By Marilyn Odendahl
The Indiana Citizen
April 24, 2026
The financial showdown has almost become routine.
Legal Services Corp., which provides funding to 129 civil legal aid agencies across the country, including Indiana Legal Services, has submitted a request for $2.14 billion in federal dollars for fiscal year 2027 to help meet the needs of struggling households. However, the Trump administration’s proposed budget allocates only $21 million and that is just to cover the cost of shuttering the organization.
Congress has been splitting the difference, appropriating more than $500 million to LSC in recent years.
Caught in the middle of this annual fight are low-income individuals and families who are facing serious non-criminal legal problems that could alter their lives. They could lose custody of their children, get evicted from their home, forfeit a chunk of their paycheck to a garnishment, or get booted from much-needed public assistance, such as food stamps, without the guidance and support of a lawyer.
“It’s really difficult to navigate the legal system without help,” Jon Laramore, executive director of Indiana Legal Services. “It’s a system that’s built for lawyers. Mainly the people we represent are … not there by choice and they need a way to get through that system with the least damage.”
At its current funding level of $540 million in fiscal year 2026, LSC estimated that of the 3.7 million people who seek help from legal aid offices across the country, 1.1 million will be “fully helped.” Another 800,000 will receive some legal assistance but not enough to fully resolve the issue, and 1.8 million will be turned away, according to LSC’s FY 2027 budget request.
Also, LSC noted only a small percentage of individuals and families burdened with a legal matter are turning to a legal aid agency for help. The nonprofit asserted that at least 17 million low-income people will not seek the legal help they need.
To qualify for LSC-funded civil legal aid services, a household’s annual income cannot exceed 125% of the federal poverty level. In 2026, a family of four could not make more than $40,188 per year and an individual could not bring home more than $19,950.
Without an attorney, LSC said, low-income individuals were far less likely to be successful in court. And that can have consequences beyond the parties directly involved in the legal matter. LSC pointed to studies that show providing legal representation to domestic violence survivors leads to “decreased domestic violence rates within communities, higher family income and reduced mental health issues.”
Laramore said Indiana Legal Services, which has eight regional offices across the state and about 170 employees, is receiving roughly 600 requests for help each week, and, in 2025, closed 16,353 cases, helping almost 38,000 people. A majority of those closed cases, 36%, were for housing issues and 28% were for family law.
Compiling all the legal work that ILS does into an elevator pitch, Laramore said, would require the elevator to be in a 100-story building. While housing and family law make up the bulk of the work, the agency also provides other help, including to individuals needing an expungement or facing a debt collection or trying to obtain a power of attorney.
Laramore anticipates his legal team will be handling more public benefits cases as the state and federal government impose new restrictions and requirements on assistance programs in an effort to cut alleged waste, fraud and abuse. Households will turn to ILS when they lose their access to such things as food stamps and Medicaid.
“I think that the people who moved this through Congress were actually fairly frank about the fact that people would be disqualified because the system would either be too complicated to comply with or they would comply, but there would be bureaucratic problems that would disqualify them,” Laramore said. “So, there will be lots of that work.”
About half of the funding ILS relies on to do its work comes from the Legal Services Corp. The Indiana nonprofit has an annual budget of $17 million and, for fiscal year 2025, received $9.74 million from LSC. For the 2026 fiscal year, ILS got $9.37 million in LSC funding, a slight reduction due to a cut in the federal appropriation.
LSC’s budget request to Congress first exceeded a billion dollars four years ago. In fiscal year 2021, the agency asked for $526.6 million and in fiscal year 2022 sought $1.02 billion.
Looking at the upcoming fiscal year, LSC said the top areas of legal need will include helping families facing a debt collection for medical services and accessing health care. LSC highlighted in its fiscal year 2027 budget request that 23 million Americans are struggling to managing their medical bills, which has led to an estimated 78 million Americans forgoing medical care for fear of going into debt.
Laramore said the people needing legal aid are usually floundering amid circumstances they could not avoid. His lawyers have told him stories about clients who were doing fine, until a medical emergency impeded their ability to work, which created a spiral of unpaid bills and eventually led to an eviction. Many times, he said, these attorneys could see themselves struggling in a similar situation.
For the sixth time, the Legal Services Corp. is pushing back on calls from both Trump administrations to zero out federal funding for civil legal aid, Laramore noted. Four times, he said, LSC got an increase, but last year, it received a 3.8% cut.
The money coming from LSC is important, Laramore said, because it is unrestricted and can be used to cover a variety of expenses. If Congress adopts the slashed appropriation proposed by the White House and the LSC dollars quit flowing, ILS would be forced to pull back.
“Indiana Legal Services would not go away, but we would be very different,” Laramore said. “We would have to significantly cut back on our services.”
Dwight Adams, an editor and writer based in Indianapolis, edited this article. He is a former content editor, copy editor and digital producer at The Indianapolis Star and IndyStar.com, and worked as a planner for other newspapers, including the Louisville Courier Journa
The Indiana Citizen is a nonpartisan, nonprofit platform dedicated to increasing the number of informed and engaged Hoosier citizens. We are operated by the Indiana Citizen Education Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. For questions about the story, contact Marilyn Odendahl at marilyn.odendahl@indianacitizen.org
