MLSA 60th Anniversary Timeline

1965: President Lyndon Johnson declares an “unconditional war on poverty” and asks Americans to join him in that effort. 

May 5, 1966: Montana Legal Services Association (MLSA) is founded to provide civil legal aid to Montanans living in poverty. Field offices open in Butte, Great Falls, Missoula, Helena, and Billings.

 

1970s: Congress establishes Legal Services Corporation (LSC) to promote equal access to justice by funding high-quality civil legal aid to low-income Americans. MLSA receives its primary funding from LSC. 

1970s: MLSA opens field offices throughout rural Montana, providing services with 39 lawyers.

1971: MLSA’s Executive Director, Barney Reagan, is summoned to District Court to defend against allegations that MLSA solicited clients for contrived litigation. The allegations are found not to be true, but the message is clear: MLSA will be closely monitored.

1972: MLSA’s self-help legal education programing is found ethical in Professional Ethics, 503 P.2d 53 (1972), so long as it is “dignified in tone, does not promote or advertise individual attorneys, does not in and of itself stir up or promote litigation either in individual cases or to promote a cause.”

1980s – 1990s: In the early 1980s, Congress cuts LSC funding by 25%, resulting in closed MLSA offices. Funding then increases slightly in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  

1983: MLSA helps protect constitutional rights of a tribal member in Kennerly v. US, 721 F.2d 1252 (1983). The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a judgment holding that the payment of his trust money to the tribe without any hearing violated his due process rights and indicated a breach of the federal government’s fiduciary responsibilities.

1988: MLSA helps protect consumer rights in Auto Credit, Inc. v. Long, MT 327 (1998). The auto dealer’s attempt to recover the value of default sale from buyer was unreasonable.

1990: MLSA has offices and field offices in Butte, Great Falls, Missoula, Helena, Billings, Kalispell, Wolf Point, Havre, Bozeman, Glendive, and Poplar.

1992: MLSA protects renter rights to a habitable place to live in Mathes v. Adams, 254 Mont. 347 (1992). A tenant’s failure to provide written notice of the problems at the trailer park did not bar the tenant’s claim of breach of the duty of habitability because the landlords had actual notice of the problems.

1994: In re: Marriage of Malquist, 266 Mont. 447, MLSA helps establish the right of a pro bono volunteer attorney or MLSA to seek and accept an award of attorney fees from an adverse party.

1996: Congress cuts LSC funding by 30% and imposes a significant number of new restrictions on LSC grantees, including MLSA, prohibiting challenges to welfare law, class-action lawsuits, and requesting or collecting attorney’s fees. The cuts and restrictions result in a 48% loss in MLSA’s revenue, leading to office closures and staff lay-offs.

1997: MLSA helps protect constitutional rights when the US Supreme Court strikes down a statute allowing tribal land to be taken without compensation in Babbitt v. Youpee, 519 U.S. 234 (1997).

1997: MLSA helps assure fair access to state assistance in Butte Community Union v. Lewis, 229 Mont. 212 (1997). The Montana Supreme Court affirmed that all persons in need of state assistance must be treated equally and not distinguished by class.

1999: MLSA helps domestic violence survivors obtain legal advice and orders of protection in Missoula YWCA v. Allen Bard, MT 177 (1999, MLSA Amicus). The case obligates the spouse to pay attorney fees as “necessities of life” when they were provided to a wife to obtain orders of protection from an abusive spouse.

2000s: By 2003, only Helena, Butte, Billings, and Missoula offer walk-in field offices. MLSA closes offices in Kalispell and Great Falls.

2001: MLSA is among the first civil legal aid organizations nationwide to launch a legal self help website: MontanaLawHelp.org

2001: MLSA partners with Court Administrator’s Office to develop a court video conferencing system, and tries a virtual office between Missoula and Miles City courthouses.

2002: Committed to helping Montanans in poverty, MLSA is among the first in the nation to apply for and receive a Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) grant. In 2002, MLSA is also among the first recipients of LSC’s Technology Initiative Grants (TIG), a grant MLSA will receive multiple times for technology innovations.

2002: Neil Haight, MLSA’s Executive Director since 1969, retires. The State Bar of Montana establishes the Neil Haight Pro Bono Award.

2003: MLSA receives a Technology Innovation Grant (TIG) to begin automating pro se forms.

2005: The National Legal Aid and Defender Association awards MLSA's Executive Director Alison Paul the Innovations in Technology Award.

2002-2014: MLSA builds upon its successful AmeriCorps Vista project by placing 25-30 AmeriCorps Vista members around Montana. Lasting until 2014, the program builds capacity for access to justice and economic security for non-profit organizations.

2008: MLSA protects constitutional rights of due process by litigating creditor issue to the Montana Supreme Court in Yellowstone Fed. Credit Union v. Daniels, 2008 MT 111. The case reverses an order allowing repossession of equipment because the creditor’s failure to follow statutory procedures violated due process.

2007-2015: MLSA partners with the Crow Tribe to establish Public Defender services on the Crow Reservation.

2009 MLSA Public Benefits Attorney Bob LaRoche honored by the Yellowstone Area Bar Association with a Lifetime Achievement Award for over 30 years of civil legal aid services.

2009-present: MLSA begins the Justice for Montanans AmeriCorps Project with 13 members providing access to justice at Court Self Help Centers, the Attorney General’s Office of Consumer Protection, and MLSA. In 2012, MLSA partners with the State Bar of Montana to expand the project to include the Modest Means program.

2010s: MLSA continues to receive new funding, but significant Congressional LSC funding cuts in 2009 and 2011 result in the closure of offices and staff lay-offs. In 2011, MLSA closes its Butte office.

2012: MLSA and the Office of Consumer Protection and Victim Services of the Montana Attorney General’s Office establish “Keep My Montana Home” to combat the foreclosure crisis in Montana.

2012: MLSA's Executive Director is one of only six legal aid program directors invited to participate in the first White House Forum on civil legal aid.

2012: MLSA appointed as member to the Montana Supreme Court's newly formed Access to Justice Commission, taking an active role in helping assure full access to justice for all Montanans.

2012-2015: MLSA partners with Northern Cheyenne Tribe to establish a Tribal Advocacy training program at Chief Dull Knife College.

2013: MLSA closes Fort Peck office due to loss of funding.

2013: MLSA helps protect a domestic violence survivor at the Montana Supreme Court in Lockhead v. Lockhead, MT 368 (2013), preventing a collateral attack against a permanent order of protection that was not timely appealed.

2014: In partnership with the Montana Board of Crime Control, MLSA receives Vision 21 funding from the U.S. Office of Victims of Crime to offer comprehensive, coordinated, and holistic civil legal services to crime victims in Montana. Throughout the next decade, MLSA receives numerous grants to provide legal services to victims of crime, including victims of elder abuse, sexual assault, human trafficking, and other crimes.

2014 MLSA Housing Attorney Amy Hall and Public Benefits Attorney Bob LaRoche are recognized by the Montana Justice Foundation as two of its Champions of Justice, awarded for their extraordinary efforts on behalf of equal justice.

2014: MLSA creates the Pro Bono Coordinator position to support pro bono volunteer attorney programs.  

2014: MLSA receives the Montana Board of Crime Control's Innovative Community Improvement Award for using technology to increase access to justice in rural Montana.

2015: MLSA strengthens its long-standing partnership with the Montana Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence and begins providing legal services in the Bakken Region.

2015: With new funding sources, MLSA partners with the Blackfeet Tribe to open a field office on the Blackfeet Reservation in order to provide culturally integrated advocacy services to domestic violence survivors.  

2015: MLSA partners with the Fort Belknap Indian Community to establish Public Defender services at the Fort Belknap Reservation.  

2015: MLSA hires a Director of Litigation to provide greater guidance and coordination of MLSA's legal advocacy efforts. This role later becomes MLSA's Director of Advocacy in order to further advance MLSA's broad based advocacy goals.

2015: MLSA partners with Blackfoot River Brewing Company in Helena to launch a special 50th anniversary beer called "Justice for Alt." 

2016: Through a grant from the Montana Healthcare Foundation, MLSA establishes a partnership with Montana Primary Care Association and four Community Health Centers in the Montana Health Justice Partnership.

2016: MLSA reaches more people with expanded self-help programs and technologies, such as MLSA’s legal information website MontanaLawHelp.org, and automated self-help legal forms.

2016: MLSA partners with local Domestic Violence Service Providers to open field offices in Bozeman, Dillon, and Fort Belknap with new funding sources, providing integrated advocacy services to domestic violence survivors.  

2016: MLSA litigates advocacy issue to Montana Supreme Court to help assure fairness in court fee waiver process for all Montanans, regardless of income. 

2016: MLSA Senior Attorney Ed Higgins receives the George L. Bousliman Professionalism Award from the Montana State Bar for extraordinary commitment to public service, public education, pro bono activities, and making the legal system more accessible and responsive.

2016: MLSA receives the Mary Byron Celebrating Solutions Award in recognition of MLSA's work to provide civil legal assistance to survivors of domestic violence.

2019:  MLSA receives a LSC Midwest Legal Disaster Grant and hires a Disaster Program Coordinator. MLSA improves partnerships with Montana Emergency and Disaster Services, the Office of the Court Administrator, and the Montana State Bar in order to more quickly mobilize disaster response legal services.

2020: MLSA receives funding from the National Crime Victim Law Institute to launch MTCrimeVictimHelp.org, specifically designed to help rural victims of crime find and access resources in connection with crime victimization. The content is merged into MontanaLawHelp.org in 2025.

2020: MLSA represents an elder client who lost her homestead to a pawn operator. After filing in District Court and then on appeal, MLSA and the client win before the Montana Supreme Court. The client's ownership is restored and her title to the land cleared.

2020: MLSA responds to the COVID-19 crisis by ramping up pro bono work and developing self-help resources and client outreach activities such as COVID-19-specific resources, Know Your Rights Facebook Live events, YouTube videos of common questions, graphics on Instagram, and multi-media outreach through channels such as radio and bus ads.

2020: MLSA Staff Attorney Kallie Dale receives the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants Centennial Access to Justice Award for her work on the Montana Health Justice Partnership.

2021:  In Big Horn County Electrical Co-op, Inc. v. Big Man, the U.S. District Court issues a decision that supports the sovereignty of the Crow Tribe. The Court adopts MLSA’s assertion that the Crow Tribe has authority over a non-tribal electrical utility co-op that shut off a tribal member’s utility services during the winter in violation of tribal code.  This decision is upheld by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court denies the utility co-op’s request to review the case.

2021: MLSA files a lawsuit involving wage and contract claims in U.S. District Court on behalf of four migrant farmworkers who were working in Montana on visas issued under the H-2A program.

2021: In response to a growing eviction crisis as result of the COVID-19 pandemic, MLSA launches the Montana Eviction Intervention Project in Partnership with the Montana Department of Commerce with CARES Act funding. MEIP connects tenants to staff and contracted attorneys to meet before the hearing and represent them at the scheduled hearing, free of charge.

2021: MLSA is awarded a grant to create a victims’ rights advocacy group, one of six legal aid programs in the nation to receive the grant under the Rights in System Enforcement project.

2021: MLSA's Rural Incubator Project for Lawyers (RIPL) is named one the country's most innovative rural justice programs by the Rural Justice Collaborative Advisory Council. RIPL trains and supports attorneys to develop small firm practices that provide legal services to low-income Montanans in rural communities, helping address the justice gap that prevents Montanans in underserved rural communities from achieving justice.

2022: MLSA contracts with the Department of Commerce to receive and distribute Emergency Rental Assistance Funding to MLSA's eviction clients, who were facing month-long delays in receiving funding due to a large backlog of applications.

2022: The Tribal Advocacy Incubator Project launches, recruiting, mentoring, training, and supporting local Tribal Law Advocates to represent tribal members in Tribal Court with common civil legal matters.

2022: MLSA hires a dedicated Grants Manager to administer and manage grant reporting, increasing MLSA's capacity to manage an increasing number of grants and contracts. 

2022: Former MLSA Executive Director Klaus Sitte awarded the Neil Haight Pro Bono Award from the Montana State Bar for his lifelong commitment to pro bono work, both during his time with MLSA and in the years after. 

2022: MLSA Staff Attorney Kathryn Seaton awarded the Frank L. Haswell Award from the Montana State Bar for best contribution to the Montana Lawyer for her series of articles on Indian Law.

2022: MLSA Staff Attorney Kallie Dale named to the Helena Independent Record "20 Under 40" for her work with MLSA establishing the Montana Health Justice Partnership and for her work with the Indian Law Resource Center.

2023: MLSA takes two cases to the Montana Supreme Court in order to solidify case law protecting mobile home owners' property rights, winning both cases. In Westview Mobile Home Park, LLC v. Lockhart, 538 P.3d 1 (2023), mobile home owners in Montana are statutorily protected from eviction without reason. 

2023: MLSA and MLSA's Executive Director Alison Paul recognized by the American Bar Association with the James I. Keane Award for innovative work using technology to improve the delivery of civil legal services in Montana.

2023-2024: MLSA begins creating the Community Justice Worker program in Montana. In 2023, MLSA receives an Alaska Disaster Grant subaward for a Community Justice Worker program, followed by an Office on Violence Against Women grant in 2024 to develop domestic violence-focused CJW training. In December 2024, the Office of the Court Administrator receives an award from the State Justice Institute to create a statewide CJW pilot program, with MLSA contracted to coordinate the project. MLSA's first CJW is hired in June 2024. 

2023-present: MLSA collaborates with Missoula Tenants Union, Bozeman Tenants United, and Prickly Pear Housing Alliance on how to support unrepresented tenants, right-to-counsel, and tenant rights for mobile home park residents.

January 2024: MLSA takes a case to the Montana Supreme Court challenging the use of local fee waiver forms rather than the statewide Supreme Court fee waiver form. The Supreme Court adopts MLSA's argument that the local form poses a barrier for low income individuals, ruling that local judges need to accept the statewide waiver form.

2024: MLSA's Executive Director Alison Paul is awarded the 2024 Pierce-Hickerson Award for outstanding contributions to the advancement and preservation of Native American Rights.

2024: Continuing to prioritize developing easy-to-use online resources, MLSA develops and launches a newly-designed MontanaLawHelp.org that allows Montanans to address their legal needs on their own.

September 2024: MLSA hires a new Finance Director, assessing the firm's practices and making changes to improve efficiency and accuracy. 

November 2025: Valerie Falls Down and the Tribal Advocacy Incubation Project are awarded the American Bar Association's 2025 Louis M. Brown Select Award for Legal Access.

2025: MLSA launches its texting program What's Next Text, which provides step-by-step legal guidance right on the participant's phone. 

2025: MLSA partners with the Abbie Shelter in Kalispell to establish a new field office, expanding access for domestic violence survivors in Northwest Montana. 

2025: MLSA handles 5,089 cases, impacting over 12,118 clients and family members in 2025. MLSA has one attorney available for every 8,518 people living below 125% of poverty, whereas Montana has 1 private attorney for every 230 Montanans not living in poverty.

March 2026: The Montana Supreme Court approves a petition filed by MLSA that authorizes trained, certified Community Justice Workers to provide limited legal services in Montana's Justice Courts and City Courts.

2016-2026: MLSA begins the decade with 16 attorneys on staff. As of May 2026, there are 21 attorneys. MLSA has offices in Missoula, Helena, and Billings, as well as field offices in Butte and Kalispell.