Memphis Area Legal Services, Inc.
 
Serving the Tennessee counties of Shelby, Fayette, Lauderdale and Tipton.
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Memphis Area Legal Services Director Testifies To House On Funding Crisis

Harrison D. McIverTestifying before a Judiciary subcommittee on Tuesday, the director of Memphis Area Legal Services said his 20-attorney staff has had to turn down 65 percent of poor people seeking help because of a lack of resources.

Harrison D. McIver III told the House Judiciary subcommittee on commercial and administrative law that Congress must provide a "substantial increase in funding" to meet the needs of clients struggling in a bad recession.

The executive director of the four-county office for 11 years, McIver said the Shelby, Fayette, Lauderdale and Tipton county region suffers with 13.3 percent unemployment and an exploding case load that may reach 10,545 by the end of this year. In 2006, by contrast, the office handled 6,631 cases.

The Commercial Appeal Online,
October 27, 2009, Article by Bartholomew Sullivan
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Forty years ago in the wake of the tragedy of Dr. Martin Luther King’s death, that beset the Memphis, Shelby County community and indeed the world, 30 members of the legal profession in Memphis, Shelby County, created the Neighborhood Legal Service Project. Two years later the NLSP gave way to the chartering of Memphis Area Legal Services, Inc. (MALS).

Today MALS is the principal provider of civil legal assistance to low-income individuals and the elderly in Southwestern Tennessee, anchored by  Memphis, Shelby County,  with three other counties, Tipton, Fayette, and Lauderdale, comprising its four-county service area. MALS has two offices – one in downtown Memphis, which serves Shelby County, and the Covington office that serves the three smaller rural counties. Our case acceptance priorities include issues relating to Family and Children; Housing and Real Property; Consumer Issues , Individual and Civil Rights; Health and Income Maintenance and Seniors.

With more than 175,000 of the most vulnerable residents in our service area eligible for assistance, MALS is dedicated to helping those who cannot afford legal counsel navigate the legal system in order to safeguard their rights under the law.

Please read to learn more about MALS, the services we provide and how you can volunteer and/or support the work we do on behalf of those who otherwise would have no voice.
MALS