Free legal aid services in Alaska get a boost from state and foundation funding

More Alaskans are set to have access to free legal aid as Alaska’s largest provider of legal assistance for civil cases gets a boost in short and longer term funding from the state and the Rasmuson Foundation. 

The Alaska Legal Services Corporation is a nonprofit that helps Alaskans with civil legal issues such as housing, public assistance, family law like custody disputes and protective orders, wills and probate issues, Alaska Native law and other areas specific to veterans, seniors, and people with disabilities. It is also the largest provider of free legal services for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. 

State funding for the agency comes from legal civil punitive damages and filing fees in the Alaska Court system. This year, the Alaska Legislature approved an increase from 10% to 25% of fees, estimated at roughly $460,000 per year. Gov. Mike Dunleavy allowed the legislation, House Bill 48, to go into law without his signature on June 4. The bill is set to go into effect next July, in 2027. 

Maggie Humm, executive director of the corporation, told lawmakers she estimates the organization turns away one person for every person they help due to limited resources. She said they provided legal assistance in over 5,400 cases, impacting nearly 15,000 Alaskans last year. 

On Wednesday, Humm said in an interview that she and her colleagues are grateful for the state’s support and expect that sustained funding will help the agency assist an estimated 800 more households each year. 

“So that’s very encouraging for us, particularly because when folks, if they do get turned away from our services, they often have nowhere else to go,” Humm said.

While every criminal defendant has the constitutional right to a lawyer, that’s not the case for civil cases. Nationally, only about 8% of legal problems are adequately addressed in low-income households, Humm said. “It can result in just a cascade of consequences for them, particularly low-income Alaskans, because their legal problems often impact their livelihood, their housing, their ability to put food on their table, the safety of themselves or their children,” she said.

Also on Wednesday, the Rasmuson Foundation, an Alaska-focused family foundation, announced an award to Alaska Legal Services Corp. of $1 million to go toward the agency’s Community Justice Worker program.

The program trains community members who are not lawyers to provide legal assistance on specific issues, under a rule approved by the Alaska Bar Association in 2022, Humm said. It’s a significant boost for the agency whose budget is roughly $9.5 million. 

“We are creating an additional level of legal helpers for our communities, and with the hope that we will be able to help more people,” she said. 

Humm said the model is inspired by the tribal Community Health Aide Program model, aimed at training local residents to serve as healthcare providers, particularly in rural and remote Alaska communities. The community justice workers are trained in providing legal assistance for debt collection defense, the enforcement of the Indian Child Welfare Act, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program advocacy, domestic violence protective orders and probate and wills, Humm said. 

“We have trained our first class of CJWs to represent folks in court in domestic violence protective order hearings, so we have staff CJWs who are already practicing in court, which is very exciting,” she said.

Gretchen Guess, President and CEO of the Rasmuson Foundation, said in an emailed statement Wednesday that the organization supports ALSC’s work to expand access to legal assistance. 

“Its Community Justice Worker Program is a proven, innovative approach to ensuring Alaskans can receive appropriate legal services, regardless of where they live. Rasmuson Foundation’s mission is to empower Alaskans to help each other, and we believe Alaska Legal Services is doing just that with this growing network of community justice workers,” she wrote.

Humm said the agency currently provides services in roughly 200 communities across Alaska, with the ultimate goal to expand to all communities.

“Our dream is to have a community justice worker, a legal helper in every community in Alaska, so that would be really wonderful,” she said. “But we’re going to set our sights high, and get as many community justice workers as we can across the state.”