Like most law firms, there’s no shortage of work to be done at Legal Aid of East Tennessee. In additional to helping their clients with their courtroom battles in common practice areas, LAET has several ongoing projects in which it is involved. From the Erlanger Health Law Partnership, to hosting pro se divorce and health empowerment clinics, to being the primary legal contact in the battle against human trafficking in Chattanooga–among many other efforts–its small staff and pro bono attorneys from the private Bar have their hands full. But that’s not stopping them from identifying new needs and attempting to address them. Charlie McDaniels, pro bono project director at LAET, talks about three new projects in development at the firm.
Explain the project that came out of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
The problem is this: We have disabled individuals, mostly youths, that need special education. They might need something like Orange Grove, which is an exceptional facility. They might get accepted to that facility, or they might get accepted to another program or facility, but then Hamilton County Schools has to approve it. And the school board might not approve it; that happens. So we might have a family, a doctor, and a special education professional saying the child needs a particular service, but they’re being denied that service.
They have the right to a due process hearing–which is great news, except it’s complicated, it involves massive federal laws, and it has strict time frames. Could a family handle all of that without an attorney? I don’t think so. From a survey of attorneys not based in Chattanooga, I’ve heard their standard retainer for that sort of work is between five and ten thousand dollars, so it involves a lot of attorney time and expertise.
We’ve teamed up with a fantastic, young, energetic pro bono attorney named Andrew Basler who’s been spearheading this effort for us. He’s representing a client right now in this issue. It’s a test case. We’re documenting every step and developing a training course using this test case. When we’re done, we’re going to host a series of trainings to equip attorneys to do this sort of work. Then, hopefully, they’ll be able to accept cases for us and handle this issue.
This is important. There’s no higher priority than helping disabled children.
LAET also wants to help the entrepreneurial community.
There’s a lot of entrepreneurial spirit in our client base. We have people who are indigent, or poor, but who have good idea and are trying to better themselves by starting a business. And we’ve been asking ourselves, “What we can do?” The trick is to not duplicate resources, as a lot of help is already available. It might be as simple as a lawyer offering advice on how to organize a business, or helping an individual file paperwork or activate a license. This is a great way to activate those transactional attorneys in the city who want to help but are not courtroom lawyers.
Finally, LAET wants to do more to help women in crisis.
This is a good idea. It came out of discussions in our community response team that an order of protection is just the first step. It’s important, and we’ve been doing it. But where do we go from there? Well, let’s screen victims of domestic violence for benefits, whether its food stamps, or housing, or something else. Why is that important? Because time and time again, we see a victim get an order of protection and get out of the household, but she have no income, nowhere to live, no support for her children, and therefore goes back to the abuser. So we want to help the victim live independently and start her life over independent of the abuser. We’re trying to set that up now.
How can LAET handle these new projects?
Like anything we do, we reach out to the great private Bar. And if any attorneys are interested in these programs, we’d love to have their input on how we can set them up, how we can run them, and how they can be involved. The two things that drive our direction are the need we see and the kind of work the pro bono attorneys want to do.
The IDEA project was a great idea–but that’s all it was until I met with Andrew. Suddenly, it wasn’t just a great idea anymore; it was moving forward. That’s what we’re looking for on all of these projects. Maybe one will click with someone.
To learn more, visit Legal Aid of East Tennessee online at www.laet.org.