Representatives from three area Legal Service Agencies explained the roles of their agencies at the October CRC Information Session. Presenters were:
Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS) traces its roots to 1900 with the founding of the Boston Legal Aid Society. Today, GBLS is New England's largest legal services organization. It represents individuals and families, assisting with individual client needs as well as systemic problems. It also represents community groups and provides community legal education. GBLS advocates give advice and represent people in court, before agencies, and before city councils and the state legislature.
GBLS is organized into substantive law units. This system allows advocates to develop expertise in specific areas of law that concern their clients. This helps to ensure high quality representation. Even so, units are not able to handle all cases in a particular area, and have established unit priorities, which are listed below. Clients must also meet income guidelines, which in most cases is 125% of the FPL. Elders and Medicare clients do not have to meet these guidelines, and they have a separate intake process. A potential client should contact GBLS to speak with an advocate who will help determine if their case is appropriate. Sarah Anderson recommended considering the legal clinics that are available at most law schools in cases that don't meet GBLS' criteria.
GBLS' priority units include:
Family Unit: This unit focuses on a wide range of cases primarily involving domestic violence issues. In DSS matters, they are able to provide limited representation. The Family Unit also has a pro se divorce clinic for assisting individuals in representing themselves in uncontested or minimally contested divorces with no active domestic violence.
Housing Unit: GBLS provides limited representation in eviction cases and other housing matters, though a client must have a special circumstance, such as disability or substandard conditions, to qualify for representation. They offer limited intake for shelter location issues if related to disabilities, employment, or education. GBLS offers a pro se clinic for self-representation in eviction matters on Mondays at 9:30 a.m., by appointment. The clinic assists in filing paperwork for eviction hearings.
Health Unit: Focus is on SSI/SSDI disability cases at the hearing stage, or when benefits have been terminated due to SSA declaration of medical improvement. They also consider MassHealth prior approval issues, denials (including dental coverage) and termination; Children's Medical Security Plan issues; and acute hospital free care problems. They will not handle SSI/SSDI overpayment cases, SSI financial issues (such as amount of the monthly check), SSA paternity related issues, Representative Payee issues, private short term or long-term disability insurance claims. If they can't help with a case, they refer to private attorneys or the Volunteer Lawyers Project (VLP).
Welfare Unit: GBLS will handle denials, terminations, or other problems with TAFDC, EAEDC, Food Stamps, and other cash assistance programs. Single mothers with minor children receive priority. Emphasis is on removing barriers to obtaining and maintaining employment, such as job training or education.
Employment Unit: Clients must either be living with their minor children, have lost a job in which their gross income was $35,000 or less, or have difficulty communicating in English. GBLS will handle unemployment benefits appeals if:
Priority is given to the problems of day laborers, certified nurses aides, worker in temporary jobs, and workers seeking access to education and training opportunities. GBLS will also handle denial of Family and Medical Leave or termination due to absenteeism that should be covered under FMLA.
Immigration Unit: This unit will handle cases involving political asylum, language access, domestic violence, and unaccompanied minors.
Asian Outreach Unit: This unit focuses on eliminating linguistic and cultural barriers for Asian immigrants. They focus on cases involving employment issues, divorce, abuse prevention; all areas of immigration, with priority given to cases involving domestic violence; and public assistance programs in which immigration status is the barrier to the client receiving assistance.
Medicare Advocacy Project (MAP): This unit focuses on assisting elderly and disabled people who may have been wrongfully denied Medicare or specific Medicare benefits. They provide advice and assistance with applications and denials for Medicare Part D's "Extra Help" program, as well as explanations of the drug program. They handle issues related to home health care, skilled nursing facility care, Prescription Advantage, Medicare Endorsed Drug Discount Cards, secondary payer, and supplementary insurance.
GBLS has limited resources in the areas of consumer law (for elders only) and education.
Ms. Anderson also discussed the Legal Advocacy and Resource Center(LARC), which provides intake and referral for GBLS and the Volunteer Lawyers Project (VPL), in addition to providing legal information and advice for low-income Massachusetts residents. LARC provides assistance obtaining a 209A (restraining order) for victims of domestic violence, offers a bankruptcy clinic, as well as a pro bono employment panel comprised of volunteer lawyers to provide more specific legal advice. LARC is often able to provide concrete legal information about the following types of cases:
The Disability Law Center (DLC) is a private, non-profit organization providing legal assistance, information, and advocacy representation regarding legal rights and services for residents of Massachusetts with a wide range of physical and mental disabilities. DLC does not have strict financial guidelines, however a client's legal problem must directly involve their disability.
DLC accepts cases involving people who have experienced discrimination, abuse or neglect, or denial of services because of their disability. They will also accept cases involving people whose legal problem falls within one of the organization's set priorities. Because demand for services far exceeds DLC's resources, they annually adopt priorities based on input from people with disabilities, and use those priorities as guidelines for deciding which cases to accept. They also prioritize disability cases in which the end result is likely to be systemic change that will benefit all people with disabilities.
DLC's staff provide services in the following areas:
For intake, either the social worker or the client should call DLC and leave a voicemail message. Calls are triaged and referred to appropriate staff, with a turnaround time of approximately 24 hours.
Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee (MHLAC) is a state-funded agency serving low-income people with mental disabilities through legal representation, individual and class action litigation, legislative advocacy, education, and training. They provide legal referrals, information, and advice to individuals, lawyers, mental health professionals and the general public.
Areas in which MHLAC can help include:
MHLAC also helps providers and their clients with authorizations from both public and private insurers. They can assist with submitting requests for services, as well as overturning denials or reductions in services. For these insurance matters, social workers or clients can call Susan Fendell directly, or get more information at http://www.masslegalhelp.org/cat/1974.
Along with Employment Options, Inc., MHLAC is involved in the Clubhouse Family Legal Support Project (CFLSP), which provides legal representation to low income parents with mental illness at risk of losing custody of their children. The Clubhouse project seeks to combine legal representation with rehabilitation programs focused on the needs of mentally ill parents in order to preserve the family unit. The Massachusetts Bar Foundation (MBF) and Equal Justice Works established and funded CFLSP.
MHLAC's non-emergency telephone intake hours are Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. A legal advocate will return the call within 24 hours. Emergency calls are taken during regular business hours. Anyone needing information about a mental health-related legal question can call.
When working with a client who has a legal issue related to a mental disability, if you are not sure whether DLC or MHLAC would be the appropriate agency to contact, the representatives suggested calling both, as they will refer you or your client appropriately. When the intake person returns your call, inform them that you contacted both agencies.
Legal Service Contacts: (also in IRis under keywords: Legal/Disabled; Legal/Free/Low-Cost; Legal/Guardianship; Legal/MentalHealth)
Greater Boston Legal Services --
www.gbls.org
(617) 371-1234
(617) 371-1228 TDD
(800) 323-3205 Toll-Free
Disability Law Center-
www.dlc-ma.org
(617) 723-8455
(617) 227-9464 TTY
(800) 872-9992 Toll-Free
Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee -
www.mass.gov/mhlac/
(617) 338-2345
(800) 342-9092 Toll-Free in MA
Legal Advocacy and Resource Center
www.larcma.org
(617) 603-1700 - Advice/Referral hotline
(800) 342-LAWS - Toll-Free hotline
(617) 603-1584 - Bankruptcy line
(617) 603-1515 - SSI/Social Security line
Thanks to Sarah Anderson, Linda Landry, and Jennifer Honig for their talk, and for their assistance with this article.
10/05