Legal Aid Program Has Expensive Taste

WASHINGTON — The government-backed clinic where Richard Taylor seeks free legal help uses furniture worthy of a second-hand store. The carpets are worn. And the walls lack the standard glut of law books and journals that usually adorn law firm libraries.

Across the country, the neighborhood offices of the Legal Services Corp. where one out of every two poor Americans is turned down for help because the agency lacks resources are a far cry from the federal program's headquarters.

Documents obtained by The Associated Press detail the luxuries that executives of Legal Services have given themselves with federal money from $14 "Death by Chocolate" desserts to $400 chauffeured rides to locations within cab distance of their offices.

"I don't think that's right," Taylor said, as he walked from the program's inner city legal clinic in the nation's capital, covering his head with a towel to protect himself from the searing summer heat.

Details here from the AP via LexisONE.