Cuts hurt legal aid for abused Loss of federal funding endangers programs

Angela Hoy was afraid of her abusive ex-husband, but going to court was more terrifying to her than calling the police or confronting him during their marriage and subsequent divorce.

“I hate being in court,” the Bangor writer said Monday. “Being in court is the scariest thing I’ve gone through. Even when my ex-husband was only phoning in to hearings [from another state], I was terrified and I had a lawyer next to me. … I can’t even fathom what it’s like without a lawyer by your side. I don’t imagine I’d have gone through with it without a lawyer.”

However, many Maine women who leave their abusive spouses or boyfriends may face judges alone without legal representation. Programs that provided free legal services and attorneys to victims of domestic violence were not funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s legal assistance to victims program. Seven attorneys could lose their jobs.

Between 2000 and 2003, the Justice Department provided $600,000 in funding to Maine programs.

Pine Tree Legal Assistance, which has helped 3,500 people since January 2000, used its federal grant to pay for lawyers in Kennebec, Knox, Sagadahoc and Cumberland counties. Programs in York, Hancock and Washington counties collectively formed the Maine Battered Women’s Law Project and helped more than 450 clients with their grant.

The Penquis CAP Law Project, which serves between 150 and 200 clients a year, is on a different funding cycle, according to directing attorney Tamar Mathieu. It has funding through May 2004, but must submit its request for a new grant by the end of this year. The Law Project serves clients in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties.

An increase in requests for funding, fueled by a recent report that cited access to legal services as a significant factor in reducing domestic violence during the 1990s, coupled with the federal budget crunch resulted in fewer programs getting funding, said Elizabeth Wenk, a spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe.

Offices of Maine’s congressional delegation began receiving phone calls last month when word of the funding loss became official.

The Department of Justice received 221 applications nationwide, requesting a total of $98.7 million, Wenk said last week. The department was able to fund 94 grants, totaling $33 million. The only program funded in Maine was through the University of Southern Maine’s Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic.

Donna Baietti, executive director of the Aroostook County Battered Women’s Project, and Laurie Fogelman, executive director of Next Step in Hancock County, said they are scrambling to find the money to continue offering legal services to their clients.

The legal issues facing victims of domestic violence, 95 percent of whom are women, are multifaceted, according to Baietti. There may be criminal charges against alleged abusers as well as the civil protection from abuse orders and possible divorce proceedings. The inequity comes when the batterers have the money for legal representation and the victims don’t, she said.

Most often, attorneys funded through Justice Department grants represent women at protection from abuse hearings held shortly before the temporary orders expire, according to Baietti. Issues of financial support, custody of children and division of property often are decided at these hearings. Parties can represent themselves, but only attorneys can act as advocates for them before district court judges.

“A PFA is a legal process and having knowledge of the court process and the rules of evidence is very important, especially if it is contested,” said Maine Supreme Judicial Court Justice Jon D. Levy, a former Maine District Court judge who served as chairman of the Maine Family Law Advisory Commission from 1996 to 2000. “It has great ramifications for both the plaintiff and the defendant. The court attempts to make the process as accessible as possible, but in the end it is a legal process that can be quite complicated.”

A common problem for people unfamiliar with courtroom procedure are the detailed rules of evidence, according to Levy. How documents can be admitted and authenticated and the admissibility of hearsay testimony can surprise and confuse people trying to represent themselves.

Attorneys also can sometimes negotiate details on behalf of their clients outside the courtroom, according to Rick Doyle of Ellsworth, who works with Next Step.

Fogelman said last week that advocates around the state are seeking alternative funding to make up at least part of the more than $600,000 the federal grants covered. Funding is being sought from the state Department of Public Safety, the Maine Bar Foundation, the Maine Women’s Fund and the Maine Community Foundation.

In the meantime, women’s shelters will continue to provide help for clients seeking to become independent of their abusers, even if legal services for them are harder to obtain, providers said last week.

One survivor said that facing her abuser in court was possible in part because she was accompanied by her attorney.

“Court is 100 percent confrontation,” said Hoy, author of “The Emergency Divorce Handbook for Women,” which is available free online at www.angelahoy.com. “Nothing is scarier than walking into a situation when you have no idea what you’re walking into. Even normal people are intimidated by the courtroom, let alone abused people without legal representation.”