Shore Legal Access touts increasing casework, services as they expand to all 8 Eastern Shore counties
SALISBURY, Md -Shore Legal Access is touting a successful re-brand and expansion of services to cover all 8 Eastern Shore counties.
Since rebranding from Mid-Shore Pro Bono, the legal aid group has added 4 full-time positions, including 2 new attorneys and a new focus on cases and services in lower shore counties.
“We started to realize that there were many civil legal needs that were going unmet. So we changed our name to be inclusive of the entire geography that we serve, which is eight counties of the Eastern Shore, and what this has done is allowed everybody to connect to the services that we provide,’ said Executive Director Meredith Girard.
Girard tells 47ABC they’ve seen a 75 percent increase in cases- and a 60 percent increase in services.
Girard says those numbers are a testament to the needs of underserved communities.
“In the last six months, our intakes have increased about 15% and I would say the majority of that increase is driven by clients in the lower shore because people haven’t had access to these services before,” Girard said.
The group says the staffing means is not just helping family court clients to represent themselves as they did in the past, now the experts can be in the room to help navigate the process.
“To assist folks with divorce, custody, adoption name, change the family law issues that can be stressful for folks,” Girard said adding that having a lawyer in the room is something they are still working towards.
“We need volunteer attorneys desperately to assist us with family law cases. Those are cases where we can pay attorneys a modest amount to for their work. But it is such a huge impact on the lives of our clients,” Girard said.
The 2nd most abundant cases the group covers are housing disputes, including failure to pay rent and eviction actions. The group says they are looking to raise awareness for clients of the different options available to them, and when landlords are not acting in their best interest.
“There is laws that protect you and there’s laws that they have to abide by, whether they want to admit that or not and try to skim by,” said housing Manager Elliet Earhart, adding that clients should know that the only person who can evict you from a home is a State Marshall with eviction papers in hand from a court.
Earhart says the additional staff allows them to handle more cases, playing catchup on cases that were not being served in lower shore counties.
“I’ve had 25 cases on one docket that we’ve gotten and having two attorneys there to handle both of them instead of just one running around is a lot better,” she said.
Shore Legal Access is hoping for additional funding from private donors, grants, and state dollars to help them serve their clients.
Director Meredith Girard says they aimed to serve 3 thousand people a year, surpassing that figure in just the last 6 months.
