Cash from talc verdict flows to Legal Services budgets

The Missouri Supreme Court is hailing a recent influx of $126.1 million to help low-income Missourians access civil legal services.

In a statement, the court said the funding, which was included in a supplemental budget bill that lawmakers passed in May, constitutes the largest single payment ever into the Basic Civil Legal Services Fund, which supports Missouri’s legal service organizations.

“This action by our constitutional partners in the legislative and executive branches to appropriate these funds to the judicial branch represents Missouri government working at its very best,” Chief Justice Paul C. Wilson said in the June 9 statement.

Wilson added that the money would help low-income Missourians with legal issues ranging from escaping domestic violence and drug use to obtaining housing to assisting the elderly and disabled obtain benefits for which they are eligible.

The money stems from a massive verdict in St. Louis in 2018 for 22 women and their families who alleged that Johnson & Johnson talcum powder contained microscopic asbestos fibers that caused ovarian cancer. After both the Missouri Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case, the plaintiffs’ attorneys wired more than $480 million to Missouri’s Tort Victims’ Compensation Fund.

Under state law, once a case reaches final disposition, 50 percent of any punitive damages award, minus attorneys’ fees and expenses, must be deposited into that fund. Most of the money is used to compensate tort victims who have been unable to obtain full compensation for their injuries because the party at fault had little or no insurance or had filed for bankruptcy.

However, 26 percent of the compensation fund is dedicated to the state’s four Legal Services agencies, which are geographically divided to cover all 114 counties plus the city of St. Louis and serve individuals typically living at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty level.

The Supreme Court said $41.2 million was allocated to Legal Aid of Western Missouri, $37.1 million to Legal Services of Southern Missouri, $36.6 to Legal Services of Eastern Missouri and $10.3 million to Mid-Missouri Legal Services. The allocations are based on the poverty population within the counties each organization serves.

LAWM Executive Director Alicia Johnson said that while a committee of current and former staff and board members will decide a short-term and long-term plan for the funding in the coming months, she does anticipate at least one solution to reduce the amount of people that LAWM is forced to turn away.

“I do see increased staffing in our future,” Johnson said.

MMLS Executive Director Susan K. Lutton said that funding has not kept up with inflation in the last 20 years, a problem that the pandemic exacerbated. According to Lutton, the organization has to turn away 70 percent of people who request services, when it used to be able to assist half of its received requests.

Lutton said that MMLS intends to use the money to hire more attorneys.

“Just looking at the number of people we reject on a daily basis because we lack the resources to help everyone, we know that’s what we’re going to do,” Lutton said.

Lutton said that MMLS has increased its starting attorney salary to $50,000 in the last six months to compete with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office.

According to the court, about $4.8 million has passed from the tort victims fund to the four agencies during the past four fiscal years. The four programs closed more than 16,000 cases in 2021.

In a joint statement, the four organizations said that while the additional funding will significantly impact Missouri families, it still is not enough to meet the legal needs of everyone.

“As tens of thousands of families struggle with the impact of COVID, this funding comes at a time when the need for legal aid has never been greater,” Dan Glazier, Executive Director for Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, said in the statement.