Any move to level the playing field for people seeking justice is a cause for celebration. Here's one that affects the Aloha State's newest population: its estimated 12,000 Micronesians.

Through an initiative championed by the Legal Aid Society of Hawai'i, Micronesian clients living in the U.S. soon will have access to Legal Aid services. The society and other advocates prompted a long-needed rule change enabling those services, a change that the chief source of federal funds, the Legal Services Corp., is now poised to make.

The change rightly reverses the LSC's decade-old restriction that barred funding legal services for Micronesians living here, while providing them for Micronesians living at home.

The revision will allow Legal Aid to resume helping people secure fair housing, consumer protection and other basic safeguards. It would remove an unnecessary barrier for people living here legally, under the Compact of Free Association.

Comments, due Sept. 4, are welcome by mail (Mattie Cohan, Senior Assistant General Counsel, Office of Legal Affairs, Legal Services Corporation, 3333 K Street, NW., Washington, D.C. 20007); by phone, 202-295-1624; fax, 202-337-6519; or e-mail, mcohan@lsc.gov.

Chances of approval are excellent, but it's still wise to add voices to the chorus calling for such a needed change.