Legal Services Corporation’s ‘By the Numbers’ Report Reflects Ongoing Impact of the Pandemic on Legal Aid

Contact           
Carl Rauscher           
Director of Communications and Media Relations           
rauscherc@lsc.gov    
202-295-1615            

 WASHINGTON–The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) has released “By the Numbers: The Data Underlying Legal Aid Programs.” The new report quantifies the work done by 132 LSC-funded legal aid organizations around the country in 2021. Including both national and state-level data, the report allows for comparisons over time and across different regions.

“This data is crucial in understanding the impact of the resources that Congress dedicates to supporting civil legal aid services for low-income Americans through LSC,” said LSC President Ron Flagg. “By gathering and analyzing information on the services rendered through these programs and the clients served, we improve our ability to meet their ongoing needs.”

The previous “By the Numbers” 2020 data reflected abrupt, enormous disruptions to the lives of low-income Americans at a time when most LSC-funded organizations providing legal services had to close their offices and re-develop their service delivery models to function virtually. The new 2021 data captures the ways in which pandemic-related challenges persisted, while also demonstrating the continued efforts of LSC grantee organizations to overcome these obstacles to serve their communities.

Highlights from the report include:

In 2021, LSC grantees served over 1.7 million clients and their household members. Demographic information included in the report shows that among named clients, 72% identified as women and 19.4% were age 60 or older.
LSC grantees closed 713,393 cases in 2021, representing an increase from the 659,164 cases closed in 2020.
The cases closed by grantees in 2021 included 252,436 Housing Law cases and more than 208,479 Family Law cases, compared to about 200,398 Housing Law cases and 204,611 Family Law cases in 2020.
Historically, Family cases have been the most common type of cases closed by LSC grantees each year; the 26% increase in Housing cases closed in 2021 reflects the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the civil legal needs of low-income Americans.
LSC grantees reported 148,057 cases involving domestic violence—a 7.3% increase from 2020, continuing an upward trend in the number of cases involving domestic violence.
Pro Bono attorneys closed 43,939 cases, or 6.3% of all cases closed in 2021.
LSC grantees provided legal education or information to 1.5 million individuals at presentations, events, court help desks and other venues.

For more information about the services provided by LSC’s grantees in 2021, as well as information on client demographics, program staffing, revenue, expenses, and involvement by private attorneys, read the report here. A video on the report is also available here.

Legal Services Corporation (LSC) is an independent nonprofit established by Congress in 1974. For 50 years, LSC has provided financial support for civil legal aid to low-income Americans. The Corporation currently provides funding to 131 independent nonprofit legal aid programs in every state, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.  