Pine Tree Legal Assistance has received a three-year, $300,000 grant to bolster its foreclosures work.

Last year, the nonprofit legal aid group assisted 175 people with foreclosures, from offering advice to representing them in court. With foreclosure rates hitting record highs in Maine, it expects to help 300 clients this year.

Pine Tree Legal has just one full-time lawyer and one part-time law student dedicated to foreclosures. Other Pine Tree Legal lawyers handle cases periodically.

The grant from the Institute for Foreclosure Legal Assistance will allow Pine Tree Legal to hire a second full-time lawyer and a full-time paralegal, more than doubling the group’s ability to handle foreclosures. Both the lawyer and the paralegal will be based in the Lewiston office.

“These resources really help us to galvanize our statewide effort (to prevent foreclosures),” said Chet Randall, the lone lawyer handling foreclosures now.

Pine Tree Legal currently is working on 47 foreclosure cases.

The Institute for Foreclosure Legal Assistance awarded $6.5 million in grants to 27 legal aid offices in 19 states and the District of Columbia. Pine Tree Legal was the only recipient in New England. It will receive $100,000 a year for the next three years.