Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director
I was at the KCMBA’s Liberty and Justice Gala last Saturday, which was a marvelous event.
Kansas City Mayor Sly James was at the event and gave a great speech talking about the excellent work that Legal Aid’s attorneys do and particularly highlighting our response to the Joplin tornado.
You can read the Mayor’s speech on Legal Aid’s website here.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Legal Aid's Partnership with LINCWorks Puts People to Work
Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director
I’m pleased to announce that that the LINCWorks welfare-to-work program in Kansas City is getting some national recognition as a result of a partnership with Legal Aid of Western Missouri.
Three years ago, LINCWorks was seeing a serious problem with many of the participants in its welfare-to-work program. Many of the participants were fully prepared to secure jobs, but had outstanding city warrants. Most employers won’t hire people who have warrants against them, even for relatively minor offenses, including traffic tickets.
To address the issue, LINCWorks partnered with Legal Aid, so that Legal Aid now provides representation in Municipal Court to resolve the outstanding tickets. Legal Aid’s work on the project is run by Latricia Scott Adams, the Director of Legal Aid’s Volunteer Attorney Project. For the vast majority of the cases, the ticket is resolved with a community service. More importantly, the program has removed a major barrier for hundreds of LINCWorks participants in getting work and, with the barrier gone, many of the participants are now employed.
LINCWorks has been so successful in this and other community partnerships that the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services has chosen LINCWorks as one of just seven welfare-to-work programs nationally to participate in the Promising Pathways initiative. Congratulations to LINCWorks. This is another example of how Legal Aid collaborates with other community organizations to get excellent results for our clients.
I’m pleased to announce that that the LINCWorks welfare-to-work program in Kansas City is getting some national recognition as a result of a partnership with Legal Aid of Western Missouri.
Three years ago, LINCWorks was seeing a serious problem with many of the participants in its welfare-to-work program. Many of the participants were fully prepared to secure jobs, but had outstanding city warrants. Most employers won’t hire people who have warrants against them, even for relatively minor offenses, including traffic tickets.
To address the issue, LINCWorks partnered with Legal Aid, so that Legal Aid now provides representation in Municipal Court to resolve the outstanding tickets. Legal Aid’s work on the project is run by Latricia Scott Adams, the Director of Legal Aid’s Volunteer Attorney Project. For the vast majority of the cases, the ticket is resolved with a community service. More importantly, the program has removed a major barrier for hundreds of LINCWorks participants in getting work and, with the barrier gone, many of the participants are now employed.
LINCWorks has been so successful in this and other community partnerships that the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services has chosen LINCWorks as one of just seven welfare-to-work programs nationally to participate in the Promising Pathways initiative. Congratulations to LINCWorks. This is another example of how Legal Aid collaborates with other community organizations to get excellent results for our clients.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Let's show Joplin our true colors.
Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director
There is nothing like a crisis to bring out people's true colors.
With the Joplin tornado the response of most Missourians has been inspiringly positive. If you've been to Joplin any time since May 22, you've seen hundreds of volunteers doing whatever they can to help the city and the families that were decimated by the tornado back on their feet.
A shining star in this effort has been Missouri Bar President John Johnston, who spent more than a week in Joplin, leading the charge of volunteers from the Missouri Bar that helped make sure that tornado survivors had the legal tools they needed to make FEMA and insurance claims and to deal with trust and estate issues, guardianships and all the other legal obstacles that stood between them and recovery. Similarly, Legal Aid's Shelly Wakeman led a platoon of Volunteer Attorney Project volunteers, working in close coordination with the Bar that made sure that low-income survivors had all of their legal needs taken care of.
While there are countless examples of the good that's been done in Joplin, there is a small number of vultures who have done their best to get rich as a result of the city's misfortune. The biggest offenders are landlords who had the good fortune of having the tornado miss their property. Shortly after the tornado struck, many of these vultures started evicting tenants and charging double the rent, taking advantage of the extreme shortage of housing in Joplin.
This practice is not only reprehensible, it's illegal. Under Missouri's Merchandising Practices Act, raising retail and rental prices exorbitantly as a result of a natural disaster is illegal price gouging. The Missouri Attorney General's office has already received more than 50 complaints of price gouging in Joplin and the experience of the staff in our Joplin office has confirmed that the practice is widespread.
Legal Aid is working to team up with the Missouri Attorney General's office to stop illegal price gouging in Joplin. If you're an attorney who is offended by the scum who want to take advantage of the plight of the Joplin tornado victims, do something about it. Give me a call or e-mail me to sign up for Legal Aid's anti-price gouging efforts in Joplin. The plan is to organize volunteer attorneys to bring legal actions under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act against landlords in Joplin who have charged substantial rent increases to make a quick profit off of the disaster. My direct dial number is (816)474-1413 x224. My e-mail address is glombardi@lawmo.org
Let's show the Joplin community our true colors.
There is nothing like a crisis to bring out people's true colors.
With the Joplin tornado the response of most Missourians has been inspiringly positive. If you've been to Joplin any time since May 22, you've seen hundreds of volunteers doing whatever they can to help the city and the families that were decimated by the tornado back on their feet.
A shining star in this effort has been Missouri Bar President John Johnston, who spent more than a week in Joplin, leading the charge of volunteers from the Missouri Bar that helped make sure that tornado survivors had the legal tools they needed to make FEMA and insurance claims and to deal with trust and estate issues, guardianships and all the other legal obstacles that stood between them and recovery. Similarly, Legal Aid's Shelly Wakeman led a platoon of Volunteer Attorney Project volunteers, working in close coordination with the Bar that made sure that low-income survivors had all of their legal needs taken care of.
While there are countless examples of the good that's been done in Joplin, there is a small number of vultures who have done their best to get rich as a result of the city's misfortune. The biggest offenders are landlords who had the good fortune of having the tornado miss their property. Shortly after the tornado struck, many of these vultures started evicting tenants and charging double the rent, taking advantage of the extreme shortage of housing in Joplin.
This practice is not only reprehensible, it's illegal. Under Missouri's Merchandising Practices Act, raising retail and rental prices exorbitantly as a result of a natural disaster is illegal price gouging. The Missouri Attorney General's office has already received more than 50 complaints of price gouging in Joplin and the experience of the staff in our Joplin office has confirmed that the practice is widespread.
Legal Aid is working to team up with the Missouri Attorney General's office to stop illegal price gouging in Joplin. If you're an attorney who is offended by the scum who want to take advantage of the plight of the Joplin tornado victims, do something about it. Give me a call or e-mail me to sign up for Legal Aid's anti-price gouging efforts in Joplin. The plan is to organize volunteer attorneys to bring legal actions under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act against landlords in Joplin who have charged substantial rent increases to make a quick profit off of the disaster. My direct dial number is (816)474-1413 x224. My e-mail address is glombardi@lawmo.org
Let's show the Joplin community our true colors.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Post Tornado Volunteers
Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director
We have had many calls from volunteer lawyers wanting to help with the legal issues for low-income people that will follow in the wake of the Joplin tornado. Right now, Shelly Wakeman is talking with disaster relief experts from other states and we will be updating and circulating a disaster relief manual hopefully by early next week.
We hope to hold a training for volunteer attorneys to help out some time next week. Volunteers will either answer questions by phone from their own offices or go to Joplin, where we hope to be able to set up an information booth at the FEMA site.
If you want to volunteer, please call Latricia Scott Adams our VAP director at (816)474-6750. Thanks.
We have had many calls from volunteer lawyers wanting to help with the legal issues for low-income people that will follow in the wake of the Joplin tornado. Right now, Shelly Wakeman is talking with disaster relief experts from other states and we will be updating and circulating a disaster relief manual hopefully by early next week.
We hope to hold a training for volunteer attorneys to help out some time next week. Volunteers will either answer questions by phone from their own offices or go to Joplin, where we hope to be able to set up an information booth at the FEMA site.
If you want to volunteer, please call Latricia Scott Adams our VAP director at (816)474-6750. Thanks.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Back on Track
Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director
I'm extremely happy and relieved to report that everyone in the Joplin office is fine after the devastating tornado. The phones are out, but otherwise the office is fully intact.
Now it's time for us to roll up our sleeves and do what we do best, assess the damage to our clients and then do everything we can to help them get their lives back on track.
I'm extremely happy and relieved to report that everyone in the Joplin office is fine after the devastating tornado. The phones are out, but otherwise the office is fully intact.
Now it's time for us to roll up our sleeves and do what we do best, assess the damage to our clients and then do everything we can to help them get their lives back on track.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Legal Aid's Paradigm Shift
Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director
I’m pleased to report that Legal Aid of Western Missouri is now officially on You Tube.
Katie Wood is putting together a series of videos explaining our clients’ basic legal rights. The first of these to be available on-line features Legal Aid attorney Lynn Fullenkamp explaining the spenddown system for people who are on Medicaid. Spenddown is similar to a deductible for people who receive Medicaid benefits, but with a few complicated and confusing differences—such as the fact that if a Medicaid recipient does not provide proof that they have met their spenddown requirements in a given month, then Medicaid will not pay for any of their medical expenses for that month.
Lynn does a great job of describing how the system works in four minutes. You can see her presentation here. And, there’ll be plenty more of these videos to come. Thanks to Katie Wood for producing these and to Testimonial Video for filming and editing the videos and to Latricia Scott Adams for soliciting the donation of Testimonial Video’s services.
This is just one of several major technological advances that Legal Aid is working on these days. James Smith, our Tech Director (and Litigation Director), is planning several other major advances that we hope to have in place in the coming months. One of the biggest of these will be the new Legal Aid website, which will have a bunch of great features. Kelley Carpenter, our Development Director, and Karen Cutliff, our Marketing Coordinator, will be working with Legal Aid’s staff to develop the content for the website.
I’m pleased to report that Legal Aid of Western Missouri is now officially on You Tube.
Katie Wood is putting together a series of videos explaining our clients’ basic legal rights. The first of these to be available on-line features Legal Aid attorney Lynn Fullenkamp explaining the spenddown system for people who are on Medicaid. Spenddown is similar to a deductible for people who receive Medicaid benefits, but with a few complicated and confusing differences—such as the fact that if a Medicaid recipient does not provide proof that they have met their spenddown requirements in a given month, then Medicaid will not pay for any of their medical expenses for that month.
Lynn does a great job of describing how the system works in four minutes. You can see her presentation here. And, there’ll be plenty more of these videos to come. Thanks to Katie Wood for producing these and to Testimonial Video for filming and editing the videos and to Latricia Scott Adams for soliciting the donation of Testimonial Video’s services.
This is just one of several major technological advances that Legal Aid is working on these days. James Smith, our Tech Director (and Litigation Director), is planning several other major advances that we hope to have in place in the coming months. One of the biggest of these will be the new Legal Aid website, which will have a bunch of great features. Kelley Carpenter, our Development Director, and Karen Cutliff, our Marketing Coordinator, will be working with Legal Aid’s staff to develop the content for the website.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Legal Aid's High-Impact Litigation
Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director
Today James Jenkins will be arguing the case of Blanks v. Faulkner before the Missouri Supreme Court. The case presents the question of whether barring parents whose children were born out of wedlock from filing Family Access motions violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The Family Access Act allows parents whose former spouses take their children away from them in violation of a custody order in a divorce decree to have their cases heard on an expedited docket and requires the courts to decide the cases promptly. The process under the Act also encourages the motions to be filed without the assistance of counsel. Parents whose children are born out of wedlock are barred from taking advantage of any of the benefits of the Act. And, for many of them, the cost of hiring counsel precludes them from taking any legal action to get their children back.
The argument is noteworthy both because of the important legal rights at stake for thousand of low-income parents, but also because this is the first time in more than 10 years that Legal Aid has had an argument in the Missouri Supreme Court.
Today James Jenkins will be arguing the case of Blanks v. Faulkner before the Missouri Supreme Court. The case presents the question of whether barring parents whose children were born out of wedlock from filing Family Access motions violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The Family Access Act allows parents whose former spouses take their children away from them in violation of a custody order in a divorce decree to have their cases heard on an expedited docket and requires the courts to decide the cases promptly. The process under the Act also encourages the motions to be filed without the assistance of counsel. Parents whose children are born out of wedlock are barred from taking advantage of any of the benefits of the Act. And, for many of them, the cost of hiring counsel precludes them from taking any legal action to get their children back.
The argument is noteworthy both because of the important legal rights at stake for thousand of low-income parents, but also because this is the first time in more than 10 years that Legal Aid has had an argument in the Missouri Supreme Court.
Furthermore, James is not the only one doing high-impact work these days. Effie Day and Katie Wood are prosecuting the state court appeal of the denial of Medicaid benefits to a Truman patient who is on dialysis. The case could impact Medicaid benefits for a hundred or more similarly situated patients throughout the state. Michael Duffy and his team have played a key role in stopping Wells Fargo Bank from selling over 200 foreclosed properties in Kansas City in bulk at auction, which almost certainly would have resulted in many of those properties becoming blighted. Michael’s work on that project has led to 60 of those properties being donated by Wells Fargo to area not-for-profits to be rehabbed. Michael is now turning the team’s attention to hundreds of other foreclosed properties in Kansas City that are at risk of being sold in bulk.
I am proud of all of the high impact work that we as an organization are doing. In the coming months and years my hope is that you’ll be hearing about even more high impact work that Legal Aid will be doing.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Sly James: KC's Next Mayor
Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director
I’m psyched to have Sly James be the next mayor of Kansas City. Sly is a former board member for Legal Aid and has been a long-time supporter of the organization. He’s smart, savvy and has a strong understanding of the challenges and opportunities that are facing the city.
Perhaps most importantly, he’s a great communicator who knows how to build consensus. The City Charter of Kansas City gives the mayor very little power. So, to be effective, a mayor needs to be able to rally the other members of the City Council and lead by persuasion. Sly is up to the task.
The election also gave us a talented group of City Council members, including former Legal Aid attorney Ed Ford. With the talent that will be assembling in City Hall, there could be positively exciting times ahead for the City.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
They Did It!
Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director
The events of the last three weeks in Egypt have shown the power that brave people can have when they band together.
For 30 years, the Egyptian people lived in fear of their government and the police. On January 25, thousands of them took to the streets to deliver a clear message: they had had enough.
Every one of the demonstrators was risking being beaten, jailed or worse. And while the final chapter of the uprising won’t be written until free and fair, new elections have taken place and the rightfully elected government has taken power, it looks like the Egyptian people have brought an end to 30 years of oppression.
In my book, this is the most awesome and inspiring demonstration of the power that the masses have when fighting for what’s right since Tiananmen Square.
For 30 years, the Egyptian people lived in fear of their government and the police. On January 25, thousands of them took to the streets to deliver a clear message: they had had enough.
Every one of the demonstrators was risking being beaten, jailed or worse. And while the final chapter of the uprising won’t be written until free and fair, new elections have taken place and the rightfully elected government has taken power, it looks like the Egyptian people have brought an end to 30 years of oppression.
In my book, this is the most awesome and inspiring demonstration of the power that the masses have when fighting for what’s right since Tiananmen Square.
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