Nassau/Suffolk Law Services Committee, Inc.

Transcription

1 Nassau/Suffolk Law Services Committee, Inc. Overview of Achievements, Nearly 6,200 cases for more than 13,900 individuals were handled to completion for the period from April 1, 2015 through March 31, Many of our cases involved threats to the basic necessities of human life. Our staff was able to prevent homelessness, obtain medical care for people with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other illnesses, address discrimination against and obtain services for disabled persons, help senior citizens retain home health care and avoid nursing home placement, and halt domestic violence. While assisting individual clients is the foundation of our work, these cases also benefited the entire community because, as a result of our efforts, we save the counties and state money through our SSI, public benefits, family law and housing work. More than 1.6 million dollars in federal Social Security benefits, public assistance and Medicaid were obtained by our staff on behalf of low income and disabled individuals on Long Island. Our efforts also produced an additional savings to clients of 426,000 dollars in judgments and payments avoided. More than 9.2 million dollars were saved by New York State taxpayers through the avoidance of emergency shelter costs and by moving clients off welfare onto federal social security. Through our trainings, partnerships and contacts with hundreds of Long Island social, religious and governmental organizations, we have assisted thousands of Long Islanders to obtain knowledge to help their clients. For example, we assist elected officials to obtain essential services for their constituents; we work with health care workers to obtain medical care for clients. We join with mental and physical disability advocates to ensure that their clients' issues are resolved thus helping them obtain employment and lead productive lives. In April, 2015, we received funding for the first time from the Community Service Society to join the Independent Consumer Advocacy Network (ICAN) in providing education, information, and advocacy regarding long-term managed care. Later that year, utilizing Judiciary CLS funding, we hired our first staff attorney dedicated to provide representation, consultations, and legal education exclusively to veterans. We also continued to improve our technology capabilities. We added Wi-Fi access to our two main offices and launched our Intranet to facilitate communications and enhance resources for staff. Our extensive pro bono efforts in conjunction with the Nassau and Suffolk County Bar Associations and the local court administrations produced nearly 1,100 cases providing access to the legal system to more than 2,400 individuals. We continued our private fundraising efforts which included our Annual Fall Reception hosted by our Advisory Council. We also continued to receive thousands of dollars from private sector sources, including private foundation grants, the New York State Bar Foundation, the United Way, the We Care Fund of the Nassau County Bar Association, and general donations. Lastly, IOLA funding helps support casehandling and key administrative positions throughout the agency which were instrumental in achieving the results summarized above and which are essential to the effective delivery of quality legal services. N assau Suffolk This Provider At a Glance Population Served: General Low Income Population Area Served: Nassau and Suffolk Counties Total Funding: $8,486,726 Total IOLA Grant: $1,050,000 Staffing - Full Time Equivalents Total Staff: Lawyers: Paralegals: Other Staff: Types of Services Provided Direct Civil Legal Representation Brief Services Extended Services Hotlines and Other Phone-Based Services Technology and Other Innovations Community Legal Education Pro Se Assistance Collaborations With Other Service Providers Major Cases or Other Advocacy Projects Nassau/Suffolk Law Services Committee, Inc. - 1

2 Outcomes 13,912 Individuals Benefited from 6,160 Closed Direct Civil Legal Cases Dollar Benefits Achieved for Clients* - Total $6,144,515 Social Security, SSI Benefits: $5,521,289 Other Federal Benefits: $354,529 Family Law - Child Support: $167,297 Family Law - Maintenance/Spousal Support: $84,000 Affirmative Judgments: $17,400 Extended Representation Outcomes 6,928 People benefited from extended representation Brief Representation Benefits 5,582 People benefited from legal advice and counsel 737 People benefited from non-litigation advocacy services 665 People benefited by referral to other sources of help *Total includes back awards and total monthly benefits, estimated over 6 months (unemployment compensation), 12 months (other federal benefits, equitable distribution of assets, affirmative judgments and other benefits), 60 months (Social Security, SSI) or 120 months (child and spousal support). Examples... Outcomes for Clients fter her double mastectomy, Ms. E's grandson stayed with her in her rent-subsidized apartment to help with the A drains, lifting, etc. Later, Ms. E. received a notice from the housing authority terminating her tenancy because she had an unauthorized person living in her apartment. Our attorney obtained letters from the client's doctors to establish the need to have the grandson in the home after surgery, and during her upcoming chemotherapy. We submitted these together with a letter requesting a reasonable accommodation to permit the grandson to stay with the client during her course of treatment. There was no response, and we requested a hearing on the termination notice. The hearing itself was a travesty, run, over our strong objections, by a hearing officer who was clearly predisposed to find for the housing authority, despite the fact that they produced no evidence or witnesses, while we produced not only the doctors' letters, but proof that the grandson had a residence elsewhere. We also pointed out that the housing authority had signed a new lease with the client and accepted rent after the date they claimed to have terminated the tenancy, either of which was enough to render the termination invalid. After the hearing, we accompanied the client to court on the eviction case, where the attorney for the housing authority withdrew the action, based on the information we had provided at the hearing. The reasonable accommodation has been granted and Ms. E. remains in her affordable apartment. r. O. contacted us because he received a notice that his Medicaid had been canceled due to excess income. M Since the agency knew that he is disabled, the notice should not have been a termination, but rather an approval with a spend-down. We requested a fair hearing with aid continuing pending the hearing, and contacted the agency to try to correct the problem prior to the hearing. The caseworker agreed to issue a new, correct notice, but no new notice was forthcoming. Our attorney called again, and was told they cancelled the new notices because of the fair hearing request. Our attorney explained that the hearing was to challenge the original, defective notice, not the new one that was supposed to be sent to the client. Finally, through patient and persistent advocacy, the new notice was issued and the defective notice was withdrawn by the agency at the hearing, at which we appeared on the client's behalf. Meanwhile, we counseled Mr. O. regarding his health insurance options, including obtaining insurance through the Affordable Care Act, the Medicare Savings Program and obtaining full Medicaid coverage by depositing his spend-down amount into a pooled trust, to be used to cover his non-medical expenses. He ultimately decided to participate in the pooled trust, and we assisted him to accomplish that. Mr. O. now has Medicaid without a spenddown, and his Medicare Part B premium is covered by Medicaid. Breakdown of Cases by Legal Problem Area People Cases Total 13,912 6,160 Housing 6,740 2,594 Income Maintenance 3,714 1,754 Health Consumer Other 1, Nassau/Suffolk Law Services Committee, Inc. - 2 Housing 42% Income Maintenance 29% Other 14% Health 9% Consumer 6%

3 Other Services Technology and Other Innovations In our ongoing efforts to stay current and increase our efficiency we have taken the following actions: This year we launched our Intranet. It has been a long process but worth the wait. While we will continue to add to and broaden the scope of services provided on the Intranet, we are hoping that our staff will find it very informative and useful. In our two main offices, Hempstead and Islandia, we have set up two Wi-Fi accounts. One is a guest account, which allows access to the Internet, and the second a much more secure account is to allow remote access to our network. Last year, the New York State Office of Court Administration Access to Justice Task Force, as part of a pilot project, offered us the opportunity to undergo a thorough review and survey of our computer systems and programs by a highly experienced technology experts. We agreed, and provided these experts with extensive information about our capabilities and programs for their analysis. We have had numerous phone conferences and a site visit to our Islandia office. They have provided us with some useful tips for our office technology which we are considering implementing. Based upon this review, a member of our staff is now on the New York State OCA Access to Justice Task Force and participates in the monthly webinars and phone conferences. We have once again updated our Symantec Endpoint Protection and are planning to implement a Malwarebytes Endpoint Security on our network to prevent cyber-attacks. All our case handlers are provided with Westlaw passwords and access to legal research. We have also added the Westlaw Drafting Assistant to our policy and it will be installed on all workstations for staff with Westlaw accounts. We are now in the process of converting our to Office 365. We have purchased a new domain for our accounts and the conversion will be implemented in May of All staff will be receiving new s and passwords. Legal Services Other Than Direct Legal Representation The Legal Support Center for Advocates (LSCA) provides support services and technical assistance to community agencies and advocates on Long Island. The Center provides the information, consultation, and referral services necessary for lay persons and clients to advocate effectively in welfare and other poverty-related matters. LSCA s services have included extensive outreach, community advocate and client training events, the dissemination of educational materials, participation in corporate-sponsored, court-sponsored and legislaturesponsored informational events, and a phone consultation service to community advocates. In addition, the publication and distribution of our agency newsletter, Law Services News, continues to be well received with new subscribers being added every week. Our E-News service, Legal Lessons, supplements the regular distribution of the newsletter. Our current combined mailing list for these publications includes over 7,700 agencies and individuals in Nassau and Suffolk. The Center operates a Helpline serving a wide range of advocates including social workers, case guidance counselors, pro bono attorneys, parish outreach workers, youth counselors, legislative staff, doctors, nurses and case managers throughout our community. Advocates from The Association of Mental Health and Wellness, Suffolk County medical clinics, Legal Aid, schools, churches, hospitals and even local government offices (County Legislative staff, Suffolk County Veterans, Department of Social Services) make use of the Center s services. We received 891 calls from advocates in , involving individuals and families with problems ranging from welfare, housing, access to medical care, consumer debt, Social Security, etc. Community education remains an important focus for the program. The Legal Support Center, along with other Units in the program, conducted a total of 31 trainings reaching over 980 advocate and client participants. Training collaborations with other agencies such as Catholic Charities, PSEG, and Touro Law School, add a greater dimension to the presentations. Collaborations With Other Service Providers Some of our most important collaborations are with the two local bar associations. Bankruptcy matters are addressed by our Bankruptcy Clinics in both Nassau and Suffolk Counties, run with the cooperation of the respective bar associations. These clinics operate by first providing an overview of bankruptcy to the participants, after which the pro bono attorneys provide individual consultations. From those consultations, cases are selected for representation in a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy proceeding. During the past grant year, 197 low income clients received help from these projects, and 109 of them obtained bankruptcy relief. Our Volunteer Lawyers Project, with the active participation of the Nassau County Bar Association's Senior Attorney Committee, operates a highly successful Landlord/Tenant Attorney of the Day Project in Nassau County. This Project provides volunteer attorneys to unrepresented low income tenants facing eviction in the Number of People Benefited by Legal Services Other Than Direct Legal Representation Total: 117,630 People Community Legal Education and Pro Se Assistance: 34,727 People Web Usage: 82,903 People Nassau/Suffolk Law Services Committee, Inc. - 3

4 Other Services, continued Nassau County District Court four days a week. In the past year, this project helped to prevent 314 evictions and delayed 379 evictions. With the help of the Suffolk County Bar Association, we operate a Pro Bono Foreclosure Settlement Conference Project, relying on pro bono attorneys identified by the Bar Association and utilizing an online system for matching homeowners requesting assistance with private attorneys willing to provide limited representation at foreclosure settlement conferences. This project supplements our staff model Foreclosure Prevention Project and increases our ability to assure that clients are able to be represented at the settlement conference stage. For more than 20 years, we have collaborated with domestic violence agencies in Suffolk County (Victims Information Bureau of Suffolk, Long Island Against Domestic Violence, Brighter Tomorrows and The Retreat) to provide legal assistance to women who are victims of domestic violence. The domestic violence agencies provide shelter, counseling and court advocates to accompany the women to court, and refer them to our Domestic Violence Project for legal representation in Family Court, to obtain Orders of Protection - including orders to exclude the abuser from the home - and matters pertaining to the custody and support of their minor children. Frequently, the advocates from these agencies also help our Project by providing interpretation in our communication with limited English proficiency clients. In the past year, the two full-time attorneys in the Domestic Violence Project obtained 108 orders of protection for victims of domestic violence, and 35 orders of custody or support, facilitated by our collaboration with these agencies. Our newly formed Veterans' Rights Project has developed a collaboration with Touro Law Center's Veterans' and Service Members' Rights Clinic. Our Veterans' Rights Project staff regularly participates in the Touro project's legal educational programs for veterans and assists with individual intakes after the presentation. As a consequence, our staff and the staff of Touro are able to determine, based on the circumstances of the individual client and the type of legal problem presented, which of our agencies would be better able to assist the client. We have obtained a number of referrals in this manner. Although not a direct legal services project, we have invested significant effort in the development and growth of the New York State Association of Legal Services Organizations (also known as The New York Legal Services Coalition). This statewide association was incorporated in 2014 and includes many IOLA grantees, and was formed for the purposes of promoting the funding of civil legal services in New York, and for providing mutual support to member agencies. Our Executive Director was one of the founders of the Association and serves as its Treasurer. The Association was able to hire its own Executive Director in the fall of Major Cases or Other Advocacy Project In the Matter of the Appeal of JS from a determination by the Nassau County Dept. of Social Services, Fair Hearing # H This office was contacted by the parent/guardian of a 26- year-old woman with developmental disabilities (hereinafter referred to as JS ), regarding her participation in a Medicaid Home and Community Based Waiver program then known as Consolidated Supports and Services (hereinafter referred to as CSS ). This program is administered through the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (hereinafter referred to as the Agency ). JS lives in a private residence with her family and requires respite services. Respite services are Medicaid Waiver Services which provide relief to the individuals who are responsible for the primary care and support of an individual with a developmental disability. JS sought not only respite services, but also a housing subsidy relating to the home that she occupies with her family. The parent advised that the Agency had determined that JS was ineligible to simultaneously receive both respite services and a housing subsidy under her CSS plan. The articulated rationale behind the Agency's policy is that housing subsidies are provided to individuals who live independently, and respite is only provided to unpaid caretakers who provide continuous support to individuals Sources of Funding Total $8,486,726 IOLA Grant $1,050,000 State Funding $4,784,904 Legal Services Corp (LSC) $1,215,556 Other Federal Programs $524,815 Other $911,451 State Funding 57% Legal Services Corp (LSC) 14% IOLA Grant 12% Other Federal Programs 6% Other 11% Nassau/Suffolk Law Services Committee, Inc. - 4

5 Other Services, continued who cannot live independently. The Agency admitted that there is no written document that describes the policy which prevents respite funding for individuals who receive housing subsidies. A fair hearing notice was filed and the hearing commenced in November The attorney in our Education and Disability Rights Project disputed the Agency's claim that the issue is not hearable at a Medicaid fair hearing, and argued that the fact that the policy is unwritten, in and of itself, suggests that it is arbitrary and capricious and lacking in a rational basis. She further argued that the Agency's prohibition of the simultaneous provision of both respite services and a housing subsidy is simply not supported under pertinent law, and expressly and directly contravenes the mandate of the Medicaid Waiver regarding the delivery of respite services. Finally, counsel also argued that although it is the Agency's responsibility to foster self-direction and facilitate necessary services/supports under the CSS waiver program, the disputed policy has a countervailing effect. The hearing concluded in January, 2016, and in February 2016, the Commissioner of the NYS Department of Health issued a Decision and Order reversing the Agency s denial of JS s request for the simultaneous provision of respite services and a housing subsidy. The Commissioner determined that the Agency s denial of JS s request for the simultaneous provision of these services was not supported by an statutory or regulatory authority, and thus directed the Agency to reimburse JS for a housing subsidy for the applicable time period. JS has filed a Complaint of Non- Compliance due to the Agency s miscalculation of the subsidy amount due, and its failure to immediately comply with the Commissioner s directive, in violation of 18 NYCRR This case will benefit and enhance the quality of life for all those program participants in New York State who live at home with family and who also require much needed respite services. Pro Bono Volunteer Involvement In house pro bono attorneys work side by side with our staff attorneys on cases involving divorce, access to health care, and landlord tenant matters. We also have nine attorneys from the Attorney Emeritus Program (AEPs) assisting in the screening of cases and the administration of our Pro Bono Project in Suffolk and ten AEPs who provide case services. A revolving pool of law student interns assist attorneys in the various units with client screenings and interviews, research, drafting pleadings, administrative tasks, and in-court representation under our student practice order. Other volunteers, including paralegal students, social work students and community volunteers, assist with administrative duties and client calls dealing with landlord/tenant questions. New York State recently announced a new program for third year law students called the Pro Bono Scholars Program. NSLS participated again this year and agreed to host four Pro Bono Scholars from March through May where they worked in our Veterans Project, Attorney of the Day project, Mental Health Law Project, and Domestic Violence Unit. Because there are no legal services programs on Long Island that provide free representation for matrimonial cases, except for the Nassau Coalition vs. Domestic Violence, both our offices have special family law panels made up of pro bono matrimonial attorneys to whom we have referred over one hundred cases annually. Pro Bono Unit coordinators have been attending local barsponsored CLEs, matrimonial committee meetings, and other bar functions in order to personally recruit new pro bono attorneys. We have also co-sponsored CLE boot camps with the bar association for the purpose of training and recruiting pro bono attorneys. In cooperation with Touro Law School, Law Services Pro Bono Project has referred over 120 cases to the law school s new Pro Se Divorce Project. This cooperative effort has been very successful in meeting the need for divorce representation. For many years, our Bankruptcy Clinics have been held in both Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Participants are provided a personal consultation with a bankruptcy attorney for possible referral to a pro bono attorney for full representation in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The clinics are held bimonthly and typically have about 20 clients in attendance in each county. In addition to matching clients with volunteer attorneys for on-going representation, we have continued our Landlord/Tenant Attorney of the Day Project and our Pro Bono Foreclosure Settlement Project which are made possible by the efforts of volunteer attorneys. The Attorney of the Day Project places our volunteer attorneys in the Nassau County District Court four days a week where they are assigned a respondent in a landlord/ tenant case for representation on the particular day. The Foreclosure Settlement Project, administered jointly with the Suffolk County Bar Association, provides pro bono assistance at foreclosure settlement conferences based on an attorney-of-the day model. Attorneys in this Project have served over 1,800 clients since its inception. The Nassau and Suffolk Bar Associations sponsor Foreclosure Clinics, Community Legal Fairs, Veterans Clinics, Senior Clinics, and Sandy Disaster Clinics. Nassau Suffolk Law Services co-sponsors or participates with staff involvement in these free community clinics. In October 2015, in celebration of Pro Bono week and in collaboration with the Nassau County Bar Association, a Legal FAIR (Free Assistance, Information, and Referral) was hosted at the Nassau Bar Association. This effort involved more than 50 pro bono attorneys and attracted more participants than ever before. Also, in order to offer more targeted service to our veterans, NSLS is Nassau/Suffolk Law Services Committee, Inc. - 5

6 Other Services, continued again partnering with the Suffolk County Bar Association to host the Volunteers for Veterans Day, a successful event that was first held at the Suffolk County Bar Association in February NSLS is partnering with five upstate legal service providers as part of a statewide project, one of eleven nationally selected projects receiving LSC Pro Bono Innovation funding. The New York project seeks to target law students, who are required to complete 50 hours of pro bono service prior to admission to the New York Bar, and Attorneys Emeritus. NSLS local innovation is to create child support services using these pro bono resources for unrepresented litigants. The Self-Help Child Support Project, based out of the Suffolk County office of NSLS in Islandia, is staffed by law students and supervised by our staff and Attorneys Emeritus. The goal is to provide pro se guidance and education to child support litigants who are unrepresented and require assistance in filing their petitions and understanding the proceedings. Since its inception the Project has extended services to over 300 callers providing educational information, referrals and pro se assistance. Pro Bono Statistics During , the following volunteers provided services in our program: Attorneys: 266 Volunteers 5,466 Hours Law Students: 33 Volunteers 4,182 Hours Other Volunteers: 27 Volunteers 1,583 Hours Total Cases Completed by Attorneys: 1,050 Cases Dollar Value of Attorney Services*: $1.64 million *estimated at $300 per hour Nassau/Suffolk Law Services Committee, Inc. - 6