Every month, Colorado Legal Services opens 1,000 new cases for low-income Coloradans seeking help with evictions, immigration proceedings, divorces, debt problems and other complex, bureaucratic processes that greatly impact their daily lives.
But the free legal aid organization turns away half of those who need assistance simply due to a lack of resources.
They’re hardly alone.
Colorado lags significantly behind its Western neighbors on per-capita state funding for legal aid, according to a new report published Thursday by the Colorado Access to Justice Commission, a coalition working to address barriers in the civil justice system.
The first-of-its-kind study showed Colorado provides just 73 cents for legal aid per capita. California, by comparison, allocates more than $5 per capita — seven times Colorado’s figure. Nevada and Washington each earmark more than five times the Centennial State for legal aid. Even deep-red Wyoming allots three-and-a-half times more money, the study found.
Of the 14 Western states analyzed as part of the report, 10 provided more funds than Colorado to help this underserved community.
“We’re way behind,” said Elisa Overall, the commission’s executive director.
That may be about to change.
Lawmakers on Tuesday introduced a bill that would double the amount of money Colorado allocates to legal aid organizations.
HB24-1286, dubbed the Equal Justice Fund Authority bill, would add a $20 fee to many civil court filings that would go toward organizations such as Colorado Legal Services, the Community Economic Defense Project and the Colorado Poverty Law Project.
The state currently funnels $4.42 million toward these organizations. Some of the money comes from a $5 docket fee in domestic cases, while a large portion stems from the legislature’s general fund.
All the money, though, is earmarked for specific types of cases. In 1999, the state created the first fund to expand the availability of legal assistance for low-income victims of family violence. Twenty years later, the Eviction Legal Defense Fund was created to help those at risk of not making rent. In 2021, lawmakers enacted another fund to help individuals who needed immigration legal counsel.
The new fee included in the proposed legislation — sponsored by Democratic Reps. Junie Joseph, of Boulder and Mary Lindsay, of Aurora, and Sen. Dylan Roberts, of Avon — would add a projected $5 million to this pot, roughly doubling the total funding.
And, importantly, this money could be used by organizations for all types of cases.
“The impact would be impossible to overstate,” said Matt Baca, Colorado Legal Services’ executive director.
Roughly $3.5 million of the new money would go to Baca’s organization. That could mean more staff attorneys, more advocates and potentially higher salaries to recruit and retain employees.
A 2022 third-party analysis showed Colorado Legal Services’ work provided a more than 600% social return on investment that year — meaning for every dollar invested in the organization, the state received an estimated $6.19 in financial benefits.
The need, advocates say, has never been higher.
Baca estimates legal aid organizations are underfunded by some $95 million every year. Colorado is on track for 70,000 evictions in 2024, with roughly 40 staff attorneys across these free legal clinics.
Unlike criminal cases, where individuals are entitled to an attorney regardless of their ability to pay, there are no such protections in civil cases.
“The legal processes are incredibly complex and difficult to navigate,” said Zach Neumann, co-founder of the Community Economic Defense Project, which helps people with eviction defense, towing cases and disaster relief. “If people don’t have an attorney, they’re likely to make mistakes and agree to deals not in their benefit.”
The systems, by nature, are opaque, Neumann said. Plus, a low-income renter facing eviction might be fighting by themselves against a well-funded property owner with experienced lawyers.
As a family law attorney, Joseph has seen these struggles firsthand.
She thinks back to a pro-bono case she took that would have cost $20,000 normally.
“I wonder if I didn’t take on this case, what would happen to my client,” Joseph said. “We don’t want people to depend on the good graces of other people.”
At the end of the day, she said, “We want to ensure your income should not be the predictor of how much justice you get in this state.”
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