Legal Services of New Jersey, Inc.

Census data indicates that more than 2 million people in New Jersey-- nearly one out of every four in the state--have incomes low enough to qualify for Legal Services' helmore than 460,000 low-income adults in NJ have at least one serious civil legal problem each year. Of these, fewer than one in six receive help from a lawyer. There is one Legal Services lawyer in NJ for every 11,000 people eligible for services, compared to one private attorney for every 200 people in the general population. New Jersey has 7 Legal Services programs: 6 regional field programs, providing direct service to clients in all 21 counties, and LSNJ, the statewide coordinating office. The current Legal Services staff numbers more than 420 statewide, including more than 180 attorneys. LSNJ ties the six regional program efforts together, providing information, training, legal and administrative coordination, technical assistance, and other support. LSNJ also provides client representation in matters of broad significance, and initiates special projects in response to particular, emerging needs of the low-income population. Current special projects at LSNJ include: LSNJ-LAW, a toll-free, statewide legal hotline; the Domestic Violence Representation Project; the Immigration Representation Project; the Health Care Access Project; the Family Representation Project; the SSI project; the Consumer Protection/Home Defense and Anti-Predatory Lending Projects; the Family Representation Project; the Prisoner Reentry Project; the Education Representation Project; the Senior Citizen Legal Representation Project; the Workers Legal Rights Project; the Legal Assistance to Medical Patients Project; the Tax Legal Assistance Project; the Veterans Legal Assistance Project; and the New Jersey Poverty Research Institute.