Experts discuss the positive economic impact of civil legal aid in Legal Services Corporation’s “Talk Justice” podcast, released May 28. Legal Services Corporation (LSC)
President Ron Flagg hosts the discussion with guests Karen Dale, market president for AmeriHealth Caritas’ Medicaid managed care organization in Washington, D.C., and Holly Stevens, chief data officer at LSC.
In April, LSC published a research brief, “The Economic Case for Civil Legal Aid,” which shows the results of a systematic review of 56 economic impact studies conducted between 2003 and 2023.
The independent evaluations examined 39 different states. Every study found a positive return on investment (ROI) for civil legal aid spending, with an average return of $7 for every $1 invested in these legal services.
“The studies included [various] case types from housing and domestic violence to public benefits and healthcare, and what we found was compelling,” says Stevens.
“What really stood out to our team was how consistent the findings were—despite various methodologies, geographies, the case type compositions of the specific states legal aid organizations—the consistency in the findings was a strong signal that legal aid is a smart financial investment.
Stevens explains there are direct and indirect economic benefits. Direct benefits occur when legal aid helps a client recover wages, secure additional healthcare coverage or avoid the costs associated with being evicted. Indirect benefits come from legal aid’s ability to prevent “deeper crises” that would engage costly emergency services like shelters, medical care and law enforcement.
The ripple effects of legal aid also extend across generations. By helping working families stay housed and employed, legal aid enables more children to grow up in safe and stable families, making them more likely to stay in school, complete their education and pursue steady employment.
AmeriHealth Caritas is an insurer currently serving 13 states, as well as 120,000 D.C. residents.
“We focus on data—we want to understand what is occurring in the health ecosystem,” Dale says. “When we look at costs, we say what is occurring that could be causing that? Not in a way to blame the person who might be incurring more costs, but to more deeply understand.”
Dale explains they noticed high rates of emergency room visits for children diagnosed with asthma. Many of these families were living below the poverty line. Often, she said, they were keeping up on their regular physicals and following their “asthma action plans” but were still frequently ending up in the ER. Amerihealth Caritas hypothesized poor housing conditions like mold, mice and roaches were harming the children’s health.
“Eventually where we landed was that if these families had the legal support to intervene with their landlords so that the health-harming housing conditions were addressed, it was highly likely that there would be savings,” says Dale.
Amerihealth Caritas engaged the Children’s Law Center of D.C. to advocate for these families. The partnership, started in 2019, has had a significant and consistent ROI, returning about $10,000 per positive intervention and outcome.
Talk Justice episodes are available online and on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Podcasts. The podcast is sponsored by LSC’s Leaders Council.
President Ron Flagg hosts the discussion with guests Karen Dale, market president for AmeriHealth Caritas’ Medicaid managed care organization in Washington, D.C., and Holly Stevens, chief data officer at LSC.
In April, LSC published a research brief, “The Economic Case for Civil Legal Aid,” which shows the results of a systematic review of 56 economic impact studies conducted between 2003 and 2023.
The independent evaluations examined 39 different states. Every study found a positive return on investment (ROI) for civil legal aid spending, with an average return of $7 for every $1 invested in these legal services.
“The studies included [various] case types from housing and domestic violence to public benefits and healthcare, and what we found was compelling,” says Stevens.
“What really stood out to our team was how consistent the findings were—despite various methodologies, geographies, the case type compositions of the specific states legal aid organizations—the consistency in the findings was a strong signal that legal aid is a smart financial investment.
Stevens explains there are direct and indirect economic benefits. Direct benefits occur when legal aid helps a client recover wages, secure additional healthcare coverage or avoid the costs associated with being evicted. Indirect benefits come from legal aid’s ability to prevent “deeper crises” that would engage costly emergency services like shelters, medical care and law enforcement.
The ripple effects of legal aid also extend across generations. By helping working families stay housed and employed, legal aid enables more children to grow up in safe and stable families, making them more likely to stay in school, complete their education and pursue steady employment.
AmeriHealth Caritas is an insurer currently serving 13 states, as well as 120,000 D.C. residents.
“We focus on data—we want to understand what is occurring in the health ecosystem,” Dale says. “When we look at costs, we say what is occurring that could be causing that? Not in a way to blame the person who might be incurring more costs, but to more deeply understand.”
Dale explains they noticed high rates of emergency room visits for children diagnosed with asthma. Many of these families were living below the poverty line. Often, she said, they were keeping up on their regular physicals and following their “asthma action plans” but were still frequently ending up in the ER. Amerihealth Caritas hypothesized poor housing conditions like mold, mice and roaches were harming the children’s health.
“Eventually where we landed was that if these families had the legal support to intervene with their landlords so that the health-harming housing conditions were addressed, it was highly likely that there would be savings,” says Dale.
Amerihealth Caritas engaged the Children’s Law Center of D.C. to advocate for these families. The partnership, started in 2019, has had a significant and consistent ROI, returning about $10,000 per positive intervention and outcome.
Talk Justice episodes are available online and on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Podcasts. The podcast is sponsored by LSC’s Leaders Council.
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