Florida Legal Services Firm Inundated With Foreclosure / Bankruptcy Clients; Campaign On To Raise Operating Funds

In Jacksonville, Florida, the Jacksonville Daily Record reports:

• [Jacksonville Area Legal Aid executive director Michael] Figgins and his staff are inundated with clients seeking relief from bankruptcy and foreclosure. While the latter is grabbing the headlines these days, both issues are related and both mean standing room-only when JALA hosts its bankruptcy and foreclosure clinics.

• While JALA’s clients face life-altering problems, Figgins is facing issues of his own: budget cuts from everywhere and not enough attorneys and staff to handle the number of cases JALA takes in on a weekly basis. Help is on the way, though, and it’s through a public/private partnership between the City, a banker and a publicist. If that sounds like a campaign in the making, you’re right. However, no one is seeking office. The goal is to raise $1 million for JALA.

For more, see Getting tough on foreclosure.