Legal Aid Society of Cleveland

The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland is a legal aid society in Cleveland, Ohio established in 1905. It helped pioneer a nationwide legal aid movement whose leaders held to a simple but profound principle: that rich and poor alike are entitled to equal treatment under the law.

The first legal aid organization, the Deutscher Rechts-Schutz Verein (German Legal Aid Society), was incorporated in New York City in 1876 "to render legal aid and assistance, gratuitously, to those of German birth, who may appear worthy thereof, but who from poverty are unable to procure it."Chicago's Ethical Culture Society formed the Bureau of Justice in 1888, which sought to provide legal services to all poor persons. This, according to a chronology of the history of legal services, was the first true legal aid organization.

In 1896, the New York society amended its charter, dropping the word "German" to become "The Legal Aid Society," and in 1899 it opened three branch offices. Following these pioneers, legal aid societies were organized in Boston (1900), Philadelphia (1902), and Cleveland (1905).

Now, for more than one hundred years, the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland has provided legal services to those unable to afford a lawyer. It is an organization with a remarkable story of progressive men and women working to better the lives of Cleveland's poor.

Incorporated in May 1905, the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland is the fifth oldest organization of its kind in the world. In a statement of purpose published in 1906, the founders wrote, legal aid is based on the principle that justice is the right of all men, and aims to put the rich and poor on an actual equality before the law.

Two private attorneys, Isador Grossman and Arthur D. Baldwin organized Legal Aid, which was initially funded through private donations and subscriptions. Grossman was its sole attorney from 1905 to 1912. From 1912 to 1939, Legal Aid contracted with outside law firms to provide legal services.

A focus of Legal Aid in its beginning years was working for passage of legislation aimed at unconscionable practices of businesses that preyed on low-income persons. Legal Aid's first annual report refers to a measure to regulate moneylenders who were charging poor people interest rates of 60% to 200%. A Legal Aid trustee was the principal author of a 1910 bill to create the first municipal court in Ohio. Creation of that court eventually led to the demise of the exploitive Justice of the Peace courts in the state.

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