NCJ Number
92893
Date Published
1983
Length
21 pages
Annotation
The report of the White House Mini-Conference on Legal Services for the Elderly concluded that legal services are essential in any effective social services delivery system and that legal services programs, the private bar, and the aging network together offer the potential to address the unmet legal needs of the elderly.
Abstract
Legal services are integral to vindicating the rights of the elderly and to the delivery of social services to the elderly. To ensure the effective provision of legal services to the elderly, existing efforts must be maintained and new efforts initiated, with the goal of achieving a full range of legal services to the elderly. Effective legal services to the elderly require the continued involvement of lawyers, the Legal Services Corporation, other legal services units, the private bar, law schools, paralegals and nonlawyers, and support systems such as those now provided by the Administration on Aging and the Legal Services Corporation. A framework for this comprehensive legal services delivery system should continue to be incorporated into the Older Americans Act. Because constitutional and legal rights are fundamental rights of all citizens and because the exercise of such rights is often necessary to meet other basic needs of life, the Older Americans Act and any similar government program of general services to the elderly should include specialized legal services as an essential component. Congress should reauthorize the Older Americans Act, including the priority for legal services, and the Legal Services Corporation Act, with both supported at the fullest possible level of funding and without restrictions on the availability of legal representation for older Americans. The appendix lists the conditions legal services providers must meet in receiving a Federal grant for State and community programs on aging.