Legal Services Alabama, the state’s only nonprofit provider of free, statewide civil legal aid, is at risk of losing its funding under the proposed federal budget for fiscal year 2026.
In fiscal year 2025, Legal Services Corporation received a congressional appropriation of $560 million. For fiscal year 2026, the Trump administration has proposed $21 million for close-out costs at LSC.
The LSC provides 75 percent of LSA’s total funding. Federal grants, which have also been terminated, provide the other 25 percent. Alabama is one of only two states that does not allocate money funding for legal aid.
If Congress does not intervene, more than one million Alabamians across the 67 counties will lose access to civil legal help.
In response to the proposed cuts, several national coalitions and bipartisan groups of statewide officials submitted letters of support for the Legal Services Corporation.
A letter from 40 bipartisan state attorney generals emphasized that the LSC represents “the frontline for protecting and expanding access to justice throughout America… providing critical civil legal help to millions.”
The 37 chief justices who wrote to the Subcommitee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies wrote that “justice for only those who can afford it is neither justice for all nor justice at all.”
No statewide official from Alabama added their name in support.
In 2024, LSA’s statewide call center fielded over 120,000 calls and provided legal assistance in 14,944 individual cases. The legal issues addressed included eviction, domestic violence, elder abuse, wage theft, access to health care and consumer fraud.
Over the last five years, the organization has closed 81,876 cases and delivered over $93.8 million in value to residents across Alabama. The organization’s impact has also generated more than $16.7 million in direct and indirect cost savings to the state and its residents, including through eviction prevention, increased access to public benefits and reduced burdens on emergency services and courts.
Out of the one million Alabamians who qualify for LSA’s services based on income, an estimated 800,000 live below the poverty line.
If LSC is defunded, the call center would close. There would be no staff to assist tenants facing eviction, no legal advocates for abuse victims seeking protection orders and no attorneys to help low-income seniors or veterans navigate benefit denials or recover from fraud.
The courts would see a dramatic rise in unrepresented litigants, increasing delays and procedural burdens on a stretched system.
Although past threats to LSC funding have been met with bipartisan resistance, including support from former Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, no current member of Alabama’s congressional delegation has made a public statement in defense of legal aid this year.
With no other funding source large enough to replace LSC, the elimination of federal support would effectively dismantle civil legal services for low-income people across the state. Without intervention, the proposed budget would remove the only statewide infrastructure for free civil legal help in Alabama.
