The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) has released the 2022 edition of “By the Numbers: The Data Underlying Legal Aid Programs.” The report quantifies the work done by LSC-funded legal aid organizations around the country in 2022. It provides national and state-level trend data to facilitate comparisons over time and across different locations.

LSC grantees served more than 1.8 million clients and their household members in 2022. Among named legal aid clients, 71% identified as women, 20.2% were age 60 or older and 4.3% lived in a household with at least one veteran.

“This report provides an important overview of the work LSC grantees undertake on behalf of low-income people seeking civil legal assistance,” said LSC President Ron Flagg. “It also demonstrates the enormous impact of the resources Congress dedicates to civil legal aid.”

The new report’s findings include:

• The number of cases closed and people helped by LSC grantees returned to near their pre-pandemic level in 2022 after dipping the two prior years due to the challenges of COVID-19. Cases closed increased 6% from 2021 and 15% from 2020. 
• Driven by evictions, housing cases have continued to rise. In 2022, 41.3% of the cases closed by LSC grantees were housing cases. This is the first time one case type has comprised such a large portion of cases closed per year.
• Domestic violence continues to be a significant concern. The report shows a 9% increase in cases involving domestic violence since 2021. This continues a trend of increasing domestic violence cases over the past decade.

For more information about the services provided by LSC’s grantees in 2022, as well as information on client demographics, program staffing, revenue, expenses and involvement by private attorneys, read the report. A brief video on the report is also available: