A vital service for community residents who need legal representation, but face financial struggles, returned to Butler this week after being absent for five years.

Neighborhood Legal Services aims to ensure that low-income residents have access to a variety of services, including direct representation, legal advice, assistance in self-representation or referral to a private attorney.

The nonprofit public interest law firm also provides community education on legal topics and free interpretation services for those who do not speak English or are hearing impaired.

The group helps everyone from victims of crime to those facing forfeitures, foreclosures or loss or denial of government benefits. Individuals in danger of losing a child in a custody battle or those affected by identity theft can also seek Neighborhood Legal Services’ assistance.

The Butler office’s staff includes an expert who can help low-income veterans and another who works with victims who have filed protection from abuse (PFA) orders.

The group intends to hold upcoming community workshops on landlord and tenant rights, custody rights and expungement.

In other words, the nonprofit seeks to help people of limited means find justice in a complex — and often expensive — legal system. While a defendant in the criminal justice system who can’t afford a lawyer can be represented free-of-charge by the public defender’s office, defendants in civil cases are not entitled to court-appointed attorneys.

For the past five years, Butler County residents have had fewer options to defend stand up for themselves in civil cases. In 2014, the nonprofit had to close its full-time office in Butler due to funding. During that time, Butler County residents had to obtain services through the group’s office in Pittsburgh, where the nonprofit is based.

The Butler office has now reopened — but only in a part-time capacity — due to high demand.

“A lot of people can’t afford legal help when they’re facing life-changing challenges in court,” said Christien Kirby, the director of development for Neighborhood Legal Services.

The Legal Services Corporation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit established by Congress in 1974 to provide financial support for civil legal aid to low-income Americans, would agree.

In a 2017 report, the group found that 86 percent of civil legal problems reported by low-income residents received “inadequate or no legal help.” In addition, the report discovered that 71 percent of low-income households had at least one civil legal problem in the span of a year regarding such issues as health care, housing conditions, disability access, veterans’ benefits or domestic violence.

Kirby said that Neighborhood Legal Services intends to eventually reopen the office on a full-time basis through additional fundraising. We hope the nonprofit meets its fundraising goals. It provides essential services that many residents in the county literally can’t afford to do without.