Client Board Member Eligibility
Note: This policy was recommended by the the LANC Board of Directors'
Client Eligibility Ad Hoc Committee and adopted on February 25, 2005
by the Legal Aid of North Carolina Board of Directors.
Client Board Member Eligibility
Persons desiring to serve as client representatives to the LANC Board
of Directors stand for
client elections or are appointed for vacant seats on the Board
pursuant to LANC policies and bylaws, and subject to LSC regulations.
LSC Regulation 1607 requires that Client Board members be financially
eligible to receive legal services at the time they are elected or appointed
to serve on the Board. In order for the Board to follow the regulation,
nominees to the Board must be screened for financial eligibility prior
to election. Nominees will therefore be required to disclose personal
financial information as if applying for the provision of services.
The Board members are not trained to undertake such screening, and it
would be inappropriate for Board members to review the personal financial
information of nominees to the Board. This policy is intended
to provide a mechanism for the Board to fulfill its duty of ensuring
compliance with the LSC regulations while maintaining the strictest
confidentiality of the information nominees provide for screening purposes.
Policy
Persons who are being considered for appointment or election as client
representatives to the LANC Board of Directors shall be informed by
their respective electing or appointing organization or body (the "Sponsor"),
prior to accepting nomination, of the requirement of financial eligibility
and the necessity of providing personal financial information for use
in determining financial eligibility. Such prospective nominees
shall be informed that the financial information provided will be seen
and reviewed only in accord with this policy.
The Sponsor shall provide prospective nominees desiring to serve as
client representatives to the LANC Board of Directors a copy of this
policy and shall provide the prospective nominee with the name and contact
information of the Assistant Director for Compliance (the "ADC").
If after reviewing this Policy the prospective nominee wishes to be
considered for election or appointment to the Board, the prospective
nominee shall contact the ADC to arrange to be screened for financial
eligibility to receive legal services. The prospective nominee shall
be afforded the choice of being screened either by the ADC or by the
Regional Manager in the service area in which the prospective nominee
resides ("local screening"). In either event the prospective nominee
shall be required to provide only the information which would normally
be gathered and considered in an actual application for the provision
of legal services in the service area in which the prospective nominee
resides.
If the prospective nominee chooses local screening, he or she shall
make contact with the appropriate Regional Manager, submit to the intake
procedures designed to guarantee the highest degree of confidentiality,
and if determined to be financially eligible will inform the Regional
Manager that the determination should be reported to the ADC.
The information submitted by the prospective nominee shall be recorded
but not maintained by the local program. Instead, the candidate's
financial eligibility information shall be transmitted to the ADC and
be recorded and maintained by the ADC as provided below for eligibility
screenings done by the ADC.
If the prospective nominee chooses to be screened by the ADC, the ADC
shall obtain from the prospective nominee the information which would
normally be gathered and considered in an actual application for the
provision of legal services in the service area in which the prospective
nominee resides.
The ADC shall record the information, on a paper form only, which form
shall provide a place for the prospective nominee to indicate the accuracy
of the information. The ADC shall then promptly mail or deliver a copy
of the form to the prospective nominee. If accurate the prospective
nominee shall so indicate and return the form to the ADC, and the ADC
shall then determine from such information whether the prospective nominee
is financially eligible to receive legal services ("1607 eligible").
If the information is not accurate the prospective nominee shall correct
the information in writing on the same form, confirm the accuracy of
the corrected information, and return the corrected form to the ADC,
who shall then determine from such corrected information whether the
prospective nominee is 1607 eligible.
If the ADC or the Regional Manager determines that prospective nominee
is 1607 eligible, the ADC shall promptly in writing inform the prospective
nominee, their Sponsor, and the Chair of the Nominating Committee. The
ADC shall retain the original form and the copy on which the prospective
nominee confirmed the accuracy of the information used in the determination,
and shall take reasonable measures to safeguard the documentation until
returned to the prospective nominee in accord with this policy.
If the ADC or the Regional Manager determines that prospective nominee
is not 1607 eligible, the ADC shall promptly in writing inform the prospective
nominee and their Sponsor, and inform each of the procedure provided
for appeal of the initial eligibility determination, which shall be
the same procedure available to actual applicants for legal services,
except that no appeal will lie to the Board or any committee of the
Board.
If at any point the prospective nominee fails to timely appeal a determination
that she or he is not financially eligible to receive legal services,
or exhausts their appeal rights under this policy, or the prospective
nominee or their Sponsor withdraws the prospective nominee from consideration
for election or appointment to the Board, the original form and the
copy on which the prospective nominee confirmed the accuracy of the
information used in the determination shall be returned to the ADC who
shall take reasonable measures to safeguard the documentation until
the ADC determines that any right of the prospective nominee or their
Sponsor to initiate a grievance or further appeal to LSC has expired,
at which time the ADC shall destroy the forms.
If at any point the prospective nominee is determined to be 1607 eligible,
the forms shall be returned to or retained by the ADC, who shall take
reasonable measures to safeguard the documentation until the later of
the date on which the prospective nominee is withdrawn from consideration
for appointment or election to the Board, or fails to be appointed or
elected to the Board, or is appointed or elected to the Board, completes
the term for which the 1607 determination was made, and the ADC has
determined that the documentation is no longer needed for the
purpose of showing compliance with LSC Regulation 1607, at which time
the ADC shall destroy the forms.
No personal information regarding the 1607 eligibility of any prospective
nominee is to be communicated in any manner to the Board or any person
except in execution of the procedure set out herein, unless upon the
express permission of the prospective nominee. Access to the 1607 eligibility
information of those prospective nominees seeking seats on the Board
is strictly limited to those persons executing the procedure set out
herein and shall not be communicated or used for other purposes without
the express permission of the client. Information regarding client
representative eligibility shall be retained no longer than necessary
to satisfy LSC audit requirements.
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purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Please contact your
Legal Aid of North Carolina office or a private attorney if you need to speak to
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Mission Statement
Legal Aid of North Carolina is a statewide, nonprofit law firm that
provides free legal services in civil matters to low-income people in
order to ensure equal access to justice and to remove legal barriers
to economic opportunity.