Advocates: NYC's Growing Foreclosure Crisis Outstripping Pro Bono, Government-Subsidized Lawyers' Ability To Handle Problem

In New York City, the New York Daily News reports:

• [T]he city's growing foreclosure crisis has outstripped pro bono and government-subsidized lawyers' ability to handle the problem, advocates said. "There are thousands of people out there who might be in need of legal assistance, and we just don't have the capacity," said South Brooklyn Legal Services foreclosure unit director Jessica Attie.

• Legal Services had so many foreclosure cases last year it had to stop taking new ones, she said. The group has now expanded its foreclosure unit. But even with an enlarged foreclosure practice, they can only take a fraction of the cases, Attie said.

• There is one more complication to finding free legal assistance for homeowners in trouble. Pro bono lawyers from elite city law firms are also not much help to homeowners facing foreclosures: Many of the firms represent the banks that are trying to take their homes.

For the story, see Nonprofit 'Common Law' trains homeowners to be their own lawyers.