A long overdue thank you.

• Author: McGrane, Miles
• Position: President's Page

Sir Winston Churchill said, "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." And what lawyers give more than those who devote their professional careers to providing legal assistance to people who could not otherwise afford it? They are the dedicated and conscientious--and glaringly underpaid--lawyers who carry out legal aid work.

I believe passionately in the mission of legal aid. The lawyers who staff the legal aid services in Florida are undeniably at the heart of our legal system; they ensure our system of justice is available to all.

While there is great nobility in rendering pro bono services, pro bono work alone is no substitute for full-time legal aid attorneys who devote their undivided attention and expertise to providing legal assistance to the poor. The legal aid lawyers often represent the only true access to our civil justice system for the less fortunate of our citizens. These include the working poor, the disabled, single mothers, the elderly, and, of course, children.

Early legal assistance programs were called legal aid societies and were operated by local bar associations. In the mid-1960s the federal government established an office of legal services to distribute federal money to local programs, and in 1975, Congress created the Legal Services Corporation as an administrative agency. Here in Florida, statewide support to provide civil legal services occurred in the early 1970s when The Florida Bar, along with the governor's office, set up a nonprofit organization, Florida Legal Services, Inc.

Today in Florida, legal services organizations in various counties are multisponsored and funded by federal, state, and local governments, The Florida Bar Foundation, The Florida Bar, local bar associations, and special grants.

Legal aid lawyers are at work every day to help these vulnerable people maintain or restore their independence by giving them the tools to help themselves.

According to The Florida Bar Foundation, lawyers working for legal aid services, which received Foundation grants last year, took on the challenge of 37,483 family matters and 18,074 housing issues, pursued 16,043 individual rights cases, 8,832 consumer issues, and worked on 7,878 income maintenance matters.

Here are just a few typical cases handled by legal aid lawyers last year:

* Lawyers from the Legal Aid Society of Collier County represented a mother of three who was suffering from multiple sclerosis. Her husband abandoned the...