As seniors crumble under debt burden, Baltimore Sun goes to Legal Aid experts

In the lead business section article on Sunday, the Baltimore Sun looked at the economic crisis many seniors face because of debt (“Seniors crumple under debt burden,” May 27).  The Sun went to two Legal Aid experts.

From the article:

Louise Carwell, a lawyer who works with low-income seniors at the Maryland Legal Aid’s consumer law unit in Baltimore, said her clients are dealing with a wide range of debt, from credit cards to medical bills.

Many seniors in Baltimore also are behind on property taxes, which puts their homes at risk of going to a tax sale.

Carwell and other public-sector attorneys who work with the elderly say indebted seniors want relief, a trend that has increased in the last several years.

“The anxiety that they get or they create within themselves from debt collectors, that’s really punishing,” Carwell said. “That’s why a lot of my folks file for bankruptcy.”

Mary Aquino, a staff attorney with Legal Aid’s Baltimore County Elder Law Program, said she recalled a 75-year-old client who was nine months behind on her mortgage, with $10,000 in credit card debt and an additional $36,000 in student-loan debt. The woman’s sole income was a monthly $1,100 Social Security check.

“She’s hoping to file for bankruptcy and keep her home,” said Aquino, noting that student loans are usually not discharged in bankruptcy.

To read the article (behind a pay wall), click here.

 

Revised and updated guardianship handbook now available

What do you do if your grandfather, who lives alone and can no longer cook for himself, won’t leave his home for a nursing home or assisted living facility?
What do you do if your aunt can no longer manage her finances but seems capable of caring for herself in her small apartment?

These questions and others are answered in the new edition of the Guardianship Handbook .

The Law & Health Care Program at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and the Delivery of Legal Services Section Council of the Maryland State Bar Assoc. have published a guide to help both laypeople and attorneys navigate adult guardianship in Maryland. Guardianship and Its Alternatives: A Handbook on Maryland Law was originally written by UM Carey Law Professor Joan O’Sullivan, a champion for the legal rights of the elderly, who passed away in 2007.

The 2011 Edition was revised and updated by Virginia Rowthorn, managing director of the Law & Health Care Program, and Ellen Callegary, a prominent elder law and disability lawyer in Maryland.

Callegary, a 1978 graduate of UM Carey Law and a member of the Alumni Board, is a founding partner of the Baltimore law firm of Callegary & Steedman, P.A and has a long history of involvement in disability and elderly issues. During her ten years as an assistant attorney general for Maryland, she worked directly with two attorneys general advising state agencies on matters related to the rights of persons with disabilities and serving as principal counsel for the Department of Juvenile Services. She also serves as an adjunct professor of law at UM Carey Law, where she most recently taught the Civil Right of Persons with Disabilities Seminar.

Rowthorn, who has worked for DLA Piper and the Office of General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and served as a Legislative Assistant on the US Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, teaches the Health Law Workshop and directs the Health Law Externship Program.

The impetus for the updated handbook was various changes in guardianship law over the last two decades and a realization by elder law and disability lawyers on the Delivery of Legal Services Section Council that there is a great need for practical, easy-to-read advice regarding guardianship for elderly and disabled Maryland residents.

Suzanne Sangree, chief solicitor at the Baltimore City Department of Law, and past chair of the Delivery of Legal Services Section Council, and Yoanna Moisides, Assistant Director of Advocacy for Training and Pro Bono at Maryland Legal Aid and current chair of the section council, also wanted a handbook that set forth a comprehensive list of alternatives to the formal guardianship process, a time-consuming and sweeping process that may not always be necessary to address a number of problems associated with lack of decision-making capacity.

Supported by funds from the Law & Health Care Program, the Rueben Shiling Mental Health Law Fund, the Dr. Richard H. Heller Fund, and the Maryland Bar Foundation, the handbook is available free of charge to attorneys and laypeople throughout the state. All or portions of the handbook can be duplicated and distributed without charge with proper attribution to the UM Carey Law’s Law & Health Care Program and the Maryland State Bar Association.

Social workers team up with Legal Aid lawyers

When clients come to Maryland Legal Aid, they’re often desperate. In addition to a pressing legal problem, they’re grappling with other issues that drive their lives into a crisis — no money, no housing or no medical care. Sometimes all of the above.

You could say they need a social worker almost as badly as a lawyer.

And you’d be right.

That’s why Legal Aid and the University of Maryland School of Social Work created a program that integrates first-year graduate social work students into the nonprofit law firm’s practice in downtown Baltimore.

“Clients come to us with a host of problems — the presenting legal problem, plus community-based needs,” said Cornelia Bright Gordon, chief attorney of Legal Aid’s administrative law and intake units. “For example, many people have barriers, such as mental health issues, that may interfere with the success of the legal problem. They need access to services to make the legal work stick.

“Since Legal Aid is the law firm of last resort, our clients are in true crisis,” Bright Gordon said. “They come in with threats of immediate eviction, no money or food in the house, and some are desperately ill, with no access to medical services and no insurance.”

The three-year-old project helps stabilize clients and bring their lives back to a state of equilibrium. “It’s a collaborative process between a lawyer and a trained social worker with hands-on, clinical therapeutic experience who is supervising four interns,” she said.

To read the entire Daily Record column, click here.

Planning for incapacity

Planning for Incapacity/A Self-Help Guide, a new publication to help Marylanders navigate the intricacies of advance directives, is hot off the press. The 36-page booklet targeted to seniors brings together a wealth of information, including the attorney general’s forms, how to get forms in six foreign languages, information on alternative forms for free (such as the popular “Five Wishes” advance directive form published by Aging with Dignity), how to get forms for other states, how to get advance directives for mental health treatment, a glossary of terms, and more.

“It’s a valuable tool to outline the considerations and practicalities that people need to weigh in planning for their own incapacity and death,” said Maryland Legal Aid Senior Helpline chief attorney Pete Stokes. The booklet was produced as part of the Helpline’s Administration on Aging grant, in partnership with the Maryland Department of Aging and AARP. Click here to download a PDF version of the booklet (and here for attorney general’s forms, and here for a checklist and wallet card).

Multi-service center for poor to expand in Howard

A center for helping low-income residents of Howard County will expand this summer, the Howard County Times reported yesterday. The North Laurel-Savage Multi-Service Center, which provides a wide range of human service programs, will nearly double the number of clients served when it relocates in July. Maryland Legal Aid is one of the programs that helped about 1,900 families and individuals at the center last year.  “The idea is ‘one-stop shopping’ to streamline services to reduce the number of contacts and visits to various service providers,” said Denise McCain, Legal Aid’s director of program development and compliance.  “The average client has more than one issue and generally needs a multitude of services.” To read the article, click here.

Legal Aid trains nursing home ombudsmen

Maryland Legal Aid’s Long Term Care Legal Assistance Project gave a three-hour presentation October 22 to new state long-term care ombudsmen at a four-day training in Baltimore. The ombudsmen are advocates for nursing home residents across the state.

“We have an informal partnership with them,” explained Harbour Partesotti, supervising attorney of the statewide Legal Aid project and a presenter at the training. “Some cases are better resolved by ombudsmen because they have unique relationships with the facilities. We refer those cases to them. They then refer cases to us when they hit a wall and need a legal remedy. We support each other in carrying out our shared goal of ensuring nursing home residents’ rights throughout the State.”

The training, conducted by Partesotti and LTCAP staff attorney Anne Haffner, focused on residents’ rights (both state and federal), admissions contracts, abuse and neglect reporting requirements and involuntary discharge (“a very important topic with potentially dire consequences for this vulnerable population,” Partesotti noted).

Legal Aid helps elderly couple deceived by car dealer

Southern Maryland office (Hughesville) staff attorney Jake Ouslander (left) recently obtained an $8,000 settlement check for a Charles County couple, aged 79 and 86, subjected to unfair and deceptive sales practices when they purchased a car.

The story: In June 2007, the couple went to a Waldorf, Md., car dealer to purchase a car. Sales representatives separated the couple from each other and subjected each of them to a sales pitch that lasted about four hours, despite the wife’s entreaty to be allowed to leave because she was feeling ill and disoriented due to her diabetes and heart condition. Eventually, the couple were allowed to leave the dealership, having purchased a car that they felt they could not afford.

A few days later, they returned to the car dealer to complain about the pressure sales tactics. A representative of the car dealer agreed to rescind the sale of the vehicle and sell them another car at the blue book value. The couple signed the sales documents presented and took their car home. Later, they realized that the car was sold to them at almost twice its blue book value. In addition, they had not received credit for the cash prize that induced them to shop at that dealership, and they had unwittingly purchased a warranty policy.

“When the couple sought help at the senior outreach site, Jake advised them of the law and sent a demand letter to the car dealer,” reported chief attorney Seri Wilpone. “The dealer’s attorney informed Jake that the contract limited the resolution of disputes to the National Arbitration Forum. Jake’s clients asked him to seek damages in the National Arbitration Forum, and he filed a complaint setting forth the misrepresentations and unfair and deceptive practices of the car dealer and seeking compensatory and punitive damages.” Within a few weeks of filing the complaint, the car dealer made a settlement offer, which the clients accepted, and sent a check to Jake’s clients for $8,000.

Most of the time, Legal Aid clients are on the defensive side in arbitration claims, and the expense of defending in that forum is prohibitive for many of them, Jake explained. “Being on the affirmative side did have some benefits,” he noted. “It was nice to have a less formal process for filing and making discovery requests. The rules are much different than the rules of court, and I would recommend reading every applicable rule twice to make sure no mistakes are made. Ultimately, the clients’ commitment to pursing a vindication of their rights even in an unfamiliar forum persuaded the car dealer to settle.”