By Barbara McMurray, Special to the Independent
Laguna Beach attorney A. Jane Fulton took notice when President Joe Biden announced this week that he’ll take executive action to ensure minorities and low-income Americans have better access to quality legal representation after services dwindled during the previous administration.
In 2013, Fulton founded the public interest law firm Seaside Legal Services to provide free professional legal help to people who cannot afford counsel. She welcomed Biden’s move as a watershed event as he directed the U.S. Department of Justice to reactivate the dormant Access to Justice Office and to restart the White House Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable, which will examine the pandemic’s impact on equal access to justice in both civil and criminal matters.
Biden wrote that the pandemic “has further exposed and exacerbated inequities in our justice system” as access to legal services were slashed. The cracks in the system are evident locally, Fulton said.
At the free monthly legal clinic she directs at the Susi Q Senior Center for low-income residents 55 and older, Fulton said, “We have eviction cases coming out of our ears. We are seeing seniors who have lived and worked in Laguna their whole lives who are being priced out of town by extraordinary rents. Retail and hotel workers, artists can’t afford anything close to town.”
Seaside Legal Services is a lesser-known element of Laguna Beach’s social safety net that includes a food pantry, medical clinic, and services for seniors and people experiencing homelessness.
Fulton formed the nonprofit to bridge the widening “justice gap” that leaves people with modest or low incomes without adequate representation. Through Seaside Legal Services, experienced attorneys are available to those who can prove economic hardship in cases involving civil matters including divorce, child custody, bankruptcy, wills and trusts, healthcare billing, tenant-landlord disputes, and record expungement. Criminal cases are handled through the Orange County Public Defender’s office.
“Millions of Americans have no access to free or affordable lawyers, even for civil matters that will forever alter the course of their lives,” Fulton said. “Law is one area where a huge imbalance of supply and demand does not draw new entrepreneurs. The gap is widening as even middle-class homeowners are priced out of having the means to grapple with civil legal issues that could spell personal economic disaster that will take them years to dig their way out of.”
Fulton is hopeful her nonprofit can apply for federal funding that may become available through the Access to Justice Office, but in the meantime, Seaside Legal Services continues to depend on private donors, lawyers willing to work pro bono or for reduced hourly rates, and an annual taxpayer-funded grant from Laguna Beach.
Fulton pointed to seasidelegalservices.org as a valuable resource for people who need legal help.
“Folks are often surprised that they can resolve issues themselves by accessing the information available on our nonprofit’s website,” she said.
Seaside Legal Services occupies a downtown Laguna Beach office, in addition to the monthly legal clinics at the Susi Q Senior Center. For information about senior clinics contact Martha Hernandez at 949-715-8104.
