Committee on Legal Aid

The Committee on Legal Aid is charged with the duty of considering methods and proposals for rendering legal aid to the poor and of maintaining a continuing study of the administration of justice as it affects the poor.  It shall make recommendations with regard to remedial measures intended to assist the poor in the protection of their legal rights, to encourage the establishment and efficient maintenance of legal aid organizations, and to cooperate with other associations and agencies, public and private, interested in these objects.

The New York State Bar Association’s President’s Committee on Access to Justice and Committee on Legal Aid invite all legal services and pro bono providers, as well as other providers of free legal representation to low-income community members (e.g. public defenders, assigned counsel panel members, attorneys for the child, etc.) in the State of New York to participate in virtual public hearings regarding access to Justice in the post-COVID legal landscape.

We are requesting testimony from public interest legal services organizations, law firms, solo- practitioners and other providers of legal services to New York’s low-income communities.

Areas of focus will include developments since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic regarding access to justice in relation to family court, immigration proceedings, housing court/landlord-tenant proceedings, criminal justice, social security proceedings, state benefit proceedings, the efficacy and equitability of remote proceedings, and the factor that race plays throughout these considerations.

We are particularly interested in testimony regarding the interrelationship and impact of high-volume courts’ hybrid virtual/in person court proceedings and operations, and the effect of the digital divide on low-income community members, court users and providers of free legal assistance to these communities.

The Virtual Public hearings were held via Zoom on Tuesday, November 16, 2021, from 1:00pm – 4:00pm and Thursday, November 18, 2021, from 9:00am – 12:00pm.

Please see the video’s below:

Please submit written testimony by November 24, 2021 to Elizabeth Jois at [email protected]

Sally F. Curran, Esq., Co-Chair Committee on Legal Aid
Adriene L. Holder, Esq., Co-Chair Committee on Legal Aid
Tiffany Danielle Liston, Esq., Co-Chair President’s Committee on Access to Justice
Edwina Frances Martin, Esq., Co-Chair President’s Committee on Access to Justice
Sherry Levin Wallach, Esq., New York State Bar Association President-Elect, and Co-Chair President’s Committee on Access to Justice