Source: VermontBiz
Vermont Business Magazine A new report released shows that Vermonters—especially low-income and vulnerable Vermonters—are facing broad and substantial unmet civil legal needs. In the five years since the last statewide study, these needs have increased substantially. The widening gap between legal needs and services is often called the “justice gap.”
Legal needs are present across the entire spectrum of civil legal subject areas, but several areas stand out. In particular, the data clearly shows that Vermonters are facing eviction and other housing legal issues at a crisis level.
Legal Services Vermont and Vermont Legal Aid reviewed a broad range of objective and subjective data, including requests for help to their systems, web analytics, court data, and input through public meetings and surveys, to determine the most persistent areas of unmet civil legal need.
“Our report makes it clear that the ‘justice gap’ is widening and we need to bridge that gap in Vermont,” said Sam Abel-Palmer, Executive Director of Legal Services Vermont. “Our goal is to have a coordinated review of the best ways to address these unmet needs. Organizations like ours stretch our modest funding as far as possible, so we need to find new and additional funding to help Vermonters in need.”
Read the full article: https://vermontbiz.com/news/2024/december/23/legal-services-vermont-and-legal-aid-publish-vermont-legal-needs-assessment
