Online Resources on the History of Civil Legal Services in the U.S.
As a follow-up to Kate's last post on National Support Centers, I thought that I would highlight some online resources available on the history of civil legal services in the United States.
A great place to start is the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), and specifically the work of Alan Houseman and Linda Perle, who together authored "Securing Equal Justice for All: A Brief History of Civil Legal Assistance in the United States" (PDF). Also available on the CLASP website are "Civil Legal Aid in the United States: An Update for 2007" (PDF) and "The Future of Civil Legal Aid in the United States" (PDF), both by Houseman.
The NLADA website provides a brief history of civil legal aid and Wikipedia has a "Legal aid" category, which provides some background on a few state, national and foreign legal aid organizations.
On Google Book Search you'll find Justice and the Poor, by Reginald Heber Smith, and the excellent Brutal Need: Lawyers and the Welfare Rights Movement, 1960-1973, by Martha Davis. (And while not much of it is available online, I would also recommend Access to Justice, by Deborah Rhode.)
Finally, LSNTAP has compiled a number of resources that cover the history and role of technology in the legal aid community here. -M
