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BUDGET HEARING PRESENTATION 
OF  
ATTORNEY SHELBY KING GADDY 
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/CEO 
LEGAL SERVICES OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS, INC. 
BEFORE THE  
36th LEGISLATURE OF THE UNITED STATES VIRGIN ISLANDS 
COMMITTEE ON BUDGET, APPROPRIATIONS AND FINANCE 
THE HONORABLE SENATOR NOVELLE E. FRANCIS, JR., CHAIR 
JULY 24, 2026 
 
Good afternoon, Chairman Francis and other members of the 
Committee on Budget, Appropriations and Finance of the 36th 
Legislature of the United States Virgin Islands.  I am Attorney Shelby 
King Gaddy, the Executive Director and CEO of Legal Services of the 
Virgin Islands, Inc., (LSVI), commonly known as “Legal Services”. I 
am accompanied by Attorney Damion Sanders theTerritory-Wide 
Litigation Director/Managing Attorney of the St. Croix Office.   
 
 
We look forward to this opportunity each year to appear before 
this committee to present to you and the taxpayers the evidence of 
our fiscally responsible stewardship over the funds entrusted to us by 
the Virgin Islands Government.  LSVI continues to be a responsible 
steward of taxpayer dollar as the results of our annual audit, again 
this year and has always been “unqualified” or a clean audit. 
  
Legal Services, like all the Legal Aid entities in the United 
States is underfunded to meet the growing demand for our 
assistance. For FY 2026, the Governor’s budget included $2,007,700 
for Legal Services and the FY 2027 request is the same or 
$2,007,700. The amount that was included in the Governor’s FY2027 
budget for Legal Services is less than this amount. 
 
 
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 However, between March 2025 and June 2026 LSVI did not 
get any allotments from the VI Government even though these funds 
had previously been appropriated. A lump sum payment received 
inJune 2026 represented the past due quarterly allotment of funds 
appropriated to LSVI through the first quarter of FY 2026 or 
December 2025. Nevertheless, we are extremely grateful for the 
funds received, especially given the circumstances.  
  
During these times, LSVI was fortunate that this shortfall of 
$1,003,850 was covered by other short term special grant funds 
which are now no longer available.  
 
Therefore, LSVI is requesting the same sum of $2,2007,700 for 
FY 2027. We are here today to support the sum of $2,007,700, which 
is the same amount approved for the past two fiscal years. While the 
amount that was included in the Governor’s FY2027 budget for Legal 
Services is less than this amount, we are adamant that the amount 
requested will allow us to maintain the status quo at our present level 
of service delivery, while properly staffing to reduce potential burnout 
and loss of attorney staff.  
 
Since 2018, LSVI has been in a continuous “rebuilding” posture 
to replace the experienced attorney resources lost after the 2017 
hurricanes while simultaneously growing to meet the needs of the 
community. Over the past two years LSVI has lost five attorneys 
primarily due to attorneys seeking higher salaries in government 
attorney positions. All of these attorneys have come from the 
mainland with varying levels of experience. Presently, the total 
number of LSVI attorneys are four (4), with three in St. Croix (not 
including the Executive Director), and one in St. Thomas.  
 
When we began FY 2026, LSVI was seeking to fill two attorney 
vacancies. Subsequently, one additional attorney position was 
vacated and now three vacancies exist. Nevertheless, as you will see 
from our statistics, there is a consistent increase in the number of 
 
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persons served and cases handled.  In order to meet the demand 
LSVI has continued to re-imagine, restructure and re-align job 
functions. In addition to the Executive Director also serving as the 
managing attorney for the St. Thomas office, LSVI combined the St. 
Croix Managing Attorney position with the Territory-Wide Litigation 
Director, while using technology to allow cases to be distributed and 
handled by available attorney staff in either district. With the 
technology in place at LSVI, intake interviews and limited 
representation matters can be handled without regard to which district 
the client resides. Moreover, the Grants Compliance Manager 
position has been combined with the Communications Coordinator 
which allows LSVI to shift the grant reporting and compliance 
requirements from the attorneys who are project directors, thus 
allowing them more time to engage in providing legal assistance and 
community outreach and education.  
 
We are still in search of a managing attorney and a staff 
attorney for the St. Thomas office and one staff attorney position in 
St. Croix.  Legal Services uses technology extensively to stream line 
our delivery model and to accommodate teleworking or remote 
working, when necessary. To that end, we are in the process of 
completing a technology assessment to ascertain whether we are 
using our technology in the most efficient manner and whether our 
technology is adequate to achieve the goals based upon our plan of 
growth.  
With the realignment of job functions, the Grants Compliance 
Manager will also be able to assimilate the data necessary for grant 
writing, strategic planning and creating the development plan. LSVI 
will seek to update the strategic plan in FY 2027 and is in the process 
of creating a resource development plan appropriate for our 
organization. Resources include staffing as well as funds that are 
necessary to sustain the organization for meeting the needs of our 
community. A part of the plan is to develop a “pipeline” for new hires 
 
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from law schools by offering internships and fellowships. This 
summer, LSVI engaged a 2nd year law school student as a law fellow. 
 The Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) Project was initially 
implemented in 2018 to assist Medicare beneficiaries, families and 
caregivers to prevent, detect and report healthcare fraud, errors and 
abuse. As we have a rapidly increasing senior population who receive 
other legal assistance from LSVI, this program augments those 
services. The SMP outreach to seniors that includes estate planning 
has served to increase the numbers of clients requiring legal 
assistance. While we initially hired a project director to coordinate the 
SMP efforts, the position was expanded to be the Outreach 
Coordinator for all programs. We are now in the 4th year of the new 
five-year grant for this project that began June 1, 2023 and it has 
been a huge success. 
 
Further, through the SMP program in collaboration with the  
University of the Virgin Islands, since 2022 we have been able to train 
79 seniors who have successfully attained the necessary basic 
computer skills and knowledge, use of the internet and social media, 
etc. resulting in the issuance of over 132 Certificates of Completion. 
This allows seniors to engage in the telehealth appointments now 
offered by health care professionals and continue to eliminate the 
social isolation that was experienced during the pandemic from not 
being able to participate in the in-person social activities.   
 
While, we are cognizant of the government’s financial 
challenges and the reduction of some of our federal grants (LSC, VA, 
VOCA, VAWA, etc.)   the requested funds will only allow us to 
maintain the status quo with proper staffing. Simultaneously, we are 
continuing to seek and secure other sources of funding to meet the 
extraordinary costs associated with providing services to our 
community.  
 
 
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The U.S. Constitution guarantees a lawyer when someone is 
accused of a crime.  However, there is no constitutional right to an 
attorney when someone faces a civil action.  For example, unless you 
can pay for legal assistance you are on your own to try to rectify 
unsafe rental housing, challenge a wrongful discharge from a job, 
obtain a protective court order against an abusive spouse, fight for 
custody of your children, or secure veterans benefits you earned by 
your military service.  It is very challenging to navigate the legal 
system on your own.  Having legal assistance is crucial to protecting 
the liberty and justice for all upon which our nation was founded.  
  
LSVI is the “Equal Justice Advocate” in the territory and our 
visionary theme for carrying out the mission is “Equal Access to 
Justice, Anytime, Anywhere.” LSVI’s  mission statement is as follows: 
“To access justice, protect rights and educate people in poverty in 
order to empower them to move toward self-sufficiency.”  LSVI is a 
non-governmental, 501(c)(3) not for profit corporation, whose primary 
purpose is to provide high quality civil legal assistance, free of 
charge, to persons of low income, the elderly, victims of domestic 
violence and other disadvantaged individuals in the territory.  We are 
a “public interest” law firm, which must adhere to all of the 
Professional Responsibility and Ethics Rules and Codes as any other 
law firm.  
  
 LSVI has provided high quality civil legal services to the client 
community territory-wide for 57 years. LSVI is governed by a 10-
member volunteer Board of Trustees.  Its management staff is very 
efficient, creative and effective.  Its attorney advocates and legal 
support staff, who have over 40 years of combined legal practice 
experience, have an excellent reputation in the bar, courts and 
community for providing high quality civil legal assistance to eligible 
clients.    
  
Over the past year, LSVI has seen an increase in the number of 
evictions, guardianships and domestic violence. These matters are in 
 
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addition to the range of issues typically experienced by persons living 
in poverty circumstances like employment matters and a wide range 
of other family law related matters.  A lot of these matters create 
housing instability. Since 2023, we developed an enhanced Eviction 
Prevention Services, obtained financial assistance and began to 
provide housing stability legal services under the Emergency Rental 
Assistance Program.  And while the special grant funding has 
terminated, LSVI continues to provide the necessary legal assistance 
as a priority. 
 
LSVI is well into the final year of its updated strategic plan to 
chart the course for the next 2 years, given a number of scenarios. 
The strategic plan outlined a course that is currently being followed 
which “re-imagined” a service delivery model designed to maximize 
our resources by employing the best tools available for providing 
effective and efficient civil legal assistance in accordance with our 
mission. As part of the strategic planning process, a formal 
comprehensive needs assessment was conducted and we affirmed 
that there are still many unmet legal needs in our community.  Since 
we cannot serve all of the clients’ unmet civil legal needs, based upon 
the results of the needs assessment, we set program priorities.  
  
Based upon the findings in the most recent community needs 
assessment, the following were identified as the most pressing legal 
needs.  1. Housing: Low-income persons have problems with finding 
safe, decent, stable and affordable housing.  2. Health: There is a 
lack of access to health care, including mental health, for the low-
income population. 3. Safety: Many low-income individuals suffer 
from spousal abuse and other forms of domestic violence, including 
human trafficking. There was also a great concern for community 
violence. 4. Family: Low-income persons have many family-related 
matters in the preservation, support, custody, safety and welfare of 
families and individual family members. 5. Elderly and Disabled: 
Individuals because of their advanced age or infirmities face civil legal 
needs in many areas.  6. Economic Opportunity/Security: Lack of 
 
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decent paying jobs and the complex problems in keeping a job or 
income to sustain the family. 7. Consumer Issue: Low-income 
persons have many consumer problems, with far-reaching effects on 
a low-income person’s ability to meet their most basic needs. 8. 
Education: Low-income persons have matters related to adequate 
education and support, financial aid or services and vocational 
training. 9. Transportation: We live on a number of islands where 
public and private transportation is limited for low-income individuals.  
The survey revealed many problems with access to public 
transportation. We are not certain how we can impact this problem by 
legal means. However, we re-invented our intake processes, policies 
and procedures to address many of the legal needs and overcome 
some of the challenges faced by the community. 
The “re-imagined” service delivery system model that resulted 
from the strategic planning process is based upon the visionary 
theme of providing “Equal Access to Justice-Anytime, Anywhere”. 
LSVI has a variety of intake methods, procedures and policies, 
including in person, telephone and on-line intake (via our website). 
After the intake is completed in real time, clients are contacted by an 
attorney within one business day, thus eliminating the need for 
scheduling an appointment to have an initial consultation which could 
be weeks later. The accessibility has been significantly expanded 
with the Mobile Justice Units (MJU) which are designed to operate as 
mobile offices taking attorneys into remote locations of the community 
to provide on-site legal assistance. The MJUs are at pre-scheduled 
locations in the community each week in both the St. Croix and St. 
Thomas/St. John districts on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  
 
While we operate the MJUs to provide service in the 
community, our physical facilities are also used to meet with clients, 
stakeholders, etc., along with performing our administrative duties. 
We have temporarily relocated the St. Croix staff in some leased 
space near Sunny Isle while we undertake a project to complete 
major repair and mitigation of the damage caused by the hurricanes 
of 2017.  
 
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Mister Chairman, Attorney Damion Sanders will give a 
summary presentation of an Overview of Cases and Other Matters 
handled by LSVI, as well as some success stories. (See Attachment 
“A”). 
 
 
In closing, as we go forward, LSVI will continue to seek ways to 
maximize our efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of service while 
serving as many clients as possible.  The requested funding in the 
sum of $2,007,700 will help LSVI meet the critical needs of our client 
community.  We look forward to working with you to ensure that LSVI 
is properly funded and able to meet the goal of providing equal 
access to justice for all of the residents of the U.S Virgin Islands. 
 
 
We thank you for the opportunity to make this presentation to 
this Committee and the observing public, and we would be most 
happy to answer any questions. 
 
Respectfully Submitted, 
 
Legal Services of the Virgin Islands, Inc.  
Shelby King Gaddy, Esq. 
Executive Director/CEO