Wyoming is one of a handful of states that don't provide any state funding for legal representation of low-income people.

The state of Wyoming will spend about $20 million during the 2009-10 biennium on the Office of the State Public Defender, which handles criminal cases and serves many indigent clients. Yet it doesn't spend a dime to provide legal services to the poor in civil matters, instead relying solely on federal dollars.

The Access to Justice Commission, headed by Wyoming Supreme Court Justice James Burke, plans to ask state lawmakers for a one-time appropriation of $500,000 to set up a new program. To run it, the commission will seek a $10 to $15 increase in district and circuit court filing fees, which is an appropriate method to raise the necessary funding.

There's no doubt money will be tight during the legislative budget session. But low-income people have such a tremendous disadvantage in the courts, and the need for services is so great, that lawmakers should look at other areas to cut to fund this one-time expense.

For more than four decades, Wyoming Legal Services, a private, nonprofit organization, provided services to the poor through a grant from the federal Legal Services Corporation. But in October 2008, after complaints from the agency about not adhering to LSC regulations and grant requirements, Wyoming Legal Services relinquished its $660,000 annual federal grant.

Two months later, Wyoming Supreme Court Chief Justice Barton Voigt established the Access to Justice Commission, which has held public hearings in Cheyenne and Evanston and plans more in Riverton (Oct. 29), Casper (Nov. 9) and Gillette (Nov. 10).

"You hear some of the same stories," Burke told Star-Tribune capital bureau reporter Joan Barron. "There's an overall sense of helplessness."

According to the justice, the federal legal services grant -- which was given to a new agency, Legal Aid of Wyoming, in April -- was never intended to be the entire solution to helping low-income Wyoming residents with their civil legal problems.

Legal Aid of Wyoming, based in Cheyenne, has been swamped with applications and has had nearly 900 cases throughout the state. But Burke said the office has turned down a sizeable percentage of people who call for help because they cannot meet income guidelines for the federal program. That's why a statewide program is needed to help fill the gaps in services.

According to the American Bar Association, about 80 percent of low-income people who are faced with civil legal problems are forced to go into court on their own. Without knowledge of how the court system operates, the vast majority are destined to lose. Losing a civil case can plunge a poor family deeper into poverty and the need for public services.

Before Wyoming Legal Services left the scene, it noted that three-fourths of its income-eligible clients were women, and 61 percent of its cases involved family issues such as divorce, spousal abuse and child custody.

Also assisted by the agency were low-income workers trying to keep affordable and safe housing, people who needed disability benefits due to illness or injury, and people with severe debt problems due to serious illness not covered by insurance.

These people deserve legal representation. The state, perhaps in partnership with the Wyoming State Bar Foundation or a new nonprofit group that coordinates the pro bono work of attorneys, should step up and see that they get it.