ABSTRACT
A federally funded Legal Services Program was established in the Office of Economic Opportunity in 1965. The importance of legal services has not diminished since President Nixon introduced the Legal Services Corporation legislation in 1973. During the intervening years the Legal Services Corporation has been established and has succeeded in one of its principal goals–that of providing a minimal level of access to the legal system in every county of this country. The level of legal services to the poor is likely to collapse under the weight of the Administration's proposed consolidated health and social service grant. The Administration is probably referring to this program when they claim that states could use the proposed block grants to fund legal services. The competition between providers of services for funds coming from a single "capped" source will bind legal services organizations. State and local contributions to the legal services effort remain miniscule.
