Legal Services of Northern California (LSNC)

The mission of Legal Services of Northern California is to provide quality legal services to empower the poor to identify and defeat the causes and effects of poverty within their community efficiently utilizing all available resources. Incorporated as the Legal Aid Society of Sacramento County in 1956, LSNC has grown to nine regional offices that closed 15,160 cases in 2010 (the most recent year for which data is available). LSNC closed an additional 22,000 individual cases in the five specially funded programs: Senior Legal Hotline; the Health Rights Program; the Ombudsman Services of Northern California (OSNC) (advocacy in long-term care facilities); the Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program (HICAP) (Medicare-related advocacy); and the separately incorporated Voluntary Legal Services Program (VLSP). LSNC serves a low-income population of over 500,000 spread over an urban/ rural area that is largely minority. They serve the second largest Hmong population and the largest Mienh community in the United States. Their northern and coastal counties and the San Joaquin river delta are home to thousands of migrant farm workers who cultivate and harvest the tree and row crops, including wine grapes, that support California’s agricultural industry. The north state is also home to a significant Native American population for whom their staff provide special outreach and services.