Expanding the Availability of Free Legal Assistance in Family Law Matters: The Need to Serve Fathers and Achieve Improved Family Outcomes

Joy Moses and Hilary Evans explain in Cornerstone how to expand the availability of free legal assistance to serve low-income fathers.

Family law cases represent the greatest area of unmet legal need. According to the Legal Services Corporation, providers are unable to serve 391,038 people a year who need this type of assistance, representing a full 41 percent of denied cases. Issues related to child custody, visitation and child support may be particularly important to the families of the 44 percent of low-income children (below 200 percent of poverty) who live with only one of their parents. Non-custodial parents, typically fathers, could face challenges that limit time spent with their children and produce other negative consequences. Some fathers are involved in domestic violence cases or have children in the child welfare system.

The above excerpt was originally published in Cornerstone. Click here to view the full article.

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