The Maine Legal Services for the Elderly Legal Hotline began operations in October 1992 with a grant from Title III of the Older Americans Act. This Hotline was designed to function as an intake system for Legal Services for the Elderly, the state Title IIIB provider of full legal services in priority areas, to the entire over 60 population of the state which numbers about 225,000. The Hotline also receives a small amount of funds from private and corporate. Fund-raising dinners are held several times per year in which various legal providers in the state, including the Hotline, share the money raised.
Clients also receive solicitation letters which raises a modest amount.
The Maine Legal Hotline handled an estimated 6,000 calls in 1996. The Maine Senior Legal Hotline is a project of Maine Legal Services for the Elderly. That organization has an Executive Director, Carter Friend, and three full-time staff attorneys in four physical locations throughout the state. One staff attorney is located in Bangor and another in Portland. The Presque Isle office has a paralegal only.