Vanessa Nickerson, an attorney with the Denver housing unit of Colorado Legal Services, looks over a tenant’s eviction case as she provides free eviction assistance to him at Arapahoe County Community Services in Littleton on Thursday, May 19, 2022. A bill introduced in the 2024 legislative session would double the amount of funding Colorado provides to legal aid services.
The state currently funnels $4.42 million toward these organizations. Some of the money comes from a $5 docket fee in domestic cases, while a large portion stems from the legislature’s general fund. Roughly $3.5 million of the new money would go to Baca’s organization. That could mean more staff attorneys, more advocates and potentially higher salaries to recruit and retain employees.showed Colorado Legal Services’ work provided a more than 600% social return on investment that year — meaning for every dollar invested in the organization, the state received an estimated $6.19 in financial benefits.