MOSAIC's Medical Debt Grace Period is Good News for Low and Moderate-Income Patients

Gregg Lombard - Executive Director

MOSAIC Life Care (formerly known as Heartland Hospital) has announced a Medical Debt Grace Period for MOSAIC’s low to moderate income patients. MOSAIC will write off up to 100% of the medical debt for qualifying patients who apply between now and the end of the year.

This is a tremendous opportunity for low-income patients. A patient from a family of four with income up to $48,500 may be eligible to have their entire medical debt forgiven by the hospital-- even if the debt is in collection and even if a judgment has been entered against the patient. A patient from a family of three with income up to $60,270 may be eligible to have half their medical debt forgiven.  Please see the announcement below or view it online.  The online version has a chart showing the amount of debt that will be forgiven based on income and family size.

Senator Chuck Grassley from Iowa and his staff deserve a great deal of credit for encouraging MOSAIC to provide these discounts. See the website for complete details. The offer only lasts until the end of the year. So, people who are eligible should take action soon.

Below is the announcement from MOSAIC:

Medical Debt Grace Period

Have an unpaid medical bill?

If you or someone you know has an unpaid medical bill, the account may qualify for Mosaic Life Care’s Medical Debt Grace Period — now through December 31, 2015. Even if the account is in collections, has acquired legal fees, is under wage garnishment or has been denied in the past, it may still be eligible.

If the account qualifies, 100 percent of your debt could be forgiven during Mosaic Life Care’s Medical Debt Grace Period.

• If you are approved for 100 percent financial assistance, then we will forgive the entire debt on that account. 
• If you are approved for 50 percent financial assistance, then we will apply a 50 percent discount to the principal on your account, and forgive additional interest and fees that have built up.  
• If you are not approved for financial assistance at this time, but you have paid off the principal amount, we will forgive the remaining Mosaic Life Care balance. 
• If you are not approved for financial assistance at this time and have not paid off the principal amount, we will forgive any interest and/or legal fees that have built up on your account. 

Together we can find answers to unpaid medical bills.

To find out if the account qualifies, make an appointment with a financial counselor by calling (816) 271-7524 or (800) 447-1095, or complete an application (Spanish version) by December 31, 2015.

Isn’t it time that we got rid of boxing?

Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director

Isn’t it time that we got rid of boxing? There are many things to hate about the sport. Boxing is glorified violence. It often causes serious long-term physical damage to the athletes who participate and it encourages violence outside the ring.

At a time when virtually all other sports are doing their best to protect their athletes from concussions, giving your opponent a concussion (which is the result of most knockouts) is actually a goal of boxing and the boxers who have given their opponents the most concussions are lauded as the best. 

There is no doubt the boxers are talented athletes, but to shower large sums of money and glory on people for hurting each other shouldn’t be happening in the 21st century.

The NFL and other leagues have started campaigns to stop domestic violence perpetrated by their players. The NFL’s “No More” campaign urges us to talk about and end domestic violence. Football players who have perpetrated violence are suspended and are at serious risk of losing their careers.

According to CNN, Floyd Mayweather, who won the world welterweight championship on Saturday, has been convicted at least three times on domestic violence related charges and has served two months in jail for domestic violence.  And yet, to my knowledge, the boxing world has completely condoned his conduct. He has never been suspended, fined or even reprimanded for his actions. 

As Saturday’s fight proved, boxing is clearly popular. Millions of people want to see grown men beat the daylights out of each other. That is a sad sign of the mindset of our society. 

Gladiator combat to the death was immensely popular in ancient Rome, but at some point society figured out that it was inhumane and the sport was ended. Given that a couple of millennium has passed, maybe it’s time for the next natural step in the evolution of sport. 

I say that it’s time that we say “No More” to boxing. We don’t allow dogs to fight each other. We don’t allow chickens to fight each other.  We shouldn’t reward people for fighting each other. And, I consider cage fights to be boxing.

The Myths about the Poor and Debt in America

Lisa Livingston-Martin - Staff Attorney, Joplin Office

I have heard many theories as to why the poor have debt, specifically credit card debt, in America. The reasoning often has more to do with the perspective of the person stating their reasoning than the circumstances faced by the poor in America. I have heard well-reasoned and factually sound theories from those experiencing poverty and debt, showing much personal insight into their own situations; such as that the rising cost of living over the last decade has outpaced their low-wage job earnings, including any raises if applicable, causing them to fall further behind in their ability to maintain payments on balances, often incurred years before. In a similar vein, that unexpected medical expenses, and consequential time off work, most often without any opportunity for short or long term disability payments or other benefits to supplement the lost income, resulted in the necessity to prioritize the payment of expenses to those required for food, shelter, transportation to work, medication etc. leaving no funds to pay on credit card balances.

On the other hand, I have heard some in the middle or upper middle class reason that there really aren’t people in America so poor that they can’t pay their debt, including credit cards; that those who default on credit card payments are ‘deadbeats’ who choose to live in poverty, to be pursued by debt collectors and force the debt collectors to pursue them in court out of a sense of apathy or worse. This is an example of the extreme spectrum of theories surrounding credit card debt of the poor in America, which overlooks the fact that many facing credit card debt in America have had their economic situations detrimentally changed due to unforeseen forces and events, including loss of employment, health issues, transition to fixed incomes before they intended. Additionally, the continued high rates of involuntary unemployment and underemployment experienced by younger people has resulted in less upward mobility for those under the age of 35 than in previous generations. The US Chamber of Commerce Foundation details these factors in its The Millennial Generation Research Review report, accessible here.

Unfortunately, there are more insidious reasons that people can find themselves facing credit card debt issues than the societal changes we all are facing these days. One such reason is Identity Theft. Making the situation worse, the culprit is often not a faceless, nameless computer hacker sitting behind a computer monitor on the other side of the globe, or some organized criminal scam, but instead someone very close to the victim. It seems counter-intuitive to think that Identity Theft is an issue for the poor in America, since they generally have little credit or resources to steal. And perhaps this is the worst myth about the poor and debt in America. Crime is often a matter of opportunity, and access. And a sense that no one would want to steal their identity because they have so little is a dangerous assumption.

The Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics tracks trends and incidents of Identity Theft. Their National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) defines identity theft as including three general types of incidents:

• unauthorized use or attempted use of an existing account
• unauthorized use or attempted use of personal information to open a new account
• misuse of personal information for a fraudulent purpose

It is clear from Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that Identity theft is on the rise. For instance, they concluded that "3.6 million U.S. households learned they were identity theft victims during a six-month period in 2004." Fast forward just 8 years, and the findings were that “16.6 million people experienced identity theft in 2012.”

I have assisted people who were struggling with poverty while working low-income jobs as well as retirees on limited fixed incomes of Social Security and pension benefits, who learned they were the victims of Identity Theft when they were sued by a debt collector. These can be heartbreaking situations such as:

The elderly, bed-ridden, blind woman who diligently paid her bills, including a credit card bill she had made minimum payments on for years to pay down her debt which had become a burden as her health deteriorated to the point that she required help from care givers to assist in daily needs and paying bills. She would painstakingly sign the checks for her bills so that a care giver could fill in the rest of the check, which she could no longer see, and mail the payments. Unbeknownst to the woman her trusted care giver would at times make the checks payable to themselves, or incur expenses on her credit card for their benefit and not hers. Working with the attorneys for the credit card company I was able to assist her in providing proof that she had been the victim of identity theft and the information amended in her credit report so that it did not have a future negative impact on her credit, or;

The couple, living simply in their home they worked decades to own free and clear, who are shocked to be sued, not once, but three times, claiming that the wife lives in another state 1000 miles away with unpaid credit cards totaling more than $70,000. More devastating was the realization that, the only person with access and opportunity to the wife’s personal information necessary to open the accounts was their daughter who in fact earned more money than her parents. In order to avoid judgments against her totaling more than she could ever repay, mother had to name her daughter as the identity thief, tearfully signing the required documentation; tears of fear that she would not see her young grandchildren again as a consequence.

There are many myths about debt and the poor in America, some born out of stereotypes, ignorance, or mistaken assumptions. Some myths are ugly, but others, including myths held by the poor themselves, that they are not targets of fraud or identity theft are just plain dangerous.

The High Cost of Being Poor

Doug Tschauder - Managing Attorney, St. Joseph Office

I’m going to make an assumption. 

If you are reading this, you are likely in the middle class or higher. You have come to expect certain benefits of, ahem, your position. When you go to buy a new car, you will get the rebate and the finance deal. If your credit card isn’t giving enough cash back or free hotel nights, they won’t keep you for long. Bank fees? What’s that?

Unfortunately, not everyone gets these breaks. If you are poor in America, not only don’t you get the special deals reserved for the haves, you are hit with the poor tax. 

The cost of most everything is higher when a person is struggling. 

Take bank fees. If you don’t keep a $2,000 balance, you get to pay the bank about 8 bucks each month for the privilege of keeping your money. If you bounce a check, the bank gets another $35. If that causes an overdraft, add another $35, plus $2 each day the balance is negative, which will probably be next payday. A couple of hiccups can cost $100 very easily. 

You could go unbanked. In the best case, a cash card or Wal-Mart will only charge a couple bucks each check, If you need money orders, add another buck per. 

If you have a money emergency, like a car or appliance repair, you may be lucky and have a credit card that only charges 25.99% interest, if you aren’t already at your limit. For those who don’t have funds available on the credit card, look out. Payday loans are available, but they charge that 25.99% every couple weeks, not per year. That assumes it gets paid off. A title loan may be a little cheaper, with the added incentive that they will take your car if you miss a payment. 

Transportation is more expensive. That buy here/pay here place will sell you a car for $99 down, but your $300 per month is buying a ‘04 Taurus with 160,000 miles. And, it needs new tires soon. What about the brake issue? Sorry, as is. Of course, you can take the bus. With a bus pass, it is downright reasonable, as long as you don’t mind having to walk several blocks to the bus stop and another couple to your job—in the rain. 

Food gets more expensive. There is often no grocery store nearby, so you have additional transportation costs to get there. If you do go to the local convenience store, everything is higher, and there is practically no produce. Even in the supercenter, produce is more expensive than canned and pre-packaged food, so cheaper wins out. 

If you rent, you are likely paying more for less. Many landlords don’t like to make repairs, especially if you have been late with your rent in the past. Even if you keep a clean place, if the neighbor has bugs, so do you. If you are lucky, there is a coin laundry in the building, otherwise, that can be a trek.

You don’t even think of many other costs. As an hourly worker, you don’t get paid time off to go to the doctor, so you don’t go as often. The insurance you had to buy has a $5000 co-pay, so good luck with that. 

Then there is a psychic cost – the stresses of the situation, the fear of crime around you, the burden of being a single parent. There are social costs as well.

The poverty level for a family of three is $1,674 per month. If you have a full time, minimum wage job, you make just over $1300 per month. Most minimum wage jobs are under 32 hours so the employer can avoid paying for health care. 

 I could keep going, but the reality is this: the poor pay for being poor, and we all pay as well.

Adopt A Neighborhood Project (Law firms make great neighbors!)

Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director

Back in February, the Kansas City Business Journal ran a cover story about the work that the Stinson Leonard Street law firm is doing in the Marlborough Neighborhood.

About five years ago, Stinson adopted the low-income neighborhood in southeastern Kansas City, which is part of the Center School District. By working together, neighborhood leaders, local non-for-profits, the City and Stinson attorneys, with the support of Legal Aid, have achieved many remarkable successes in the neighborhood. Abandoned houses have been repaired and are now high quality housing. There is now a medical clinic in the neighborhood. The neighborhood is the home of a new grocery store (for many years the neighborhood had been a food desert. The only places people living in the neighborhood could buy “groceries” were gas stations and convenience stores).

The project has not only been a success for the community, it’s had great benefits for the firm as well. It has allowed new attorneys excellent training opportunities and created a signature project for the firm’s Kansas City office that everyone can be proud of.

The Bryan Cave firm for years has done a similar project addressing abandoned properties in the Ivanhoe neighborhood. Husch Blackwell has also recently adopted the Mannheim neighborhood.

There are, however, scores of other neighborhoods that need similar help and attorneys have the power to make a tremendous difference in these neighborhoods.  If your firm is interested in finding out how to get involved, please give me a call at (816)474-1413 x5224.

Without a home, your whole life can shatter...

By Jane Worley, Supervising Attorney - Central Office Housing Plus 

Every person we represent on the Housing Plus Team has one thing in common. They are asking for help with one of the basic needs for human beings—shelter.

Sometimes they have a home, but a landlord or a government agency has decided they have broken the rules. Sometimes the rules actually were broken, but it is for circumstances beyond their control, such as an abusive ex-partner who won’t let a locked door keep them from their target. There may be no money for rent or utilities because the car needed to get to work breaks down or your child needs new school items in September. Some of our clients cannot get into subsidized housing to relieve a rent burden of 60 to 80% of their take home income because they have an old eviction or there just isn’t anything available.

Without a home, your whole life can shatter in no time at all.

Here is one example of a client’s problem which we were able to help him resolve:

Jerry has an anxiety disorder which causes him to lash out at when anyone who comes into his apartment. He complained frequently to the manager about maintenance coming into his unit, taking his things or moving or breaking things. He said he never got notice that maintenance was coming. His landlord responded by telling him he was a nuisance and filing for eviction. A Legal Aid Housing Plus attorney asked for a reasonable accommodation of his disability to which the landlord did not respond. Jerry’s Legal Aid attorney then filed a Fair Housing Complaint with HUD, resulting in a Conciliation Agreement allowing him to stay if he provided the landlord with an alternative person with whom to discuss problems relating to maintenance.

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Legal Aid of Western Missouri's housing advocates provide a broad array of legal services, focusing primarily on public housing and Section 8 housing. Our housing counselors regularly provide advice or representation to help our clients avoid wrongful evictions and improper rent calculations. Landlord/tenant disputes and uninhabitable housing conditions are other legal challenges facing our clients. Housing advocates also assist people who are disabled with accessibility issues, and we help other clients with disputes over eligibility for public and subsidized housing.

Mental Health Court Turns Lives Around

Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director

Joe was a homeless gentleman who kept being picked up for trespassing at Crown Center, where he would sleep in a box on a corner in that area. Joe was not medication compliant and had a diagnosis of schizophrenia. He was not engaged with any community-based behavioral health center except to go to Swope Health Services once a week to take a shower.  

A Crisis Intervention Team officer came to court to let the Mental Health Court team know that he felt Joe was decompensating. Outreach at Swope made contact with Joe and after several months of working with him on an intensive level, Joe was admitted to the Mental Health Court program. He graduated and now has stable housing, is medication compliant, has a case manager and has not had police contact since August 2012.

Our staff here at Legal Aid are always looking for the root cause of our clients’ legal problems and for ways we can solve related community problems. One shining example of this work is Mental Health Court in Kansas City.

Many of the defendants in Municipal Court in Kansas City have serious mental health problems that cause them to be homeless and often lead them to violate trespassing and other laws. It used to be that these defendants were in a constant cycle of going in and out of jail, while no one paid any attention to the real cause of the problem. While their mental health problem remained untreated the likelihood of them being able to stay out of jail was remote.

Working with the judges, court administration, prosecutors, mental health providers, the superintendent of the City jail and many others, Legal Aid collaborated to create one of the first Mental Health Court’s in the country. The Court now gives offenders with serious mental health problems the opportunity to go to treatment, rather than going to jail. To graduate from Mental Health Court participants have to stay on their medications, go to regular counseling sessions and not have any new charges filed against them for at least six months. If they graduate, the original charges that brought them into Court are dropped.

The results of the project are fantastic. Today, Mental Health Court has a 56% graduation rate and 89% of the detainees who graduate commit no further violations in the year after their release. Not only does this program improve safety in Kansas City, it also improves the quality of life for the defendants—allowing them to get their mental health issues under control and lead stable lives. Legal Aid has been similarly collaborative for Veterans Treatment Court and Drug Court. 

Veterans Relief Project

By Maura Weber – Project Director

In October 2013 I was proud to be named the first project director of Legal Aid’s Veterans Relief Project. There are an estimated 1,400 homeless veterans in the Kansas City metro area. Many of these Veterans have legal problems impeding their ability to obtain or maintain stable housing. The Veterans Relief Project began with the idea that if we could help veterans overcome the legal barriers to stable housing, we can help the community get one step closer to ending veteran homelessness in the Kansas City area.

The majority of my clients are referrals from community partners. We work closely with the Kansas City VA Medical Center, the Salvation Army Kansas City, Catholic Charities of Kansas City – St. Joseph, and reStart, Inc. to identify veterans who are in need of legal assistance. In the year since I started working as project director I have assisted over sixty veterans with various legal problems. I also attend various community outreach and Stand Down events to meet with Veterans directly.

Ted served in the National Guard for five years. Unfortunately, his service did not qualify him to receive medical care through the Department of Veterans Affairs. He has ongoing mental health problems, some of which stemmed from being homeless for over 20 years. Ted was unable to obtain medical treatment because of his lack of insurance and inability to go to a VA Medical Center. Legal Aid’s Veterans Relief Project helped him obtain MO HealthNet for the Aged, Blind, and Disabled. He is now receiving regular care, both mental and physical. The community partner who referred Ted to the Veteran Relief Project also helped Ted obtain stable housing, so he is now able to have a safe place to live in addition to obtaining important medical care.

Frank was referred to Legal Aid Veteran Relief Project by a community partner. His child support allotment was unduly high, making it difficult for him to afford rent and utilities in addition to his child support payments. Frank lost his job a year ago and had been unsuccessful finding a new one. Legal Aid represented Frank in court and reduced his monthly child support payments by more than half, which in turn helped him afford his monthly cost of living.

First Lady Michelle Obama, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recently announced the creation of the Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness. Kansas City Mayor Sly James has committed to this program and the goal of ending Veteran Homelessness in the Kansas City community by 2015. I am proud to support this goal and the area veterans.

The Changing Nature of the Legal Profession

Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director

At the 40th Anniversary of the creation of the Legal Services Corporation, there were lots of speeches by impressive dignitaries. There were also lots of impressive and surprising facts bandied around about the changing nature of the legal profession.

Here are a number of noteworthy facts and statistics that I came away with and which might be of interest to you. I have not done any confirmation of these, but can only tell you that they come from credible sources:

--The cost of litigation is resulting in alternative dispute resolution processes that are outside of the legal system. For example, in 2013, e-Bay resolved 6 million on-line disputes without the assistance of any attorney;

--In 2013, there were 335,000 cases brought in federal court in which the court provided an interpreter for a party or a witness who did not speak English;

--Washington State is considering issuing limited licenses to practice law, that would allow students to graduate from law school in substantially less time if they were only going to focus their practice on a specific type of work (for example, divorces on municipal court cases);

--New York State now allows law students to skip their final term of law school and take the bar exam in February, if they spend their final term working for a not-for-profit organization;

-- Justice Scalia at the conference said: "Access to justice is the most fundamental American ideal."

--The United Kingdom has de-regulated law. They now allow non-lawyers to own law firms;

--According to a 10-year Harvard study, the average new attorney changed jobs roughly 4 times between 2002 and 2012; 

--In half of the cases filed in the 7th Circuit in 2013 at least one party was not represented by counsel;

--In 90% of the divorce cases filed in Connecticut in 2013 at least one party was not represented by counsel;

--In 1978, federal funding for legal aid programs nationally was $205 million. That equates to $747 million in funding in 2014 dollars, when adjusted for inflation. That is more than twice the current level of federal funding for the legal aid programs’ work;

--Discretionary funding in the federal budget (which is where Legal Aid funding comes from) is now about one-third of the budget. In 2024, it’s estimated the discretionary funding will account for only 15% of the budget;

--In 1994, the largest 200 law firms in the country did about 900,000 of pro bono work. In 2013, they did over 5 million hours of pro bono work.

--Attorneys in Texas in 2013 did 2.5 million hours of pro bono work.

LSC's 40th Anniversary Kick-Off Conference

Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director

For the last three days, I have had the good fortune to be the guest, along with all of the other legal aid program directors, of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) at the 40th anniversary of LSC in Washington, D.C.

Guest speakers included Attorney General Eric Holder, Vice President Joe Biden, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (who was one of the first presidents of the Legal Service Corporation Board), Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Antonin Scalia, as well as the deans of Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Duke law schools. Every living U.S. President sent a congratulatory letter.

From all, the essential underlying message was the same: the work of the legal aid programs is critical to the justice system and to the very success of the country as a whole. As Justice Scalia, of all people, put it: "Access to justice is the most fundamental American ideal."

We were repeatedly thanked profusely for our work, but those thanks really belong to the people who do the work on the front lines every day. So, to everyone who works for the cause-- attorneys, paralegals, secretaries, intake staff, volunteers and even the folks in administration-- please know that at the highest levels of government and the judiciary in our country, your work is known, understood and appreciated.  

And you should also know that, almost uniformly among the speakers we heard, there was a clear recognition that the work of the legal aid programs is grossly underfunded. 

There are a lot of good people at the Legal Services Corporation, the ABA, the Justice Department and the NLADA working hard to translate the appreciation we heard into increased support for our work. 

_________________________

There were lots of amazing facts and statistics bandied about at the conference. Later this week, I hope to get out another post with some of the more memorable ones.

Getting Missourians Access to Healthcare

by Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director

I’m excited to report, albeit belatedly, about the work that Stacy Schaub and others have been doing on the Legal Aid Family Support Division Work Group in regard to problems the State of Missouri has been having in processing Medicaid applications. Other members of the Work Group include: Billie Orr, Alicia Johnson, Lisa Gentleman, Jeffiner Thompson, Emily DeStefano and Abbie Rothermich.

In the last year, the State has made major funding cuts and office reorganization in the Family Support Division (known as the FSD), which processes applications for public benefits, including Medicaid, Food Stamps, and Temporary Assistance. 

Medicaid provides health insurance for low-income Missourians who are permanently and totally disabled and, because of their disability, are not capable of gainful employment. It also pays for or subsidizes health insurance for children in low to moderate income families. For thousands of low-income Missourians, Medicaid is their only viable means of accessing long-term, pro-active medical care and the prescription medications they need to bring the pain and other aspects of their maladies under control.

The FSD funding cuts and reorganization have meant that for many Medicaid applicants there is no one to talk to from the State about questions they have on their applications and no one even to give them a receipt when they submit required documentation supporting their applications. We have had many situations in which we have actually faxed in information, like an income verification to the FSD for a client only to have the FSD send the client a letter several weeks later, saying that their application has been denied because they did not provide the FSD with the birth certificate.

The FSD also has gotten much slower in processing applications for Medicaid. So, now it can take several months to get a decision back from FSD, which is a long time to wait when you have a serious medical issue. 

Because of these obstacles and others, from September 2013 through March 2014, Medicaid enrollment in Missouri dropped 3.9% (approximately 33,800 people, one of the largest drops in Medicaid enrollment in the country. While this saves the State and the federal government money in the short-term, it greatly damages the health of the people who need Medicaid and leads to major costs for the hospitals that treat people who are wrongly denied Medicaid when they have catastrophic health crises as a result of not receiving the care they need.

Stacy Schaub, who is the Supervisor of Legal Aid’s Public Benefits Team in our central office, is part of a team of Legal Aid attorneys and other staff who are strategizing on how to respond to problems in the FSD’s processing of Medicaid applications and the processing of other public benefits. 

In early August, the Missouri HealthNet Oversight Committee held a meeting in Jefferson City on the status of Missouri’s Medicaid system. At the meeting, FSD leadership testified that, although there were problems that needed to be addressed, FSD had adequate funding and staffing to handle them. Stacy provided powerful testimony at the meeting bringing to light the numerous problems that the FSD is having.

I’m very proud of the work that Stacy and the other members of Legal Aid’s FSD Task Force have done on this issue. It’s a major step towards getting lots of Missourians in need the healthcare they need and that, under the law, they deserve.

Ed Ford: 50th Anniversary Guest Blogger

Councilman Ed Ford, Kansas City Missouri City Council 

Councilman Ed Ford (circa 1979)

I started working for Legal Aid when I was a third year law student at UMKC (1977-1978), and upon graduation, was hired full-time. The Professional Building, Linwood Multipurpose Building (now the Mohart Center) and the Jackson County Juvenile Court were all places I called home during my Legal Aid tenure. I was a guardian ad litem for abused and neglected children, represented alleged mentally ill folks who were staving off commitment (back in the day before one had to be both mentally ill and dangerous to oneself or others) and worked on education issues of children with disabilities.

It was during these early years at Legal Aid that I was first introduced to City Government and its politics. In 1978, a fellow Legal Aid Attorney, Jerry Riffel, was running for KCMO City Council. Jerry was a long haired liberal leaning candidate who headed up Legal Aid's housing unit. None of us really thought Jerry had a chance as he was running against an “establishment” attorney, with plenty of campaign money and the support of the powerful Citizens' Association. To make it even more of an uphill battle, Jerry was running in-district for the affluent 4th district- the political heart of the city. Jerry and his team of volunteers staged an impressive grass roots campaign that outworked his opponent and ended up winning the Council seat in 1979. “Wow,” I thought. What a great city we lived in when someone like Jerry could get elected.

My final years with Legal Aid were spent at the South Office, where we represented our clients on a variety of issues including many landlord tenant matters. It became apparent that many of the legal issues that confronted our clients were primarily financial in nature. Clients were being evicted not because they were bad tenants but because they didn't have the money to pay the rent.  The South Office is where I first met an energetic minister by the name of Rev. Emmanuel Cleaver II who was advocating for the same folks Legal Aid was representing. 

My opportunity to serve as an elected official began when I was first elected to the KCMO City Council in 1995. I am now starting my 16th and final year (term limits). I have been privileged to serve with four Mayors including Kansas City's first African- American Mayor, Emmanuel Cleaver II, and its first woman Mayor, Kay Barnes.  I am proud of the progress we have made in many areas of Kansas City, especially Downtown and in the Northland. Unfortunately, the problems of poverty, crime and racism continue to hold back progress in other areas, especially the urban core. 

I still believe in Legal Aid and its mission. I continue to be an advocate for Legal Aid funding recognizing its great work in neighborhoods, housing issues and municipal court. If it wasn't for my time at Legal Aid, I don't believe I would have run for City Council. I still practice law with a small firm in Kansas City North and am pleased to be a part of the Volunteer Attorney Project (VAP).

[In celebration of Legal Aid of Western Missouri's 50th anniversary, we will feature guest bloggers. If you have Legal Aid memories or reflections you would like to share in a guest post, please contact Karen Cutliff - kcutliff@lawmo.org.)

George D. Blackwood, Jr. Shares His Legal Aid Memories (Reprint from 1989)

The following Legal Aid of Western Missouri “memory” first appeared in our 1989 Annual Report. We repost it here as part of our 50th Anniversary celebration.

By George D. Blackwood, Jr. - Board of Trustees President 1986-87

I had been a member of the Board of Trustees of Legal Aid for a number of years when I received a phone call from John Phillips in the fall of 1985 inquiring whether I would be willing to serve as the 1986-87 President. Recognizing that the organization was still under Jody Raphael’s leadership and having considerable respect for her abilities, I readily consented. Little did I know that she would tender her resignation mid-way through my term and that I would be forced to shepherd the potentially arduous process of selecting her replacement. Happily, Dick Halliburton was able to pick up where Jody left off and the transition occurred with hardly a ripple.

One of the significant events to me during my tenure was the physical move from totally inadequate facilities at 11th and Grand to relatively luxurious quarters in the Lathrop Building. For the record, the office is now cool in the summer, warm in the winter and the heating pipes do not clang.

The two years I served as President were not, however, without turmoil. The steadily eroding financial support from the Legal Services Corporation, coupled with the constant battle with local funding sources made economic stability akin to walking a very narrow tightrope. But Dick and his able staff did it with style. His administrative assistant Mary Beth Denzer was particularly helpful to me as I attempted to be as supportive as possible to the cadre of attorneys and support staff who fill a vital role in insuring that all citizens of our service area receive legal assistance regardless of their ability to pay.


While I was flattered to receive one of the Missouri Bar Pro Bono Awards for 1988 in recognition of my service to Legal Aid, I consider it more of a tribute to the selfless people in the Legal Aid organization about whom no one can say that “they are doing it for the money.”

[In celebration of Legal Aid of Western Missouri's 50th anniversary, we will feature guest bloggers. If you have memories of Legal Aid you would like to share in a guest post, please contact Karen Cutliff - kcutliff@lawmo.org.)

GUEST BLOG POST: How It Was for Me

Marcia Walsh - 50th Anniversary Guest Blogger

Marcia Walsh

I graduated from KU law school and started working for the Legal Aid and Defender Society (Legal Aid of Western Missouri) in 1973. Richard Nixon was our President. In March that year the last US troops were going to be withdrawn from Vietnam. 

The War on Poverty, which had begun under President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, continued into 1973.  The programs involved in fighting this war were coordinated by the Office of Economic Opportunity, the OEO, and it was this federal agency that established the guidelines for and awarded federal funds to local legal services groups.  In 1973, President Nixon decided that the OEO ought to be terminated, and with it the Legal Services Corporation.  He appointed Howard Phillips to head the OEO and he directed him to dismantle the entire OEO.  

During 1973 and every year for the next several, Legal Aid’s continued existence seemed to me never to be a sure thing.  We had to scramble so hard for funds from whatever source we could find.  It wasn’t that our legal services weren’t needed by the Kansas City community.  It was that Legal Aid might not have enough money to pay the bills.  I think my memory on this is accurate, 
that at one point we all voted to take pay cuts rather than to lay off any Legal Aid employees.

In 1973, Legal Aid had a north office, a south office, a juvenile office and a central office in Kansas City. I worked in the central office, on the second floor of a building at the corner of 11th and Oak Streets. I remember that Effie Day was already working at Legal Aid, I think in the north office, when I started.  [For months there was a pink notice attached to the door leading from the street to the stairs up to our offices, telling us—and our clients—that the building had been condemned by the City and that no one should enter it under threat of arrest.] 

Executive Director Lloyd Silverman had hired me to work in the Municipal Court Defense Unit. Others in this Unit when I started were Terry Lechner, Mike Dailey, Frank Zetelski and Tom Notestine. Our managing attorney was Bill Dittmeier and you could not have asked for a better boss.  

There were no female prosecutors or judges and I was the first “woman attorney” to appear in Municipal Court on a daily basis and to represent defendants. [I use the phrase “woman attorney” even though I don’t like it.  I agree with Gloria Steinem, who said:  “Whoever has power takes over the noun—and the norm—while the less powerful get an adjective.”]

 In fact, until December, 1973, there was really no municipal courthouse. Instead, Court met in two locations: at the top floor of the police station, where a large elevator opened right into the courtroom. There the “custody defendants,” those people held overnight in custody for inability to post bond, were seated—and sometimes sleeping and snoring—in the open-door elevator, waiting for us to interview them and for the judge to call their cases. The other location was the second floor of the Continental Trailways bus station at 11th and McGee.

It was exciting and interesting work, and fast-paced. We were in court every morning, representing defendants in trials and pleas and probation revocation hearings. We represented clients who had come into our office and about whose cases we knew something in advance of the trial, and we represented defendants whom we met and interviewed for the first time in court that morning. 

There were six Legal Aid attorneys and seven active courtrooms. Every judge expected us to be in his courtroom when any case was called on which Legal Aid had furnished an entry of appearance and also when that particular judge wanted to appoint a Legal Aid attorney to represent a defendant on the spot. We were kept running. And if one of us was sick, or was signed out for a vacation day or week, our Unit called on attorneys from other Legal Aid offices for help. They always came through for us. 

When we returned from morning court, we interviewed clients. Four of us shared one office, about 12 feet by 12 feet. Two big metal desks were crammed back to back into this space. We could interview only one client at a time in that office. The three attorneys not involved in the interview were either still in court or waited elsewhere on the premises so that our client’s privacy could be respected. 

In the afternoon, we typically had fewer clients scheduled in court and there were typically fewer court appointments, so only two of us went to court. The others interviewed clients and did any required research. 

That was Monday through Thursday. Fridays were different. Friday mornings were usually light dockets in court. Two of us did not go to Municipal Court but instead went across the street to Circuit Court to handle the de novo appeals from Municipal Court. Municipal Court had no Friday afternoon docket and we did not interview clients on Friday afternoon. I remember taking long lunches at the Vineyard or at Bryant’s or some other restaurant on Fridays, and talking about cases, and discussing possible defenses and arguing search and seizure issues. On Friday afternoons, we did research, wrote briefs and motions and prepared our cases for the upcoming week. 

I remained at Legal Aid for 10 years, in the Municipal Court Unit for about five years, and then at the juvenile unit, the consumer unit, and the litigation unit. I was then elected by the City Council and the Mayor to be a judge in Municipal Court, becoming the first full-time judge who happened to be a woman at any judicial level in Kansas City. The day I was appointed, a Legal Aid attorney/friend said she thought it was maybe more significant that the Council had chosen a Legal Aid attorney for the judicial position than that they had chosen a woman.

[In celebration of Legal Aid of Western Missouri's 50th anniversary, we will feature guest bloggers. If you have memories of Legal Aid you would like to share in a guest post, please contact Karen Cutliff - kcutliff@lawmo.org.)

Senseless & Tragic

Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director

After 21 years as a parent, I have come to know what all grandparents know—that it takes a tremendous amount of patience, hard work, heartache and love to raise a child to adulthood.

 

I also know the tremendous joy of seeing a young life bloom with potential and of seeing that potential realized. There are few, if any, greater joys in life.

 

The taking of any life is a tragedy. The taking of a young life when the child has just begun to recognize his potential is heartbreaking. Yesterday, a depraved, pathetic and cowardly man took away three lives in a matter of hours-- solely as an expression of senseless, irrational hatred. It makes me sick to think about it.

 

I join with everyone in the community and in the nation who denounces this vile act.

Better Late Than Never

Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director

As of Tuesday this week, Legal Aid is now doing something that we should have done long ago. We are beginning the process of recognizing that any two people who are committed to each other as a family should be treated as a family.

So, effective this week, we have started domestic partners coverage under our health insurance policy. If a staff member lives with and is committed to a partner, that staff member now has the same right to obtain health insurance for that partner as she or he would if the couple were legally married.


The policy applies regardless of whether the partners are of the same or opposite gender. We will be looking at other ways of recognizing domestic partners, including changing our dental insurance and leave policies because couples who are fully committed to each other should receive the same respect and treatment regardless of whether the commitment is to the same or the opposite gender.

Missouri's Justice Gap

Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director

Last week, I attended an excellent speech by the newest Judge on the Missouri Supreme Court—Judge Paul Wilson.

In his presentation, Judge Wilson noted a staggering fact: nearly 100,000 Missourians this year will be sued or file suit in Missouri courts without representation of counsel. The sad truth is that tens of thousands more low-income Missourians, with serious legal needs will never get to court, because they cannot afford a lawyer. 

In his brief speech, Judge Wilson called on Missouri lawyers to increase their pro bono work for people in need. Here’s a link to the speech:

http://www.lawmo.org/pdf/WilsonSpeech.pdf.

 

It’s short and well worth reading.

Blight Fight Continues

Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director

Kansas City is on the cutting edge nationally on the issue of how to reduce the number of abandoned properties in the city’s urban core and Legal Aid of Western Missouri’s Economic Development team is playing a key role in that work.

In the last week, there have been two articles in the Kansas City Star discussing Legal Aid’s partnerships with the city, neighborhood associations, law firms, banks and others to turn blighted, abandoned property into high quality, occupied housing. The first dealt with beneficiary deeds that keep money (in the form of home equity) that is desperately needed in the urban core, in the urban core.

The second was on the front page of the Star yesterday morning and dealt with an initiative conceived by the Post-Foreclosure Task Force, which Legal Aid’s Michael Duffy leads and in which the city is a close partner. The idea is to get local banks to provide financing for high quality rehabbers to rehab many more abandoned properties than they are able to do now.  You may have seen this on TV as well.

This is exciting work that can make a gigantic difference in increasing property tax revenues, decreasing crime and, most importantly, improving the quality of life in the city’s urban core.

We have a lot of great partners in this work including, just to name a few—city manager Troy Schulte, Council members Ed Ford and Cindy Circo (and really the entire City Council), John Wood and David Park who lead the city’s efforts to address abandoned and dangerous buildings in the urban core, and neighborhood leaders too many to mention.

In the coming year, I’m hoping that you’ll hear more about the expansion of these excellent projects.

SCOTUS Rulings Bring Us Closer to Justice for All

Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director

 

If Justice for All means anything, it should mean that the law should treat everyone equally and should not favor or punish a group of people for things that are beyond their reasonable control.

In the last century, our country has made impressive progress towards equality based on gender, race, national origin, religion and disability. Before yesterday, however, federal law openly, blatantly and intentionally discriminated against millions of Americans based solely on their sexual orientation.

Yesterday’s Supreme Court rulings will stop a good deal of that discrimination. And while we still have a long way to go to reach equality on all of the numerous forms of our historic discrimination, I’m excited that our Supreme Court had the wisdom and courage to bring us one step closer to truly having Justice for All.

Legal Aid Steps Up and Shares Resources

Gregg Lombardi - Executive Director

Pictures and stories of the horrible tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma yesterday bring back vivid memories of the May 2011 tornado that ravaged Joplin, Missouri.

The talented staff in Legal Aid’s Joplin office have learned a lot in the last two years about the recovery process from a tornado and what a legal aid program can do to get a community back on its feet. I have talked with Janice Franklin, the Managing Attorney of the Joplin Office, and we have reached out to Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma to make sure that they get the benefit of everything that we have learned in the last two years.

Resources we are offering include: our comprehensive disaster-relief manual; tips as to legal issues that are most likely to appear immediately after a disaster (rental price gouging being one of them); lists of likely funders for disaster relief work and sample grant applications; suggestions on how to help their staff deal with their own emotional trauma from the storm; and ideas on how to staff up after the storm.

Helping people in need is what we do best and we will make sure that the people of Moore get all the help that we can give them. Many thanks to Janice and her staff for sharing their knowledge.