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Cases We Handle and Services We Provide
T he greatest number of cases handled by LAWMo staff relate to
public benefits or entitlements. These benefits are often the only source of household
income and their loss or reduction can have a devastating impact on the life of a client.
LAWMo provides representation in administrative hearings, and in court, if necessary, when
benefits have been denied, terminated or reduced. These cases include Medicaid, Mo
HealthNet, Temporary Assistance (formerly called AFDC), SSI, Social Security, Aid to the
Blind, and veteran's benefits. Through this work, LAWMo helps clients obtain the payments
and services they are entitled to under law. For many families, these benefits mean the
difference between maintaining a minimal level of food and shelter or suffering
homelessness and despair.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE / FAMILY LAW
Through its family law practice, LAWMo makes it a priority to provide assistance to
those trying to escape an abusive relationship. Typically, these are cases with a long
history of physical and/or sexual abuse and involving difficult issues of child custody
and visitation. Without LAWMo's assistance, many clients and their children would face
continued abuse and hopelessness.
One other program, the Pro Se Divorce Clinic, teaches those seeking a
dissolution of marriage how to proceed on their own without an attorney. The clinic is
held regularly at LAWMo's Kansas City and Joplin offices. Monthly classes are also offered
in the Clay County area.
The demand for decent and affordable low-income housing far exceeds the current supply.
LAWMo staff assist clients with such housing problems as lock-outs, utility shutoffs,
illegal evictions, foreclosures, landlord-tenant disputes, habitability issues and housing
discrimination. Clients are also assisted in enforcing their rights to safe and sanitary
public and subsidized housing. The housing work of LAWMo can essentially be viewed as
homeless prevention. Without representation, many families would lose their current
housing with little hope of finding an alternative.
The LAWMo Economic Development Unit places a heavy emphasis on remedying the shortage
of available, habitable and affordable low-income housing in the Kansas City area. This is
achieved by working with low-income community groups and organizations as well as
neighborhood associations and community development corporations to create or rehabilitate
low-income residential units. Staff undertake all necessary legal work for client
organizations who wish to pursue the development of low-income housing. This includes land
acquisition, financing, real estate closing and syndication, tax abatement, zoning,
contracts with service providers and condemnation (of blighted and dangerous buildings).
Two staff attorneys also represent neighborhood organizations who are seeking to eliminate
blighted and unsafe buildings and other zoning violations from their neighborhoods. When
city enforcement procedures are inadequate to remedy a blighted condition, staff can
negotiate with or file a lawsuit against the offending property owner, who is often an
absentee landlord. This can result in rehabilitation of the property or, if necessary, its
demolition.
AIDS LEGAL ASSISTANCE
LAWMo attorneys who practice in every substantive area of poverty law are handling
cases involving AIDS and positive HIV diagnoses. There is no "typical" client of
this project, but all have been diagnosed as HIV positive or having AIDS and are in need
of legal assistance as a result of thes life-changing diagnoses. The program assists
people who have been denied access to housing or who have been threatened with possible
eviction because they have AIDS; those who have been terminated from jobs because they are
suspected of having AIDS or are associated with a high risk group; and those who have been
denied insurance coverage because of claims, among others, that the AIDS/HIV diagnosis was
a pre-existing condition. The project also provides legal assistance with durable powers
of attorney, simple wills and health care directives. A staff attorney provides outreach
to a free community clinic on a regular basis.
Hundreds of clients seek LAWMo's assistance each year with consumer-related problems.
These cases include deceptive business practices, faulty home repairs, disputes with
creditors, automobile purchases and repair problems, and bankruptcy. Clients with consumer
law problems have usually fallen victim to some kind of illegal business practice. This is
particularly true of senior citizens, who are even more vulnerable to overreaching and
other questionable or illegal sales and lending practices.
Staff assist individuals and their families with immigration problems including gaining
legal status, temporary and permanent resident status, and US citizenship. In addition,
the project provides counsel for those facing deportation and seeking work permits. Legal
assistance can often help avoid the breakup of families and help immigrants continue to be
productive members of their communities. LAWMo offers free representation to immigrants in
the entire state of Missouri.
MIGRANT FARMWORKERS PROJECT
Each summer and fall migrant farmworkers and their families come to Lafayette County
and the Missouri bootheel to harvest crops. When the workers arrive they are faced with
numerous problems including finding adequate and affordable housing, locating health and
social services, obtaining food for themselves and their families and getting paid for
their work. Because of the language differences and low education levels, many of the
workers find it difficult to follow complicated governmental procedures dealing with
everything from immigration law to food stamps to driver's license problems. Project staff
assist workers with translation and with application for benefits programs and serve as
advocates for the workers' rights to assistance. Staff strive not only to resolve the
workers' immediate problems, but also to educate them to the legal process, their rights
and obligations. Through this program, services are provided to a population that is often
invisible and frequently falls between the cracks of conventional assistance.
MUNICIPAL COURT DEFENSE UNIT
Funded by a contract with the City of Kansas City, a LAWMo staff of seven full-time
attorneys and one part-time attorney provide representation to indigents charged with
jailable offenses in the City's Municipal Courts. Over 6,000 individual cases are handled
by these attorneys each year so that every person facing a serious charge is assured
constitutionally mandated legal representation.
To help maintain a high quality legal services delivery program, LAWMo, in cooperation
with bar associations in western Missouri, established the Volunteer Attorney Project
(VAP) in 1982. Through this program, attorneys in private practice volunteer to accept
case referrals from LAWMo on a no fee or pro bono basis. Approximately 900 attorneys from
LAWMo's 40 county service area are participating in this program, along with several law
firms and corporate counsel from local businesses.
In addition to handling individual cases, volunteer attorneys teach Pro Se Divorce
Clinics and conduct outreach visits at area homeless shelters and at community senior
centers. Volunteers also provide assistance through Project Consent, a program that
helps non-parental caregivers of minor children obtain power of attorney or legal
guardianship so that health care can be provided through Children's Mercy Hospital. In
northwest Missouri, volunteer attorneys provide representation to financially distressed
farmers through the Farm Project.
In this era of limited resources and growing client demand, the contributions made by
VAP members are extremely important to carrying out the mission of LAWMo.
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