Section 9 Financial assistance to state and local programs - Massachusetts Statutes

Section 9. The corporation shall, subject to appropriation or to the amount of monies available from the fund, or from funds made available from any other public or private source, provide financial assistance to both local and statewide programs. In each fiscal year at least eighty per cent of such financial assistance shall be distributed to local programs on a basis proportionate to the number of eligible clients within the service areas of such local programs. Up to twenty per cent of such assistance may be distributed to statewide programs.

In the distribution of such assistance the corporation shall insure the maintenance of the highest quality of service and professional standards, the preservation of attorney-client relationships, and the protection of the integrity of the adversary process from any impairment, and that recipients, consistent with goals established by the corporation, shall adopt procedures for determining and implementing priorities for the provision of such assistance, taking into account the relative needs of eligible clients for such assistance, including such outreach, training, and support services as may be necessary, including, particularly, the needs for service on the part of significant segments of the population of eligible clients with special difficulties of access to legal services or special legal problems, including elderly and handicapped individuals, and appropriate training and support services; and, in order to provide such assistance to such significant segments of the population of eligible clients; that attorneys employed full time in legal assistance activities supported in major part by the corporation refrain from any compensated outside practice of law, and any uncompensated outside practice of law except as authorized in guidelines promulgated by the corporation; and that no financial assistance distributed pursuant to this chapter shall be used to provide legal assistance with respect to any fee generating case, or to provide legal assistance with respect to any criminal proceeding or civil action arising out of or brought for the purpose of challenging the validity of a criminal conviction, or to provide services to persons who are not eligible clients; and that a substantial amount of financial assistance distributed pursuant to this chapter shall be provided, under standards established by the board, for compensation for legal services to indigent persons which are provided by attorneys who engage in the private practice of law.