Trio of legal aid organizations merge

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Consolidation is not a phenomenon limited to the banking industry.|ret||ret||tab|

Legal Aid of Southwest Missouri in Springfield, Meramec Area Legal Aid in Rolla and Southeast Missouri Legal Services in Charleston have merged to become Legal Services of Southern Missouri.|ret||ret||tab|

The three operations, whose shared mission is to provide lower-income and elderly persons with legal assistance, merged in January. The merged organization has its headquarters in Springfield at 2872 S. Meadowbrook Ave.|ret||ret||tab|

According to Kay Murnan, pro bono coordinator for Legal Services of Southern Missouri, the combined agencies serve clients in 43 southern Missouri counties. |ret||ret||tab|

"Legal Services Corporation, our parent organization, is a federally funded, not-for-profit corporation, and they want to have more consolidation in each state, where they would have fewer entities to deal with in each state, and this (merger) was to go along with that," she said.|ret||ret||tab|

Doug Kays, executive director of LSSM, said the merger will help free up resources for the three agencies.|ret||ret||tab|

"... All the administrative functions will be (handled) out of Springfield, and that will leave the other offices available to provide services, rather than to spend time on paperwork," Kays said. |ret||ret||tab|

He added that Murnan will assist the offices in Rolla and Charleston in developing pro bono programs. The offices in those cities have worked quite a bit with Judicare, a reduced-fee program, but haven't done much pro bono work, Kays said.|ret||ret||tab|

Murnan noted that the consolidation of services, including billing, will eventually help the organization save money. Funding, she added, has always been an area of concern.|ret||ret||tab|

"(Because of tight funding) we've always had to prioritize the cases that we take," she said.|ret||ret||tab|

Murnan said LSSM, which has 16 employees in Springfield, works with several hundred cases each month. She said clients who receive assistance from the organization are chosen based on income guidelines. |ret||ret||tab|

Murnan said anyone is welcome to apply for legal assistance in civil matters, but the organization doesn't handle any fee-generating cases, such as those involving personal injury. Often, she said, the cases that are accepted by the offices deal with emergency-type situations, such as abuse, or someone losing their shelter, or maintaining baseline income from disability or other public benefits of some kind.|ret||ret||tab|

She said LSSM has some lawyers on its staff who handle a caseload that's primarily targeted toward cases that private attorneys won't take, such as public benefits cases and tenant representation.|ret||ret||tab|

She said in addition to the lawyers on LSSM's staff, lawyers in the community also assist the organization's clients through one of the programs it offers.|ret||ret||tab|

"One of them is a reduced (fee) program called Judicare, and attorneys (with that program) have agreed to take our cases at much less than half of what their normal rate would be," she said.|ret||ret||tab|

"Then, we have the volunteer lawyers project where attorneys will take cases for free."|ret||ret||tab|

The merger, and the name change of the organizations, doesn't affect the services clients receive Murnan said.|ret||ret||tab|

LSSM's clients don't pay any attorney fees out of their own pockets, Murnan said, but they may be asked to pay court costs and filing fees.|ret||ret||tab|

LSSM provides the attorneys' fees via federal and state government funding, interest on lawyers' trust accounts (IOLTA), and the Division on Aging, which provides money to help specifically with elderly clients' cases, she said.|ret||ret||tab|

Murnan said even before the merger, the agencies would work together to help clients, and that will continue.|ret||ret||tab|

"Say a Greene County client has a problem in Poplar Bluff. Then we can call an attorney over there, or arrange for an attorney over there to help, but that's a networking that we have throughout the United States with other (legal assistance agencies), where we have a reciprocal referral," Murnan said.|ret||ret||tab|

Of the merger and its effect on the three entities, Murnan said, "I guess we've gone from being cousins to being siblings."|ret||ret||tab|

Both Murnan and Kays agreed that lawyers in the Springfield and southwest Missouri legal communities are very willing to help LSSM's clients, either at reduced rates or at no charge. Murnan said that's important.|ret||ret||tab|

"Oftentimes, a few hours of a lawyer's help can make a lifetime of difference for our clients, and that really is the truth, if it saves their home, if it makes them safe in their home from abuse, if it maintains their income so they can still make ends meet," she said. |ret||ret||tab|

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