Timeline
LASP work + impact over 20+ years
LASP Timeline: Our work and impact over 20+ years
In preparation for the Fête for Justice, LASP’s 20+ anniversary celebration held May 19, 2022, current LASP staff and former Executive Directors Harvey F. Strauss and Elizabeth Wood Fritsch reflected on some impactful milestones in our history.
This timeline represents just a few highlights from years of work by dedicated LASP staff on behalf of our clients in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties.
> 2001
The new organization now serves low-income people within a 2,059 square mile service area. LASP operates a toll-free Helpline so that legal help is only a phone call away
> 2005
LASP joins Don’t Borrow Trouble, a national antipredatory lending campaign. Regionally, the project was a coalition of public and private partners from all four counties which came together to deal with and combat predatory lending and other illegal lending practices.
> 2008-09
LASP responds to the Great Recession by assisting more low-income and vulnerable clients than ever before. The increase in services is astounding as it occurs during a period of program funding cuts resulting in lower staff levels
> 2014
LASP provides new hope and opportunity to people whose lives are drastically limited by old, minor criminal records when it launches a regional record expungement practice. Removing these records improves access to jobs, education and housing.
A LASP attorney establishes an important precedent when a client is awarded a protection order on the basis of spousal rape.
> 2016
LASP obtains Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funding to place specialized domestic abuse attorneys in each county.
> 2017
LASP participates in launching the Eviction Prevention and Intervention Coalition (EPIC), to make legal and social services available to low-income tenants at their eviction hearings. The goal is to prevent homelessness. A collaboration with Your Way Home, the Montgomery Bar Association, Montgomery County courts and other community groups, the project now operates in seven courtrooms.
LASP opens an office in Media to better serve Delaware County domestic violence victims seeking protection orders.
> 2018
LASP implements an online application portal. People who need LASP’s services can apply 24/7 from a desktop computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone.
> 2019
Community members realize that low-income Chester County mobile home owners are paying unfairly high property taxes. United Way of Chester County, LASP and Honey Brook Food Pantry initiate a tax reassessment project to help residents appeal their assessments. In 2019-21, the project results in 756 successful tax appeals, saving homeowners an average of $885.35 on their annual taxes. Altogether, mobile home owners will save $6.7 million over the next 10 years.
The Community Engagement unit (CEU) is launched. The unit builds community partnerships and brings legal clinics, education, and representation to people in their own communities, with a focus on collateral consequences of the criminal justice system and access to disability benefits.
Hatboro Federal Savings becomes LASP’s first partner in the Neighborhood Assistance Program tax credit project, which awards contributing businesses up to a 75% tax credit. The project funded by Hatboro Federal Savings brings services to low-income communities in Lower Bucks County
> 2020
LASP staff mobilize to continue legal aid services during the COVID-19 pandemic, working remotely according to local, state and federal guidelines. While remaining committed to the health and safety of staff and clients, LASP stays open and provides essential Helpline service and legal representation throughout the public health crisis.
LASP starts the Veterans Advocacy Project to provide holistic, trauma-informed legal services to veterans, with initial funding from the HealthSpark Foundation, in collaboration with Veterans MultiService Center (VMC). Other partners include Norristown Vet Center, and the Montgomery County and Delaware County Offices of Veterans Affairs. The project also receives funding through DAV (Disabled American Veterans) Charitable Service Trust, United Way of Chester County, and Community Action Agency of Delaware County.
An early criminal record expungement client achieves a dream. The client begins their medical residency and joins the fight against COVID-19 as a doctor in a big-city Emergency Room.
> 2020-21
LASP serves clients throughout the pandemic. Advocates handle 10,824 cases in FY 2020-21, more than at any time since the Great Recession.
> 2021
In response to a federal disaster declaration in eight PA counties (including all 4 in our service area) following Hurricane Ida on Sept 1, LASP provides disaster legal aid and opens the statewide disaster helpline, working with the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other legal aid organizations in Pennsylvania
Note to former LASP clients, staff, Board and community partners
To share additional reflections on Legal Aid of Southeastern PA’s impact over the past 20+ years (or the predecessor county legal aid programs) in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties:
Please contact Marion Hoffman Fraley, Communications Director, at mfraley@lasp.org or 484-212-5875.