About MLAC
The Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation (MLAC) was established by the Commonwealth in 1983 to ensure that low-income people with critical non-criminal legal problems would have access to legal information, advice and representation.
MLAC is the largest funding source for civil legal aid programs in Massachusetts.
Prisoners’ Legal Services: Working to Depoliticize Incarceration
/in Blog, Program News - Archives, Program News - Current /by mlacBy John Carroll On May 16, 2017, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to mentally and physically disabled prisoners seeking parole, requiring the state to assist them in developing release plans that address their disabilities with an eye toward reducing the chances that the paroled individual will re-offend […]
Children’s Law Center of Massachusetts: Securing Equal Justice for Low-Income Children and Youth
/in Blog, Program News - Archives /by mlacBy John Carroll Forty years ago, the Children’s Law Center of Massachusetts (CLCM) opened its doors in Lynn with a mission to promote and secure equal justice and maximize opportunity for low-income children and youth throughout the Commonwealth. Since then the organization has had remarkable success in protecting this vulnerable demographic group through local advocacy […]
Community Legal Aid: Fighting Poverty and Working for Justice for Over 50 Years
/in Blog, Program News - Archives, Program News - Current /by mlacBy John Carroll When she sought help from Community Legal Aid (CLA), Brittany was a single, working mother from Central Massachusetts who put her children to bed each night on the floors of the homes of her family and friends. With no stable living arrangements and very little money, she had lost her sense of […]
National Budget Proposals Would Harm the Poor; Pullback in Local Support Will Make Things Worse
/in Blog /by mlacThis post was first published on Huffington Post. By Lonnie Powers Across the country, recent headlines about the impact of the Trump administration’s proposed federal budget cuts to social safety net programs are dire and worrisome. “Analysis: Congregations can’t make up for proposed federal budget cuts,” read the header on a story in the national Catholic magazine […]
Community Legal Services and Counseling Center: A Hub for Justice and Healing
/in Blog, Program News - Archives, Program News - Current /by mlacBy John Carroll In the words of Executive Director Mojdeh Rohani, the aim of Community Legal Services and Counseling Center (CLSACC) is simply “to respect and uphold human dignity.” It does this by providing free civil legal aid and affordable psychological counseling to low-income people so that they may meet their most basic needs for […]
The Law, Lawyers, And The Courts: The First Line Of Defense Against Donald Trump
/in Blog /by mlac(This post was first published on WGBH News.) by Lonnie Powers There has seldom been a time when the wisdom of John Adams’s separation of powers among the three branches of government has been more obvious. The doctrine was a crucial innovation of the Massachusetts Constitution and was incorporated into the United States Constitution. The […]
Prepare To Dig In To Preserve Civil Legal Aid
/in Blog /by mlacBy Lonnie Powers We don’t quite know what to expect from the federal government in the weeks and months ahead in terms of support for civil legal aid. For decades, support for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), the nonprofit that administers federal funding to legal aid programs across the country, has been seen as a […]
Civil Legal Aid Can Help Veterans Struggling With Homelessness
/in Blog /by mlacBy Lonnie Powers On any given night in the U.S., close to 39,500 military veterans are homeless. Nearly 1,000 of them are in Massachusetts. These are men and women who have put their lives on the line in the deserts and mountains of Iraq and Afghanistan, and in the jungles of Vietnam. They fought in […]