Legal Aid
The difficulties that the alien meets in American courts have been investigated by Frances A. Kellor, managing director of the North American Civic League for Immigrants, and described in a late number of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. It is shown that his fate in smaller communities depends on the character of the justice of the peace, and that character is not of the highest order often, owing to the low requirements for the office and the fee system that prevails. In the higher courts it is frequently difficult for the immigrant to receive justice because of his ignorance and inadequate legal defense.
It was to remedy such conditions as those cited by Miss Kellor, for one thing, that legal aid societies have been formed here and there. The Legal Aid Society of Chicago is a consolidation of the Bureau of Justice and the Protective Agency for Women and Children. It is an auxiliary of the Chicago Woman’s Club. Its objects are: “To assist in securing legal protection against injustice for those who are unable to protect themselves; to take cognizance of the workings of existing laws and methods of procedure and to suggest improvements; and to propose new and better laws and to make efforts toward securing their enactment.” Women appear among the officers, directors and counselors as well as among the financial backers of this society. In 1913, legal aid was given to more than 15,000 poor people in addition to 2,400 old clients. The superintendent, Mrs. Wm. Boyes, has to interview about 125 people a day. She says: “The Society last year investigated 2,700 complaints growing out of domestic relations. This class of case requires more work than formerly, as the courts require fuller and fuller investigations. We have a representative from our Society in the Court of Domestic Relations all the time. She has handled during the year 473 cases in that court. The other cases have been advised in the office, and although they are the most heart-breaking kind, involving the drunkenness or failure to provide on the part of a husband, or the insanity of a mother, or custody of a child, we are fortunate in having on our staff three or four women who are most successful in the adjustment of these tragedies.”
A plan of the Women’s Committee to give greater publicity to the work of the Legal Aid Society has been carried on with success in women’s clubs of Chicago. The superintendent, Mrs. Boyes, does much of the speaking that this work involves. A young woman lawyer has been placed in the Boys’ Court to advise those who need defense and are unable to pay attorney’s fees.
The workers for the Society include many women, as the work is of a social character with which they are familiar and in which their interest lies. These workers are akin to probation officers, as the courts are continually calling upon them to investigate cases. In two cases these workers are assigned to courts and give their full time there. Cases are also referred to this Society from other agencies—police, newspapers, charities, settlements.
The Legal Aid Society has promoted loan shark legislation, among other reforms. It helps the Wage Loan Society and kindred agencies. Its great effort now is directed to enlisting the interest of the regular legal profession in an attempt to make that profession accept social service in connection with its work, just as hospitals and the medical profession accept social service in health work. Lawyers should make the Legal Aid their own work, it is claimed.
A National Alliance of Legal Aid Societies was started in 1912, and this will doubtless have considerable influence on labor and protective legislation.
Of wider scope than the legal aid societies are many other associations concerned in work that is more or less correctional in character. Of these only a few can be mentioned here.
Legislation
The Juvenile Protective Association, of Chicago, to which reference has been made, is a very forceful group of women and men working together for the prevention of juvenile delinquency through legislative and social means. The objects revealed in its charter are: