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.

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.