Legal Aid of Southeast Pennsylvania

Legal Aid Receives $270,000 in Montgomery County Contracts--Pottstown Office will Remain Open

December 11th, 2012

Legal Aid was awarded contracts from the Montgomery County Commissioners to support Housing and Child Dependency work in Montgomery County that will enable it to keep the Pottstown office open, despite the loss of $281,000 in general operating funding from the county.
 
“Harvey Strauss, co-executive director of Legal Aid, said he was "very happy, very pleased, very grateful" for the contracts, which he said would enable Legal Aid to keep its Pottstown office open and to "continue to provide services that we're proud of."

In a press briefing following the meeting, Shapiro explained that Legal Aid had received the new contracts because situations in which the court is required to appoint outside counsel for indigent defendants would have been more expensive with a provider other than Legal Aid.

"Legal Aid was uniquely positioned to provide those services," Shapiro said, adding that the commissioners had consulted on the matter with several judges on the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas following last week's budget hearings.”

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Co-Executive Director Liz Fritsch Featured in Technology Article on Slate.com

December 11th, 2012

While nothing will replace having enough funding and legal advocates in place to help our very vulnerable clients, Legal Aid is working to improve its central telephone intake unit through replacing it’s call center with a better system that should reduce wait times, give out better information when callers are waiting, and ultimately use text messaging as a way to remind people of appointments, documents to bring to court and reinforce safety messages for abuse victims and others.  Liz Fritsch was recently featured in a Slate.com article reviewing some of these strategies to improve services through enhanced technology.

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