bar Association issues its own revised standards for legal assistance providers, along with a call for a “Civil Gideon” right to counsel in key legal matters.
LSNJ announces several more statewide innovation projects in health care access, employment, complex consumer matters, community economic development, and social work.
Boosted by the new interest rate standard and an active real estate market, IOLTA revenues hit a record high of $33 million, but the justice gap remains enormous.
Legal Services in New Jersey commemorates its 40th Anniversary at the New Brunswick Hyatt in November. Legal Services releases a “Just Justice” video as part of celebration.
2007
IOLTA revenues climb to $40 million, but signs of trouble, in the form of declining interest rates, appear on the horizon.
Legal Services of New Jersey presents an Equal Justice award to Honorable Deborah T. Poritz, retired chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, and she becomes LSNJ Board chair.
Tim Madden, Director of Hudson County Legal Services and then Northeast New Jersey Legal Services, retires after 40 years. He is succeeded by Jack Fitzgerald.
Douglas E. Gershuny is promoted to Executive Director of South Jersey Legal Services (SJLS), taking over the role of Larry DeCosta.
Legal Services of New Jersey launches the Legal Assistance to Medical Patients (LAMP) Project, New Jersey’s first “medical-legal partnership,” at Newark Beth Israel hospital. This model is later expanded through a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and support by the RWJBarnabas system to hospitals in Jersey City, Paterson, Camden, New Brunswick, Long Branch, Elizabeth, and more.
LSNJ launches a new Mortgage Foreclosure Defense Project.