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.

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.

Legal Aid Makes History

Gregg Lombardi, Executive Director

Judith Esrig, an attorney in Kansas City, has researched and drafted a 50 page history of Legal Aid of Western Missouri. Ms Esrig’s work captures many proud moments in our history that our staff and supporters will find enlightening. (An excerpt from the history is below.)

We want to collect as many great Legal Aid stories as we can. If you know of anyone we should be talking with to get good and important stories about Legal Aid’s history, please let Shelly Wakeman know. You can reach her at swakeman@lawmo.org. Similarly, if you have pictures or other good Legal Aid memorabilia that you would be willing to let us use for the history, we would be much obliged.

Our hope is that the history will be completed and ready for distribution some time next year.

Excerpt from Judith Esrig’s History of Legal Aid of Western Missouri

“Jack Rabbit” Courts

[When Legal Aid was initially founded in 1910, there were] especially egregious abuses in the Justice of the Peace court system. Creditors garnished the wages of employees of the forty railroads that entered the city. No matter where the employees lived, service of process was made in Kansas City. Workers could not travel back to Kansas City to defend these actions; the result was default judgments in favor of creditors.

In 1910, the Legal Aid Bureau, established by city leaders and Kansas City attorneys, investigated the situation, prompting a change in the Missouri law that governed Justice of the Peace courts – called “Jack Rabbit” courts” by critics. The Bureau, the first publicly funded legal aid facility in the nation, was formed because attorneys and the city’s Public Welfare Board realized that many men and women needed legal assistance, but could not afford to pay for it. Frank P. Walsh convinced six other Kansas City lawyers, James P. Aylward, Edward J. Flemings, Frank E. Parker, S.A. Dew, Elias Grenman, and John B. Gage to spend one day a week, two hours a day, working in the Bureau’s office, which was located at sixth and Walnut Streets. Along with wage garnishment, the Bureau handled threatened evictions, collection of wages, and recovery of property.