Month: September 2012

You are invited to share your experiences and ideas at our final public hearing in La Crosse on October 16. This is a chance to share your knowledge of the challenges facing low-income Wisconsin residents when they need legal help with critical civil (not criminal) legal problems. We want to hear from you!

Date: October 16, 2012

Time: 4:00- 6:00 pm

Where:  Cleary Center at UW-La Crosse, 615 East Ave N,  La Crosse, WI 54601 (Directions; Free parking in the lot immediately south of the Cleary Center)

Your experiences, suggestions and insights on issues of housing, safety, family, employment and more are important to us.

We want to know:

• Who is receiving civil legal assistance?
• Who is falling through the cracks?
• What impact has receiving legal assistance made in your life or the lives of the people you serve?
• What is Wisconsin doing well for its low-income or vulnerable residents who need help with civil legal issues?
• How are you helping to meet the civil legal needs of those who cannot help themselves?

On September 13 in Milwaukee and then again on September 18 in Madison, local community members, judges, lawyers, social services agencies and others gathered to share their experiences in providing or finding civil legal assistance for low income people in Wisconsin.

The Access to Justice Commission is entering the home stretch for its series of regional access to justice hearings. The hearings began on July 24 in Green Bay and continued in Eau Claire on July 31. September’s hearings were in Milwaukee and Madison. The next hearings will be held in Wausau (October 2) and La Crosse (October 16).

Some common themes have already emerged from the testimony. The scale and complexity of the challenges we face in providing equal justice to all without regard to income is daunting. There are signs of hope and good ideas for how to move forward can be found in many places.

Clearly, the elimination of state funding for civil legal services to the indigent is widening the justice gap for low income people in Wisconsin. The legal aid system can only do more with less for a time; funding cuts and layoffs mean that they must now do less with less.

But the problems and the solutions go beyond money.

Read moreMilwaukee and Madison speakers highlight the fraying legal safety net for the poor

You are invited to share your experiences and ideas at a public hearing in Wausau organized by the Wisconsin Access to Justice Commission. This is a chance to share your knowledge of the challenges facing low-income Wisconsin residents when they need legal help with critical civil (not criminal) legal problems. We want to hear from you!

Date: October 2, 2012

Time: 4:00- 6:00 pm

Where: UW-Marathon County Center for Civic Engagement, 625 Stewart Avenue, Wausau, (Directions)

Your experiences, suggestions and insights on issues of housing, safety, family, employment and more are important to us.

We want to know:

• Who is receiving civil legal assistance?
• Who is falling through the cracks?
• What impact has receiving legal assistance made in your life or the lives of the people you serve?
• What is Wisconsin doing well for its low-income or vulnerable residents who need help with civil legal issues?
• How are you helping to meet the civil legal needs of those who cannot help themselves?