PLAN Newsletter of the Legal Services Planning Council

May 2002

PLAN is the newsletter of the Legal Services Planning Council, the collaborative planning and coordination organization of providers of civil legal assistance in North Carolina. The mission of the Planning Council is central coordination of a sustained, comprehensive, integrated, statewide system to provide the most effective legal services to people in poverty in North Carolina. The Planning Council is funded by an IOLTA grant and by contributions from the member organizations.

In This Issue:
*2002 Planning Council Membership
* Meeting Dates - 2002
* Current Planning Council Projects & Initiatives
* Configuration Update: What Happens on July 2, 2002?
* Legal Aid of North Carolina (LANC)
* Current LSC Grantees
-NCLAP (North Central Legal Assistance Program,Durham)
-LSNC (Legal Services of NC)
-LASNNC (Legal Aid Society of Northwest NC,Winston-Salem)
-LSSP (Legal Services of Southern Piedmont,Charlotte)
* Contact Information

2002 Planning Council Membership
  • Michael Hamden, Chair
    Executive Director, Prisoner Legal Services, Inc.
  • Ted Fillette, Vice Chair
    Deputy Director, Legal Services of Southern Piedmont
  • James A. Barrett, Pisgah Legal Services
  • Victor Boone, East Central Community Legal Services (Program Director Group)
  • Stephon Bowens, Land Loss Prevention Project
  • Michelle S. Cofield, North Carolina Bar Association
  • Richard Fay, LANC Transition Board
  • Susan Gottsegen, The Legal Aid Society of Northwest North Carolina
  • Deborah Greenblatt, Carolina Legal Assistance
  • Mary Lee Hall, Farmworker Unit, Legal Services of North Carolina
  • George Hausen, Legal Services of North Carolina
  • Pearl Nealey, Client Council
  • Gina L. Reyman, North Central Legal Assistance Program;
  • William S. Rowe, North Carolina Justice and Community Development Center

Barbara Degen, attorney with Catawba Valley Legal Services, is coordinating the Planning Council during 2002. Please contact Barbara (828-437-8280 or barbarad@legalaidnc.org) if you have questions about the Planning Council or wish to receive additional information about the projects described in PLAN.

Upcoming Planning Council Meetings:

  • Friday, July 19, 2002 - United Way Building, Asheville
  • Friday, September 20, 2002 - Location: TBA
  • Friday, November 8, 2002 - Location: TBA

Planning Council meetings are open to any who wish to attend. We do ask that you contact our Coordinator if you plan to attend a meeting so that we can be certain to accommodate attendance and lunch needs.

Current Planning Council Projects
Planning Council committees are moving ahead on a number of projects. As the committees issue reports, more detailed information on the work will be provided in future editions of PLAN. Planning Council committees include clients, staff attorneys, and other members of the civil legal services justice community who are not members of the Council itself. If you are interested in working on a Council committee or project, please let Barbara Degen know about your interest!

The Council is in the midst of a statewide needs assessment project. The North Carolina Justice and Community Development Center employed a contract researcher, who gathered statistical data on poverty in North Carolina, issues specific to Special Client Populations, and issues of concern to low-income people generally. LSNC VISTA staff are conducting field surveys of clients throughout the state and talking with community leaders who work with people living in poverty. The perspective of advocates from across the State was gained at the April Legal Services substantive law task force meetings. The Council plans to look at what needs are currently being met through existing services and providers and to identify unmet needs for future planning purposes. A final report is expected at the end of the year.

The PAI Committee is collecting information about current PAI work, reviewing private attorney delivery models and formulating a statewide PAI message. The Community Education Committee is surveying programs and clients about needs and available materials and programs. The Intake Study Committee and the Access for Spanish-Speaking Clients Committee have been recently reconstituted.

One of the priority items of the Advocacy Coordinating Committee has been the hiring of a statewide advocacy and training coordinator. The North Carolina Justice and Community Development Center has submitted a grant proposal to the North Carolina Bar Foundation for this position, and the Resource Development Committee is assessing other potential sources of funding.

The Planning Council has engaged Anne Winner and John McMillan as lobbyists on Legal Services funding issues for the 2002 General Assembly session. Michelle Frazier, NCBA lobbyist, will be working in conjunction with the two Council lobbyists. The Council also sponsored the attendance of Geraldine Sumter at the National Meeting of Access to Justice Chairs held in Cleveland, Ohio, in April.

Configuration Update: What Happens on July 1, 2002?
This edition of PLAN is primarily devoted to an update on configuration issues due to the many changes in the structure of the current LSC-funded programs in North Carolina that will take place on July 1, 2002. A new LSC-funded program will serve the entire state of North Carolina; current grantees Legal Services of Southern Piedmont (Charlotte), Legal Aid Society of Northwest North Carolina (Winston-Salem), and Legal Services of North Carolina are making plans to continue to serve low-income clients as non-LSC-funded programs.

LANC and the non-LSC-funded programs will fully coordinate their activities with each other. For example, a recent meeting of public benefits advocates discussed coordination of advocacy strategy around a range of specific issues. Advocates from the North Carolina Justice and Community Development Center, Legal Services of Southern Piedmont, Pisgah Legal Services, the National Health Law Program, and Carolina Legal Assistance attended the meeting. The group plans to meet twice a year in person and to involve LANC advocates and the Public Benefits Task Force in the work as appropriate.

Legal Aid of North Carolina, Inc. (LANC)
Effective July 1, 2002, there will be one LSC-funded program, Legal Aid of North Carolina, Inc., to serve the entire state of North Carolina. The state will be divided into five regions, each of which will have one or more management staff and a regional advisory council designated to oversee regional issues. At this time, local service areas will remain the same; the current program directors will become managing attorneys of local LANC offices. For example, Reynauld Williams, the current Program Director of Legal Services of the Coastal Plains, will become the Managing Attorney of the Ahoskie office of Legal Aid of North Carolina, Inc.

The current local service areas will be divided into regions as follows: Northeastern (Ahoskie, Wilson); Southeastern (New Bern, Pembroke, Wilmington); Triad (Greensboro, Winston-Salem); Triangle (Durham, Hillsborough, Raleigh); West (Asheville, Boone, Charlotte, Morganton, Sylva).

Selection of the inaugural Board of Directors has almost been completed.

The Client Council has selected the following persons to serve on the Board:

  • Northeastern Region: Willis Williams, Martin County
  • Triangle Region: Leo Allison, Orange County
  • Southeastern Region: Charles (C.R.) Ward, Columbus County
  • Triad Region: Not yet selected
  • Western Region: Rhonda Shepherd, Wilkes County
  • At-Large:
    Sarah Davis, Wake County
    Laura Shofner, Wayne County
    Pearl Nealey, Rutherford County
    Bonnie Tatum, Robeson County.
  • Ex officio members:
    Allen Johnson, Granville County
    Mary Flowers, Guilford County

The following attorney board members have been selected to serve on the Board:

  • North Carolina Bar Association:
    Pender McElroy
    Frank Queen
    Glenn Barfield (plus two pending appointments)
  • North Carolina State Bar: John Vernon
  • 14th Judicial District: Jim Maxwell
  • 26th Judicial District: Rick Fay
  • NC Association of Women Attorneys: Leto Copeley
  • NC Academy of Trial Lawyers: Burton Craige
  • NC Gay and Lesbian Attorneys: Scott Lewis
  • NC Association of Black Lawyers: L. Lynnette Fuller-Andrews
  • NCBA Hispanic Lawyers Section: Hada Hausee
  • 21st Judicial District: Appointment pending
  • NC Association of Defense Attorneys: Appointment pending

The LANC Transition Board has announced its selection of George Hausen as the first Executive Director of LANC. Hausen was hired as the Assistant Executive Director of Advocacy and Compliance for LSNC in the fall of 1999 and has served as the Interim Executive Director since July 2001. He received his law degree from DePaul University in 1988 and then spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer working on a child survival project in the Dominican Republic. Hausen directed the Fair Housing Project of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing for 6 ½ years prior to moving to North Carolina in 1998. He became a Vice President of Central Carolina Bank, serving as Community Reinvestment Act Compliance Officer, before joining LSNC. Hausen is bilingual (Spanish) and worked on the staffs of the Illinois General Assembly and Chicago City Council before attending law school.

Current LSC Grantees
Three of the four current North Carolina LSC grantees (LSNC, LSSP, and LASNNC) are planning to continue to provide services to people living in poverty in North Carolina; the fourth grantee (NCLAP) is considering this option.

Although LSSP and LASNNC will initially provide services primarily to clients living within their current geographic service areas, both programs aim to develop funding sources to support the provision of some services to broader geographic regions in the future. There are two (2) primary reasons for the plans to continue the provision of services by these programs:

  • First, in 1996 Congress imposed stringent restrictions on organizations that receive federal LSC funds. These restrictions exclude many potential clients, including immigrants, from receiving services, preclude attorneys’ fees, and prohibit or limit some types of advocacy (e.g., class actions, legislative/administrative advocacy), particularly where legal problems affect many low-income people.
  • Second, it is anticipated that more clients will receive services because locally based programs may attract local funding not available to a statewide program.

North Central Legal Assistance Program, Inc. (NCLAP)
NCLAP plans to keep its corporate structure intact in order to facilitate a future use for unrestricted services. To promote planning for such services, NCLAP sponsored a recent meeting among the Durham, Hillsborough and Raleigh programs and the Justice and Community Development Center to discuss a possible regional unrestricted program for the Triangle area.

Legal Services of North Carolina, Inc. (LSNC)
LSNC, together with the other three current LSC-funded programs, is seeking approval from the Legal Services Corporation to divide real estate assets between the new LSC grantee (LANC) and the continuing non-LSC funded entities that will be providing legal services to people living in poverty in North Carolina. The four programs are seeking to retain the office buildings in Charlotte (LSSP), Fayetteville, Morganton, Sylva and Wilson (LSNC), and Winston-Salem (LASNNC).

Plans for providing legal services by LSSP and LASNNC are described in more detail below. LSNC is in the process of developing its plan.

Legal Aid Society of Northwest North Carolina, Inc. (LASNNC)
LASNNC will divide into two programs of approximately equal size on July 1. Six of the current employees will become employees of the Winston-Salem branch of LANC, a part of the Triad Region.

Headed by Executive Director Susan Gottsegen, LASNNC will be staffed with the eight remaining employees. LASNNC will focus its advocacy in three (3) main areas:

  • It plans to initiate a Foreclosure Defense/Predatory Lending Project to concentrate on the issue of low-income people facing the loss of their homes through foreclosure as well as the loss of mobile homes through repossession.
  • Second, LASNNC will represent the growing Hispanic population in a wide range of cases (including housing, consumer, employment, immigration and domestic matters).
  • Finally, LASNNC will continue to run the Domestic Violence Advocacy Center, a highly successful collaborative project with Wake Forest University School of Law and the Forsyth County Bar Association that is supported primarily by a substantial Forsyth County United Way grant.

As a non-federally funded program, LASNNC will be able to seek attorneys’ fees (particularly in consumer cases) and to serve members of the growing Hispanic community who would not be eligible for services from LANC. LASNNC will be funded during its first year by ABA and United Way grants, North Carolina General Assembly funding, IOLTA, Access to Justice contributions, a DSS contract, and potentially a number of other grants.

Legal Services of Southern Piedmont, Inc. (LSSP)
LSSP will divide its activities, staff and other resources into two parts on July 1, 2002. LSSP will become a non-federally-funded program, organized by specialized project teams of advocates using tools and remedies that are unavailable to federally funded advocates. Kenneth Schorr will continue to serve as the Executive Director. LSSP will be supported initially by state and local government funding, IOLTA, United Way, private foundations, contributions, and other funding. Most LSSP funding is from local sources in its existing service area and will support services in those counties.

The specialized project teams are: Hispanic Outreach Program (conducting intake and providing services to the Hispanic community and other immigrants without the LSC immigration status restrictions); Family Support and Health Care Program (statewide, regional and local advocacy targeted to income support and health care issues having a significant impact on the poverty populations statewide, including the HIV/AIDS project); Consumer and Housing Program (working to improve financial literacy for low-income persons and providing legal assistance with a range of consuemr and housing issues); and Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic (assisting clients with the Earned Income Tax Credit and other tax issues and providing community education on tax issues to ESL taxpayers).

CONTACT INFORMATION
PLAN is edited by Barbara Degen, Planning Council Coordinator, and distributed primarily by e-mail. Hard copies are mailed to subscribers who do not have e-mail access.

PLAN is edited by Barbara Degen, Planning Council Coordinator, and distributed primarily by E-mail. Hard copies are mailed to subscribers who do not have E-mail access. For additional information about the Planning Council or to subscribe to PLAN, please contact:

Barbara Degen
Legal Aid of North Carolina
211 East Union Street
Morganton NC 28655
Telephone: 828-437-8280; 1-800-849-5195
Fax: (828) 437-9397
E-mail: barbarad@legalaidnc.org

 

 

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The materials contained on this website are for information and educational 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 an attorney regarding your particular situation. See our complete disclaimer.

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.

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