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CORRECTION: The link to the Online Intake Article was incorrect.
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| Legal Hotline Connection |
September 2009
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Senior Legal Helplines Annual Report 2008
The 2008 Senior Legal Helplines Annual Report is up at www.legalhotlines.org. Twenty-two statewide senior legal hotlines provided data to CERA on their productivity, funding, levels of service, and client demographics. Legal helpline managers and planners can compare their own program data to the averages for the twenty-two helplines. Since the report contains detailed data for each of the twenty-two participants, programs can also compare data to states with similar populations and/or helpline models. The report can be used as a tool to determine whether a program operates at a typical level of productivity and expense. If a program varies greatly from the average, it can analyze whether the variance is the result of a programmatic decision to provide more in-depth, hence fewer and more expensive services, or whether the deviation is the by product of procedures which could be adjusted to achieve more efficiency or quality.
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Administration on Aging Announces Model Approaches Awardees
On September 18th, the AoA issued a press release announcing the recipients of its Model Approaches to Statewide Legal Assistance Systems awards. Eleven cooperative agreements, a record number, were awarded. The purpose of the funding opportunity was to support state leadership efforts to develop integrated, coordinated state legal services for seniors that incorporate senior legal helplines and other low cost delivery mechanisms with Title IIIB legal services and other available resources. Most of the Projects include the completion of legal needs and system capacity assessment. The awards were for approximately $100,000 per year for a three year period. The awards went to:
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California Senior Legal Hotline Foreclosure Project
When the statewide senior legal hotline model was launched and expanded by a partnership of AARP Foundation and the Administration on Aging close to 20 years ago, the goal was to connect seniors with free, high quality legal advice and referral through the easy accessibility of the telephone. Most likely unforeseen at the time, however, was that the legal hotline platform would serve as infrastructure for responding to natural disasters and various surges in legal needs.
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Online Intake Helps Hotlines and Clients
Cheryl Nolan at LSC, in collaboration with CERA, presented a webinar featuring Online Intake procedures at four legal hotlines. The presenters were Rachel Baca - CA, Rich LeMay- ND, Debra Jennings, OH, and Martin Ostensen, Alberta. You can access their online intake processes at the following websites:
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Hotline List Update...We Need Your Help
CERA is updating its website. One of the tasks we are undertaking is creating a new searchable list of legal hotlines throughout the nation. If your program operates a hotline and you have not already done so, please go here and provide us with information about your legal hotline. We hope to have this information posted to our new website by the end of the year.
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What a Difference A Hotline Makes
Stories from the Frontline
Mr. J, a 71-year-old man in rural Central Pennsylvania, was receiving threatening calls from a collection agency trying to collect a credit card debt. The debt belonged to Mr. J's son, Mr J Jr., but the creditor simply would not stop bothering Mr. J. The Pennsylvania SeniorLAW Helpline attorney explained how to write both a cease-and-desist letter and a letter disputing the validity of the debt. A few months later, Mr. J reported that the harassing phone calls had stopped completely and he had not heard anything further from the collection agency. He added, 'You are really helping people, because there's such limited access to legal information.'
Mrs. Smith contacted the Georgia Senior Legal Hotline in tears. Her roommate passed away suddenly, leaving the woman, whose monthly income is $1,287, unable to pay all her bills, including her monthly condominium fee ($270). Mrs. Smith called the Condominium Association, explained her situation, and promised to save money each month and pay a double fee in May. Mrs. Smith made timely payments for the next four months and in May paid a double fee. The Condominium Association then slapped her with a $1000 penalty and the threat of a lien. The Hotline reviewed condominium covenants and by-laws and found no authority for a $1000 penalty. The Hotline contacted the Condominium Association's attorney and demanded that the penalty be dropped. The Condominium Association dropped the $1000 penalty.
Keep up the good work!
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This newsletter is produced by the Center for Elder Rights Advocacy, a partner in the National Legal Resource Center. Other partners in this effort to provide support to senior legal programs throughout the nation are National Senior Citizens Law Center ,
National Consumer Law Center , The Center for Social Gerontology , and American Bar Association-Commission on Law and Aging .
For questions, email CERA.
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