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.
Read more about Legal Aid Society Of Cleveland: History of Legal Aid in Cleveland
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