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AN ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE COMMUNITY LEGAL EDUCATION MOVEMENT IN THE LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION
Abstract
This study examines how teaching about the law complements the work of legal services programs for the poor, how Community Legal Education (CLE) has been designed and implemented, what problems have programs faced implementing CLE, and what solutions have been proposed to overcome those problems. This study traces the historical foundations and development of CLE within the Legal Services Corporation (LSC). It also examines organizational characteristics of 62 legal services programs with identifiable CLE components and describes how three programs have successfully integrated CLE into their work. Finally, it sets forth a series of recommendations for the LSC and local programs to research and develop CLE as a complementary service component. This study indicates that CLE is not well understood by many persons employed in legal services and that such misunderstanding may be attributed to the plurality of CLE functions. The study also found that CLE functions include eradicating legal illiteracy, providing alternatives to individual case aid, acting as a complementary strategy to law reform work, insuring that the program remains accountable to clients, and promoting client involvement to insure the program's political survival. This study reveals that while CLE was one of the original service modalities for legal services programs, it has not been considered important enough to develop on a large scale. Four major obstacles to the implementation of CLE have been identified: (a) inadequate criteria to test CLE effectiveness, (b) LSC dependence on clients for political protection, (c) reliance on attorneys to design and implement CLE, and (d) the limitations inherent in assisting large numbers of clients on an individual basis. The study concludes that CLE can be an effective service if integrated into the LSC structure and made a part of other LSC activities.
Subject Area
Adult education|Continuing education
Recommended Citation
RAMIREZ-SOTO, ISMAEL, "AN ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE COMMUNITY LEGAL EDUCATION MOVEMENT IN THE LEGAL SERVICES CORPORATION" (1984). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI8500126.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI8500126