Donald Fontaine (“Another View: Few legal resources exist for poor residents of Maine,” May 31, Page D2) is correct. Maine formerly had robust legal aid for the poor program in Pine Tree Legal Assistance, now a shadow of its former self.
Interestingly, many of Maine’s illustrious legal minds worked there in their early years. To mention just a few: Susan Calkins, former justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court; Pete Thaxter of the Portland firm Curtis, Thaxter, and, of course, our independent U.S. senator and former governor, Angus King. Mr. Fontaine did, too, and so did I, a lowly legal intern.
The civil legal system for the poor should be rebuilt – at least until we get the kind of racial and economic and health justice this country obviously is crying out for.
Concomitantly, Maine should move to a public defender model in the criminal legal system, as this paper’s Editorial Board has recently pointed out.
Chalmers Hardenbergh
Freeport
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