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By FRANCES BISHOPP
Arundel Newspapers Staff Writer
Rappahannock Legal Services’ office at 702 S. Main St. in Culpeper is tucked away in one of the town’s older buildings and is conspicuous only in its simplicity.
Several small rooms house a computer or two, a good number of law books and some old furniture, certainly not up to standards displayed in most offices.
However, lack of opulent surroundings doesn’t faze the office’s staff of five, who work long hours for meager pay to provide legal services for the poor.
The Culpeper office has seen some dramatic changes over its 11 years of operation. It appears that with the increase in numbers of poor people over the last decade, their legal problems have grown as well.
Yet, legal aid offices, burdened with growing caseloads ever year, have been consistently denied increased federal funding.
The situation came to a head recently when the Virginia Commonwealth Survey Research Laboratory published a survey with some overwhelming statistics, which came as no surprise to veterans of the legal aid field.
According to the 1991 survey, 84 percent of indigent clients still lack the legal help they need, despite that 70 percent of all Virginia lawyers are already providing legal services to the poor.
The survey also states that only oneTourth of the low-income respondents were aware that some free legal services are available and nearly half of the attorneys surveyed said they thought legal aid offices in their area were not able to meet the legal needs of low-income people.
The growing crisis of lack of adequate legal help for the poor has prompted Virginia Supreme Court Chief Justice Harry L. Carrico to approach every member of the Virginia State Bar to deliver the message of the new' Virginia Pro Bono Initiative.
In his letter, Carrico relates that the State Bar Council has unanimously adopted a definition and standard for pro bono (the waiving of free or agreement to charge nominal fees for legal services) legal services that encourages Virginia lawyers to donate approximately two percent of professional time to performing pro bono legal services.
Carrico goes on to ask Virginia attorneys to join in this endeavor and volunteer, either through their local bar-sponsored program, or the legal services office in their area.
The severe recession in many parts of the country over the last 18 months and a decade of federal financial neglect has left the pro bono program facing budget cuts and subject to the vagaries of politics.
Funded by the Legal Services Corp., which, in turn, is federally funded, Rappahannock Legal Services extends its. long arm of assistance all the way to the Chesapeake Bay. The main office is in Fredericksburg, with branches in Culpeper and Tappahannock.
The Culpeper office, which opened in 1980, is responsible for Planning District 9, (Culpeper, Fauquier, Orange, Madison and Rappahannock counties.)
Culpeper’s managing attorney, Jamie Aliperti, has worked in the field of legal aid since his graduation from William and Mary Law School some 10 years ago.
Besides Aliperti, another attorney, Monica Chernin, paralegal Katherine McCartin, secretary Susan K. Neelands and part-time probono coordinator Elizabeth Van Wambeck round out the busy staff.
In 1990, the Culpeper office served 1,137 clients, of whom 294 ' were from Fauquier County.
According to Aliperti, Rappahannock Legal Services handles only civil cases that generally fall in seve
82.7%