Members of New York Legal Services Coalition Express Gratitude in State Investment in Access to Justice, But Signal Urgent Need for Increased Funding in Response to Expanding Federal Funding Threats  

For Immediate Release: September 24, 2026 

Contact Name: The New York Legal Services Coalition, America Rivera, arivera@empirejustice.org 

Empire Justice Center, Cyren Romeo, cromeo@empirejustice.org 

(Albany, NY) - On September 24, members of the New York Legal Services Coalition (NYLSC), a network of 56 nonprofit civil legal services providers across the state called for an additional increase of $25 million in Judiciary Civil Legal Services (JCLS) funding and a continued 3% cost of living adjustment. The public hearing was held by the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals and the State of New York. The panel includes the four Presiding Justices of the Appellate Division: Hon. Dianne T. Renwick, Hon. Hector D. LaSalle, Hon. Elizabeth A. Garry, and Hon. Gerald D. Whalen, as well as the Chief Administrative Judge, Hon. Joseph A. Zayas, and the President of the New York State Bar Association, Taa Grays. 

The purpose of the hearing is to evaluate the continuing unmet civil legal services needs in New York and to assess the additional resources needed to meet those needs through the input from legal experts, advocates and clients. Additionally, the hearing discusses the “impact of federal funding cuts and programmatic restrictions on civil legal services and the access to justice gap in New York” as well as, “The effect of Judiciary Civil Legal Services (JCLS) funding on the delivery of civil legal services, the fair and efficient administration of justice in the State courts, and the need for additional funding.”  

In their call to action, NYLSC members highlighted the stability and flexibility of the Judiciary Budget for Judiciary Legal Services, such as the agency's response to the late State Budget and the response to mid-contract funding increases. However, the Coalition brought attention to the continued issues of pay parity and workforce retention, and the shifting landscape of federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funding that creates instability for civil legal services organizations in New York. Finally, the overarching federal threats to H.R. 1 and the proposed changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF) add additional pressures to restrictions on immigrant communities’ access to Medicaid and SNAP benefits, as well as LSC-funded providers ability to maintain staff as PSLF was an essential tool for recruitment and retention of staff attorneys faced with high student debt.  

Kristin Brown, President and CEO of Empire Justice Center and president of the NYLSC, said: “New York's $179 million investment in civil legal services through JCLS. This critical funding enables our 56 member organizations to provide the essentials of life: preventing eviction, protecting survivors of abuse, securing income and benefits, and ensuring access to lawful immigration status for low-income New Yorkers. Even more, most of our clients are Black, Latine, Indigenous, and other people of color who navigate justice and economic systems that are structurally biased in favor of those with greater resources. Maximum flexibility in JCLS funding is critical to our stability and allows us to respond to unanticipated policy changes, funding losses, and evolving community needs. This flexibility has been essential to retaining staff, bridging unforeseen gaps, and ensuring that vulnerable residents have lawyers to enforce their legal rights. With federal funding under threat and unprecedented policy uncertainty, JCLS funding serves as a critical backstop, allowing us to absorb external shocks and continue serving our communities.” 

Sarah Nolan, Esq., Chief Executive Officer of Family Legal Care, said: “As the CEO of the only organization in New York State dedicated solely to empowering parents and caregivers to represent themselves in New York Family Court cases, I cannot emphasize enough how crucial JCLS funds are to providing invaluable stability in a tumultuous funding environment where other sources of funding have shrunk, become extremely competitive, or disappeared entirely. JCLS funding helps keep us nimble so we can respond quickly to emerging needs and remain a vital resource to families confronting issues at the heart of their well-being. We are proud of all that we do to help pro se litigants, but serious justice gaps remain, and more resources are needed.” 

Nic Rangel, Executive Director, Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York, said: “For the people we serve, access to civil legal services can mean the difference between keeping a home and losing it, maintaining financial stability and falling into crisis, or securing essential benefits and going without. JCLS funding gives organizations like the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York the capacity to provide that help across our communities. As demand continues to grow and other funding sources become increasingly uncertain, sustained and increased investment in JCLS is critical to keeping access to justice within reach for New Yorkers who need it most.”  

Adriene Holder, Chief Attorney of the Civil Practice at The Legal Aid Society, said, “We are deeply grateful for New York’s continued investment in civil legal services through JCLS. That investment allows us to be there for New Yorkers when they need us, while unrestricted funding gives us the flexibility to respond to what our clients and communities actually need—not simply what a particular funding category allows. That flexibility is essential to addressing emerging challenges, strengthening our workforce, and ensuring that when New Yorkers need the law to work, they have a lawyer who can make it work.” 

Sal Curran, Esq., Executive Director of the Volunteer Lawyers Project of CNY, Inc., said: “When our clients walk through our doors, their lives don't come packaged neatly into separate grant categories. Flexible funding allows us to respond to the full complexity of what a person needs, not just the one crisis we're funded to address, but the interconnected challenges that threaten their stability and dignity. For example, we worked with a young transgender man facing eviction, who also needed legal recognition of his true identity. Without flexible funding, we would have had to choose between helping him keep his home and helping him live authentically. That discretion to serve the whole person, rather than just the parts that fit a funding stream, is what transforms legal services from compliance into genuine justice.” 

Rezwanul Islam, Deputy Executive Director of Legal Services of Long Island, said: "The true measure of legal services is not how many cases we close in a single year, but whether we can stay with a family when one crisis leads to another. We represented a mother and her three young children against an illegal eviction, and more than a year later, when that same landlord filed a debt-collection lawsuit, we were able to represent them again, using the trial record we had already built and the facts we had already preserved. A new attorney wouldn't have the context that matters in cases like this one, and that family would have had to refight the same battle twice. Stable, multi-year funding, such as the Judiciary Civil Legal Services program, allows us to represent families through interconnected legal disputes without them having to start over. The ability to carry a case forward and adapt as circumstances change completely transforms what legal services can accomplish." 

Read all the full testimonies here. 

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About the New York Legal Services Coalition (NYLSC)  

The New York Legal Services Coalition is a statewide association that represents the interests of civil legal services organizations and the communities they serve. Our members collectively provide services in the areas of family law, housing, immigration, and public benefits across all 62 counties of New York State.