For Ga. Seniors, Hi-Tech Help Is Supreme

You’re a senior on a fixed income and you just received an inexplicable letter informing you that your Social Security benefits have been cut. There’s no explaining the mistake, you can’t possibly survive on anything less, and you certainly can’t afford an attorney to press your claim and fix the bureaucratic screw-up. 

Where can you go for help? 

Well, if you’re lucky enough to live in Georgia, you’ll soon be able to help yourself, thanks to a joint project between the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, the Georgia Legal Services Program, and the AARP.

On Oct. 3, Georgia Chief Justice Norman S. Fletcher opened up the state supreme court chamber to announce LSC grants totaling $150,000 to open two legal self-help offices and fund a web site aimed at giving Georgia seniors the technology tools they need when legal trouble strikes. At a permanent location in downtown Atlanta and a “mobile” venue that will tour senior centers, libraries and other public facilities in rural Georgia, seniors will be able to file small claims, request important records, and inquire about vital benefits and services.

Fletcher says his decision to run for another term on the Court this fall was motivated primarily by his desire to address Georgia’s civil justice crisis as leader of the state’s judiciary. Noting that “for far too many in our state, justice is prohibitively expensive,” Fletcher praised the public private-partnership between LSC and AARP.

“The Census tells us we have 110,000 more Georgians living in poverty today than we did in 1990, and we’re serving less than 20 percent of those who need legal assistance,” Fletcher says. “The unmet need in Georgia is greater than ever, and as a member of the Court, I am deeply concerned about making access to justice achievable for everyone.”

UT Students Answer The Call

A Congressman, a supreme court justice, and the dean of a major law school thought so much of the idea that they joined forces to extol it: Enlist law students to staff a legal advice hotline for the poor. Clients get a shot at receiving real justice; law students get real-world experience and spending money for books.

Over Labor Day weekend on the University of Texas campus, Texas Rural Legal Aid (TRLA) received a $100,000 federal grant to open a legal call center in Austin. The center will be manned by UT law students, who will help solve critical legal problems for poor clients across a 68-county area of Southwest Texas. 

Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), just back from a trip to former Soviet bloc countries a day earlier, reminded the assembled media that our justice system ought not to be taken for granted and hailed his constituents for caring about equal justice. Justice Deborah Hankinson, months away from wrapping up her days as a member of the Texas Supreme Court, said she and other reformers envisioned such law school partnerships when they divided Texas into three regions. (Hankinson plans to teach at a law school, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, next year.)

TRLA Director David Hall said he expects the call center to rival the success of its counterpart in San Antonio staffed by students from St. Mary’s University School of Law. UT Law Dean William Powers proclaimed the press conference a “joyous occasion,” embracing the partnership as “really opening the doors of access.” Finally, UT law student Emily Rickers (pictured, at podium), who already works part-time for TRLA, said she relished the chance to expose her classmates to the most enriching rewards of a career in the law:Those that can’t be found on a pay stub.

Mississippi Plugs In

Mississippi Chief Justice Edwin Lloyd Pittman welcomes the news that his state will receive $500,000 in LSC funds to build a legal services technology infrastructure. The federal grant will help state leaders launch a toll-free call routing center and a remote, Web-based intake system enabling advocates to patch in and offer advice and referrals from any Internet-ready location. Oxford-based North Mississippi Rural Legal Services will implement the new statewide systems, expected to be operational in 2004.

LSC Vice President Mauricio Vivero announced the technology grant – the largest of the 2002 grant cycle – this September at Mississippi’s first-ever statewide legal aid summit in Jackson. Word of the hi-tech windfall was tempered by the announcement that Mississippi is projected to lose nearly $1 million in federal funds come January 2003 as a result of poverty population shifts reported by the 2000 U.S. Census. In Mississippi, federal grants make up 89 percent of the state’s overall civil legal aid funding.