The Maryland Legal Services Corporation (MLSC) was established as a nonprofit organization by the Maryland General Assembly to receive and distribute funds to grantees that provide civil legal services to the poor. In recognition of outstanding contributions by Maryland individuals and organizations that provide or support justice to the poor, MLSC has created four awards to be given annually, as follows:

• The Arthur W. Machen, Jr. Award
• The Benjamin L. Cardin Distinguished Service
• The William L. Marbury Outstanding Advocate Award
• The Herbert S. Garten Public Citizen Award

Nominations for the 2013 awards must be submitted not later than June 14, 2013 to MLSC. Formal awards will be presented at an Awards Ceremony in the fall.

For online nomination forms, nomination descriptions and instructions as well as a list of past award recipients, see Nominating Process. If you need any additional information or assistance, please contact hrobinson@mlsc.org.

This listing includes major events sponsored by MLSC grantees. Please contact the event sponsors for more information.

March

3/21/13 – Maryland Public Interest Law Project, Inc. – Annual Goods & Services Auction, 6 – 9 p.m., University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, Westminster Hall, 500 West Baltimore Street, Baltimore. For more information, see www.law.umaryland.edu/auction.

3/28/13 – Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service Annual Benefit – March Madness, 6 – 9 p.m., M&T Bank Stadium, 1101 Russell Street, Baltimore. For more information, see www.mvlslaw.org.

April

4/18/13 – House of Ruth Maryland – 12th Annual Spring Luncheon, 11 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., Marriott Waterfront Hotel, Baltimore. For more information, see www.hruth.org.

4/24/13 – Catholic Charities Baltimore Esperanza Center‘s 50th Year Anniversary, 5:30 – 7:00 p.m., Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish, 600 S. Conkling St., Baltimore. For more information, contact Francisco Plasencia at fplasenc@cc-md.org or (443) 825-3423.

May

5/1/13 – Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center 15th Anniversary Celebration, 6:30 – 9:30 p.m., China Garden Restaurant, Rosslyn, VA. For more information, contact Kimberly Ahn at (202) 706-7079 or  kimberly.ahn@apalrc.org.

5/16/13 – Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland‘s 15th Annual Maryland Partners for Justice Conference, 9 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., Baltimore Convention Center, 1 West Pratt Street, Baltimore. For more information, see www.probonomd.org.

5/21/13 – Baltimore Neighborhoods, Inc. – BNI’s 54th Annual Meeting & Fundraiser Celebrating the 45th Anniversary of the Federal Fair Housing Act, 6 – 8:30 p.m., Temple Oheb Shalom, 7310 Park Heights Ave., Baltimore. For more information, contact Robert Strupp at 410-243-4468 or rstrupp@bni-maryland.org.

Maryland’s legal services safety net imperiled by looming sunset of filing fee increase

February 5, 2013, Baltimore, MD – The Maryland Legal Services Corporation (MLSC), which funds more than 30 civil legal services programs that help low-income Marylanders, told its grantees that if MLSC is unable to secure additional funding, they can expect a five percent reduction in grant funding for fiscal year 2014, beginning July 1, 2013.

This directive, which comes on the heels of a 5 percent funding cut last year, assumes that MLSC will be successful in its efforts in the Maryland legislature this year to repeal a law that would result in a 40 percent loss in MLSC’s revenue.

At its annual Grant Informational Meeting, MLSC Executive Director Susan Erlichman told current grantees, as well as other interested applicants, that MLSC continues to face significant funding shortages. Revenue from the Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts (IOLTA) program, MLSC’s original primary funding source, continues to decline and has decreased 74 percent since 2008 when interest rates plummeted to near-zero. IOLTA now accounts for only 12 percent of MLSC funding. An increase in court filing fee surcharges enacted in 2010 by the Maryland General Assembly to address the IOLTA shortfall averted a significant crisis in the state’s legal services delivery system at that time, but fell short of projected revenues.

The 2010 legislation contained a three-year “sunset” provision which is scheduled to take effect June 30, 2013. “The sunset has left MLSC teetering at the edge of a fiscal cliff,” Erlichman said. “Should the provision take effect, MLSC would face a catastrophic loss of approximately $6 million, representing 40 percent of its revenue.”

Erlichman told its grantees that MLSC is seeking repeal of the sunset, noting that “such a loss would decimate our ability to address the legal needs of low-income Marylanders at a time of unprecedented need.”

Programs such as the House of Ruth, the Legal Aid Bureau, the Maryland Disability Law Center, the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service, the Homeless Persons Representation Project and county and regional programs throughout Maryland rely on MLSC to fund programs that provide legal assistance to Marylanders struggling with mortgage foreclosures, food stamp applications, veterans’ benefits, domestic violence, and other serious legal issues.

“We face real and immediate challenges as we seek to maintain essential services,” said Chairman Glenn F. Ivey. “We’ll be working closely and tirelessly with our many partners to make sure we hold onto current funding, and pursue increased resources to avoid the need for further cuts and help meet the increasing demand.”

MLSC was established by the Maryland General Assembly in 1982 to receive and distribute funds to nonprofit organizations that provide civil legal assistance to low-income persons. It is governed by a nine-member Board of Directors appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate. From its inception, MLSC has made grants totaling over $182 million to help provide services to nearly 2 million low-income Marylanders needing help with issues involving family, housing, consumer, employment, health care and other civil legal matters.

Credit Card Payments and IOLTA Accounts

Beginning January 2013, if the tax identification number and name on file for the lawyer or law firm with the IRS do not exactly match the tax identification number and name of the lawyer or law firm provided to the credit card processing company, a mismatch will be declared. If a mismatch has occurred, a 28% withholding penalty, from their gross credit card sales, for the previous year will occur. The 28% withholding penalty will then be submitted to the IRS. Section 6050W does not make a distinction between credit card transaction deposits made to a trust or IOLTA bank account and an attorney’s operating account. For attorneys who have mismatched information, a 28% penalty could cause an overdraft in their IOLTA account, resulting in an ethical violation.

Important Information for Attorneys Who Accept Credit Card Payments

Changes in the law regarding the reporting of credit card transactions have the potential to negatively impact IOLTA accounts and lead to ethical violations by lawyers.

• Pursuant to the Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008, credit card processing companies are required to verify and match each merchant’s federal tax identification number and her legal name with those found on file with the IRS. An EXACT match is required.

• For the purposes of this requirement, lawyers who accept credit card payments are considered “merchants.”

• If there is NOT an exact match between the information provided to the credit card processing company and the information on file with the IRS, there are serious consequences:

• Beginning January 2013, the IRS will impose a 28% withholding penalty on all credit card transactions, including those that the lawyer directs to her IOLTA account.
• If client funds that should be in the IOLTA account are withheld due to the lawyer’s failure to act and thus are not available to the client on demand, ethical issues are raised.

• The credit card processing company should have received information from the IRS if a mismatch occurred and already notified the lawyer of the problem. However, it is not known if all processing companies have provided such notice.

Steps lawyers can take now to avoid an ethical violation in 2013:

• Contact the credit card processor to determine that a match occurred

• Correct mismatches if informed of one

For more information on this issue, see https://www.lawpay.com/news/irs6050w.pdf.

In honor of the 30th anniversary of the Maryland Legal Services Corporation (MLSC), Senator Benjamin L. Cardin lauded MLSC’s accomplishments in the Congressional Record on December 20, 2012. Cardin stated, “As chairman of Maryland Legal Services Corporation from 1988-1995, I know firsthand the extraordinary service they provide to Marylanders.” He noted the increased importance of MLSC’s mission as more people are in need of civil legal services and gave examples of people around the state that have benefited from services by the nonprofit legal services organizations that receive funding from MLSC. See the entire statement in the Congressional Record of the 112th Congress: Senate, Vol. 158, No. 165.