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Not Just Another DayAtlanta Legal Aid was recently asked by its primary federal funding source, Legal Services Corporation, to report on three significant cases from the last two years. "We found we could not limit our response to three cases. In reviewing it with the managers, the significance and the cutting edge nature of our work made me proud," said Executive Director, Steve Gottlieb. "Legal Aid cases always start with one client, one person or family with a problem that a lawyer hopes to solve. Sometimes, the case becomes bigger than the one client, and benefits many Georgians in similar situations." Family Law: Our largest area of practice is family law. In the past two years (2009 and 2010) we protected over 1,400 adults and children against domestic violence, and obtained nearly $3,000,000 of annual support, mostly for our clients’ children. And while family law usually involves individual representation, we are alert for issues in individual cases that may affect broader sets of clients. Boddie v. Daniels, 288 Ga. 143 (2010) Our clients often have need for temporary guardianships. It has sometimes been very difficult for them to have the child returned to them when the need for the temporary guardianship ended, under an erroneous standard that did not appropriately protect the interest of parents and children in preserving the family unit. The Supreme Court stated the proper standard as follows: “the third party must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the child will suffer physical or emotional harm if custody were awarded to the biological parent [by terminating the temporary guardianship].” James-Dickens v. Petit-Compere, 299 Ga. App. 519 (Ga. Ct. App. 2009) The Court of Appeals found that child support payments could be enforced even after the domestic violence protection aspects of a TPO had expired. The ability to enforce the child support aspects of TPOs is often critical in ensuring that the abused spouse does not return to the abuser for economic reasons. Home Defense Cases: In the past two years, Atlanta Legal Aid’s Home Defense Program has saved nearly 150 homes from foreclosure and preserved nearly $5,000,000 in homeowner equity. These three cases have established significant precedent. Hutto v. BAC Home Loans Servicing, et. al, 1:09-cv-03221-WSD-RGV This case, which pending as of this report, has already yielded one of the first decisions under the Georgia Fair Lending Act (“the GFLA”). In November of 2010 the Northern District of Georgia rejected an assignee’s motion to dismiss our client’s rescission claim under the GFLA, and instead held that the statute permits homeowners to rescind under the statute for up to five years both against the original lender and against assignees. Davis v. GreenPoint, et. al., 1:09-CV-2719-CC-LTW Atlanta Legal Aid won two important victories in Davis v. GreenPoint, one of which we believe is a nationwide first. An elderly homeowner brought claims under the Truth in Lending Act against the originator and assignee of her mortgage, but could not find out who owned her mortgage loan. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a court applied agency principles to the “holder identification requirement,” an amendment to the Truth In Lending Act, allowing borrowers to recover up to $4,000 in statutory damages for a servicer’s failure to inform a borrower who owns their mortgage loan. This potential penalty should provide more than enough incentive to prevent servicers from “hiding the ball” when it comes to informing homeowners who owns their mortgage loan. In addition, Atlanta Legal Aid successfully argued that it could request servicers to identify mortgage-loan owners under the auspices of the “Qualified Written Request” process laid out in the Real Estate and Settlement Procedures Act. This decision is a first in Georgia on this issue. Scott v. Bank of America, N.A., et. al, 1:09-cv-02958-HTW This case concerned an elderly, illiterate client who was “flipped” into a total of 6 mortgage transactions in less than 3 years. This important victory is the first case to recognize individual claims under the Georgia Residential Mortgage Act , and will now allow borrowers to recover against lenders who make material misrepresentations during the lending process or engage in abusive practices that evince an “intent to foreclose.” Mental Health/Disabilities: We have a long history of pursuing cases relating to disability, particularly in the mental health context. The work shown below illustrates how we have continued to enforce our United States Supreme Court case of Olmstead v. L.C. and E.W., which has been called the Brown v. Board of Education of disability rights, but which, like Brown, has been slow to be enforced, especially in Georgia, the state in which it began. In fact, despite Olmstead, Georgia still remains among the worst states in the country in providing community based services to disabled people. Knipp et al. v. Deal, et al., United States District Court, N.D.Ga. No. 1:10-CV-2850-TCB In this case, our Mental Health Unit represented six mentally disabled individuals whose community placements were terminated by the State as it cut back on a program known as SOURCE. The SOURCE program provides a personal care home placement with some nursing and case management support so that clients who otherwise might be institutionalized can live in these less restrictive community placements. We sought and received a preliminary injunction from the U.S. District Court ordering the state to continue to provide the placements. United States of America v. The State of Georgia, Action No. 1:10-CV-249-CAP (2010) The Atlanta Legal Aid Society played a key role in the U. S. Department of Justice’s litigation and settlement of this major mental health case against the State of Georgia. Following a series of newspaper articles in the Atlanta Journal Constitution concerning mistreatment of residents of Georgia Mental Health institutions, the United States filed an action against the State alleging violations of the rights of institutionalized individuals. In October 2010, the Department of Justice and the state reached a final settlement and a centerpiece of the agreement was a promise to provide housing for 2,000 individuals with severe and persistent mental illness who would otherwise be in institutions, at risk of institutionalization, or homeless, along the lines of the plan Legal Aid had earlier advocated for in the state’s strategic plan. Georgia Pediatric Program cases: In the past year, we have litigated a succession of cases involving the rights of children with severe disabilities to receive sufficient nursing services in their homes under the state’s Medicaid program. The Georgia Pediatric Program (GAPP) is the name Georgia gives to its effort to provide services under the EPSDT mandate of the Medicaid program. Through our Health Law Partnership with the local children’s hospitals we have represented several children when the state attempted to cut or under provide their home care services. Food Stamps: Atlanta Legal Aid participates in the Food Stamp Work Group created by the Atlanta Community Food Bank and Georgia Legal Services. Our Director of Advocacy pointed out two issues relating to the way the State Department of Human Services determined an average utility allowance in calculating Food Stamps. One of our staff attorneys developed an appropriate method to reflect the actual effects of the discounts, which DHS accepted. The effect of these changes will likely generate about nine million dollars of extra Food Stamps a year for low income people in Georgia. Atlanta Legal Aid at the White House! In celebration of the 12th anniversary of the landmark Olmstead v. LC & EW decision by the United States Supreme Court, President Barack Obama met with lead attorney Sue Jamieson and surviving client Lois Curtis in the Oval Office. The Olmstead case, widely described as the Brown v. Board of Education of disability rights cases, established the right of people with mental disabilities to live in community with proper supports as a civil right. Since leaving a revolving door of institutions in the wake of Olmstead, Lois has reinvented herself as a folk artist, and she presented the President a self-portrait from her collection.
Sue, a pioneering legal advocate for the disabled, brought Olmstead before the Court in 1999 after witnessing the plights of countless people like Lois. Sue, Lois and late co-plaintiff, Elaine Wilson, stand as symbols of freedom and the power of the law to serve as the agent for change for disability advocates across the nation. Read more about our White House visit on the White House Disability Blog. The Department of Justice is investigating Olmstead compliance throughout the country as part of its responsibilities in ensuring the safety and welfare of people who are or would otherwise be in state psychiatric hospitals. Read Talley Wells' Georgia DOJ Settlement blog.
| "One Law For All"
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| "They stepped in and got me out of bondage.
They stuck to me like chewing gum, and they're still sticking." Tommy Hawkins, ALAS client |
"Talent is like love.
You can't store it;you can't save it;
you can't sell it. |
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"Rarely do people see lawyers as a healing force
in the community. But that is our real role.
We have the power to restore people's faith
-- and their respect for the American system." -
Robert Benham, Justice, Georgia Supreme Court |
Thanks to Virginia Hawkins for the photos.
See more pictures from the Premiere of "One Law For All"
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Atlanta Legal Aid recognized Robert N. Dokson (Ellis Funk, PC) with the Randall L. Hughes Lifetime Commitment to Legal Services Award at a luncheon hosted by the Atlanta Bar Association, and Dean Russell of (Kilpatrick Townsend and Stockton, LLP) was awarded the Pro Bono Volunteer of the Year.
Robbie Dokson was the executive director of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society from 1975 until 1980. He likes to say that he actually served in every position at Legal Aid, except as a receptionist -- first as a staff attorney, just out of the University of Chicago law school, to deputy director, and then, after spending a year getting his Master of Law at Harvard, to director.
Although Robbie deserves consideration for this award for just his work as director, marked by the development of Legal Aid as a high quality, aggressive legal aid program, his work for Legal Aid since leaving was recognized with this award. Robbie has often said that being director at Atlanta Legal Aid was the best job of his life, and he has always remained loyal to the program.
He has served as a board member, and as Board President, and has been a fountain of creative ideas, in part because of his past experience and in part just because of his nature. He has been a long-time solicitor for our annual campaign and has coordinated a team of solicitors as a vice chair since 1996.
Robbie has also played a special role with the program by being a mentor to younger lawyers. As part of developing a relationship between our Board and staff, several Board members were asked to mentor individual staff attorneys. Robbie has personally taken three of our younger attorneys under his wing, and all are delighted with his interest in their work and the advice he has given them.
Dean Russell has been a volunteer with the Grandparent/Relative Caregiver Project for several years and just accepted his ninth adoption case. Dean consistently comes forward seeking a new case when one of his has wrapped up and is always available when we need an attorney to handle a case. Kilpatrick Townsend has several attorneys who have each represented multiple clients for the Grandparent/ Relative Caregiver Project, and we are lucky to have Dean leading the pack. A busy partner in his firm’s IP practice, Dean also served as board President for Atlanta Legal Aid Society in 2004.
Dean Russell said, "I am a patent attorney. Although patents are vitally important to our country's economic interests, they are not critical to the fabric of our communities. Helping build families is, though, especially in an age where familial bonds are either broken or non-existent. This is why I participate wholeheartedly in the Grandparent Adoption Project of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society--to help build and strengthen our families and in turn build and strengthen our communities."
Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc. Innovations in Pro Bono Service Award: Cheryl Naja, Mary Benton, Dena Hong, The Hotline Gang (Michelle Ashley, Dalia Selcis and Allison Madonia)
In a project spearheaded by Mary Benton and Dena Hong, attorneys and paralegals from Alston + Bird and the corporate legal department of United Parcel Service (UPS) have recently created an innovative collaboration with the Cancer Legal Initiative and the Senior Citizens Law Project (SCLP) to assist relatives and caregivers in obtaining guardianship and conservatorship over medicallyfeeble incompetent adults. The collaboration also assists adults in obtaining guardianship over minor children due to the incapacitation or death of a parent from illness. When accepting these adult guardianship and conservatorship cases, Alston + Bird and UPS absorb non-waivable fees in the amount of $500 per case to pay for assessments on the proposed ward. It is an amazing commitment that gives Legal Aid access to staff and financial resources that the program Would not otherwise have. Mary and Dena are the driving force behind this amazing commitment to Legal Aid clients.
Alston + Bird is leading the pack in offering the joy of pro bono service for non-attorney staff - while expanding Legal Aid’s capacity to serve clients. The Georgia Senior Legal Hotline receives an average of 50 calls per day, despite having no paid administrative support. When seniors call the Hotline, they must leave a voicemail message; the voicemail message must be retrieved and entered into the Hotline’s on-line case management system—a 3-4 hour a day administrative task that the Hotline’s attorneys used to handle themselves. In 2009, Cheryl Naja approached the Hotline staff about a non-legal pro bono project. The Hotline felt like it hit the lottery. Cheryl worked tirelessly to brainstorm exactly how the receptionists could relieve the Hotline’s attorneys from the administrative burden of retrieving and entering messages from callers. Cheryl has continued to support the project by: sponsoring a yearly celebratory lunch for the Hotline attorneys and the Alston + Bird volunteers, forwarding ideas about fundraising, and just always being available to discuss new ideas. The result of this partnership has been as good for the staff as it has been for the Hotline, engaging the receptionists and allowing them to have an enormous impact on both the work of the staff and the lives of the clients.