House OKs Bill Allowing LSC-Affiliated Non-Profit Law Firms To Pocket Prevailing Party Legal Fees From Losing Litigant; Senate To Address Measure

The Washington Post reports:

• [Last week] the House [of Representatives] approved a budget of $440 million for the LSC [Legal Services Corporation](1) -- up $50 million from 2009 funding and $5 million more than the amount requested by the Obama administration. Lawmakers also lifted a restriction that kept legal aid lawyers who prevail in cases from recovering attorney's fees from the losing party -- a benefit available to winning lawyers in many civil rights or consumer protection cases. This move was important because those fees could be used to further supplement the LSC's budget. The Senate, which is scheduled to take up the funding measure [...], should go even further in freeing legal aid lawyers from federal restrictions.

For more, see Helping Lawyers Help the Poor (Congress should free legal aid lawyers from burdensome restrictions).

(1) Created by Congress in 1974, the LSC provides grants to civil legal aid organizations that in turn help represent the poor in civil cases.