WASHINGTON DC -- Legal Services of North Carolina (LSNC), a group receiving state and federal funds to assist poor North Carolinians with legal problems, is facing mounting criticism for filing lawsuits for Mexican residents against North Carolina farmers following a controversial Mexican trip in January and February of this year. The National Legal and Policy Center, a watchdog group which investigates abuses in the legal services program, today called on LSNC Chairman J. Donald Cowan, Jr. to immediately cease all improper representation of foreign clients.
The North Carolina legal services case received national attention earlier this week when The Wall Street Journal reported that videotape from a hidden camera caught legal services lawyers in Mexico providing legal assistance to Mexican citizens. Federal law prohibits the provision of legal services to foreign nationals not present in the United States.
The controversy over LSNC first surfaced at a February 25, 1998 House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on funding for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), the federal program which is the largest funder of Legal Services of North Carolina. Representative Charles Taylor (R-NC-11) asked LSC officials why North Carolina legal services lawyers were taking a mid-winter trip to Mexico using funds earmarked to assist poor North carolina residents. The subcommittee’s Chairman, Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY-5) directed LSC to investigate the case.
NLPC has become the leading watchdog organization exposing abuses with the federal legal services program. NLPC promotes ethics and accountability in government through distribution of the “Code of Ethics for Government Service,” and through research, education and legal action.