Legal aid funding

BOSTON, Mass. (AP) - Lawyers are planning an event to urge Massachusetts lawmakers to increase state funding for civil legal aid for children and adults living in poverty.

"Walk to the Hill," scheduled for Wednesday, is sponsored by the Equal Justice Coalition, the Boston Bar Association, the Massachusetts Bar Association and other bar associations throughout the state.

Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Roderick Ireland will be among the speakers at the Statehouse. Lawyers from the bar associations are planning to visit legislators serving their home districts to ask for increased legal aid funding.

The groups sponsoring the event say legal aid is needed by victims of domestic violence, people facing wrongful evictions, military families in financial crisis, people with disabilities trying to secure health benefits, and others.