Bill Text: NJ S2557 | 2014-2015 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires Legal Services of New Jersey to submit annual report to Legislature on its staffing, caseload, and resources.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2015-12-10 - Received in the Assembly, Referred to Assembly Judiciary Committee [S2557 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2014-S2557-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator RONALD L. RICE
District 28 (Essex)
SYNOPSIS
Requires Legal Services of New Jersey to submit annual report to Legislature on its staffing, caseload, and resources.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act mandating reports to the Legislature concerning the provision of certain legal assistance to low income persons and supplementing Title 22A of the New Jersey Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Legal Services of New Jersey, the Statewide nonprofit organization that provides low income persons free legal assistance in civil matters, which is funded by State appropriations derived in part from court filing fees, by grants from the Board of Trustees of the Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts Fund, and other public and private sources, shall compile and report by April 30 annually to the Legislature, pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1), on its staffing, caseload, and resources for the previous calendar year. The information contained in the report shall include, but not be limited to, the total number of Statewide full- and part-time paid attorneys and staff, pro-bono attorneys recruited and used under its Statewide volunteer program, new cases handled, types of cases handled, case types as a percentage of total cases handled, total eligible clients requesting representation versus new clients actually accepted for representation, and demographic information on these new clients, including age, ethnicity, and familial status.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill requires Legal Services of New Jersey to submit an annual report to the Legislature, by April 30 of each year, concerning its staffing, caseload, and resources covering the previous calendar year.
The information contained in the report would include, but not be limited to, the total number of Statewide full- and part-time paid attorneys and staff, pro-bono attorneys recruited and used under its Statewide volunteer program, new cases handled, types of cases handled, case types as a percentage of total cases handled, total eligible clients requesting representation versus new clients actually accepted for representation, and demographic information on these new clients, including age, ethnicity, and familial status.
The sponsor's intent concerning the Legislature's collection of this information is to study the impact that changes (particularly reductions) in funding can have on the ability of Legal Services of New Jersey to perform its nonprofit function of providing low income persons free legal assistance in civil matters.
