Current Civil Legal Topics and Poverty Law

CLE Outline

Hosted by Pisgah Legal Services with the 28th Judicial District Bar
November 18, 2016 – 8:30am -3:30pm

First Presbyterian Church at 40 Church Street, Asheville

Registration and Coffee - 8:30am– 9:00am

A.Welcome & Overview of Volunteer Opportunities (9:00-9:20)

Katie Russell Miller, MSW, MPA is the Director of Community Engagement and the Interim Director of the Mountain Area Volunteer Lawyer Project at Pisgah Legal Services. Katie has worked at Pisgah Legal Services for eleven years in various capacities. She has Masters Degrees in Social Work and Masters of Public Administration and has worked at nonprofit organizations serving low-income people for more than 20 years.

B.Perspective on Working with Clients in Poverty – (9:20-9:45)

Jaclyn (Jackie) Kiger, JD, MSW is a Managing Attorney with Pisgah Legal Services (PLS), a nonprofit legal aid law firm serving Western North Carolina. PLS provides civil legal advocacy to help low-income individuals and families meet their most basic needs for housing, safety, health care and income. Jackie oversees the organization’s Health and Income Program, Justice for All Project, Mountain Area Volunteer Lawyer Program, ACA Health Navigator Program and HEALS Medical-Legal Partnerships. Her legal advocacy focuses on access to health care and public benefits law, and addressing the social determinants of health through civil legacy advocacy in the engagement of medical-legal partnerships. She has been active in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act through the NC Navigator Consortium since October 2013 and has presented both locally and nationally on ACA issues. Prior to becoming an attorney Jackie was in engaged social justice advocacy as a social worker in the nonprofit sector with Durham Crisis Response Center: Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services and Jewish Family & Career Services. She has completed internships with the Department of Justice/United States Attorneys Office and North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. She holds her JD from Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School and MSW from UNC-Chapel Hill.

  1. What is poverty? (Source: Payne, Ruby. A Framework for Understanding Poverty, 1996.)
  2. Definition/s
  3. Real life-what does it mean to live in poverty
  4. Concept of resources
  5. Poverty and race
  6. Causes, effect and cycle of poverty
  7. Impact of poverty on early childhood development
  8. Local and state statistics
  9. Crisis and Poverty
  10. Example of typical legal aid client-hypo
  11. Legal crisis—poverty law areas that PLS covers
  12. How stress affects the body and mind
  13. How to work with a client in crisis
  14. Mental Health, Crisis and Poverty
  15. Definition of mental health illness (NAMI)
  16. Recovery
  17. Key considerations of working with a client in recovery
  18. Why is this important in the work we do at PLS?

C. Holistic Legal Assessment (9:45-10:15)

William (Bill) J. Whalen is Pisgah Legal Services’ senior consumer and foreclosure attorney since 1980. He is an Asheville native and graduate of the UNC School of Law in 1974. Bill enjoyed private practice from 1974 until 1980, when he joined Pisgah. In addition to serving as a Staff Attorney for Pisgah, Bill managed the volunteer pro bono Mountain Area Volunteer Lawyer Program until November of 2007.

  1. Purpose of Hotline and Pisgah’s Holistic Approach
  2. Developing the Hotline Attorney-Client Relationship
  3. Holistic Interview Questions
  4. Income
  5. Benefits
  6. Financial
  7. Housing
  8. Mental and Physical Health Needs
  9. Violence
  10. Education

D.Debtor-Creditor/Consumer (10:15-11:15)

Molly Maynard is a staff attorney handling a range of consumer law cases and housing cases at Pisgah Legal Services. Molly is a graduate of UNC Law and has practiced poverty law at Pisgah Legal Services for five years. She is the Director of Pisgah Legal Services’ Children’s Law Project.

  1. Creditor and Debtor Rights Regarding Consumer Debts
  2. Default
  3. Limited Criminal Liability
  4. Collateral/Security
  5. Repossession
  6. Disposition of Collateral
  7. Rent-to-Own/Leased Property
  8. Statutory Possessory Liens
  9. Unlawful Debt Collection
  10. Debt Relief Services
  11. Collection of Money Judgments
  12. 1C Exemption Procedure and Judgment Execution
  13. Supplemental Proceedings
  14. Attachment
  15. Limited Income Garnishment
  16. Bankruptcy
  17. Credit Reporting Agencies
  18. Joint/Several Liability
  19. Options and Resources
  20. “De Facto Bankruptcy”
  21. Payment Agreements
  22. Budget Counseling
  23. Bankruptcy
  24. Exemptions
  25. Consumer Claims
  1. Break (11:15 -11:25)
  1. Housing (11:25-12:25)

BenMany serves as the Program Director of the Homelessness Prevention Project at Pisgah Legal Services.Ben has six years of experience practicing law with four years practicing poverty law. He has worked in Pisgah Legal Services’ Rutherford County and Asheville offices and has an understanding of the particular housing challenges in more rural parts of PLS’s service area, as well as in the very tight housing markets of Asheville and Hendersonville. Ben has experience coordinating a housing coalition in Rutherford County and in doing policy research on strategies to increase the local affordable housing supply. Ben received his law degree from the University Of Alabama School Of Law.Ben received his Bachelor of Arts from Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina.

  1. Evictions
  2. Repairs Needed by Tenant
  3. Tenant Wants Security Deposit Returned
  4. Breach of Covenant of Quiet Enjoyment
  5. Tenant is Being Sexually Harassed
  6. Tenant Requires More Time to Move After Landlord Gives Notice
  7. Tenant Wants to Break Lease and Leave Early
  8. Liability of Roommate Who Moves Out Early
  9. Tenant Wants to Recover Property Held By Land Lord
  10. Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking
  1. LUNCH (12:25-1:15)
  1. Basics of Public Benefits Law & Programs(12:45-1:15 – presentation during lunch period)

Javan Lapp is a staff attorney and Program Director of the Health Income and Family Supports Program at Pisgah Legal Services.He has three years of poverty law experience.He is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati Law School.He grew up in Western North Carolina.

  1. Economic Support
  2. Food Stamp Program
  3. FNS
  4. Basic Eligibility
  5. Benefits
  6. Due Process Rights
  7. Application
  8. Change in Benefits
  9. Denials
  10. Terminations
  11. NC Fast
  12. NC SNAP
  13. Distinction b/w FNS and SNAP
  14. Basic Eligibility
  15. Benefits
  16. Due Process Rights
  17. Social Security Disability
  18. SSI
  19. Eligibility
  20. Income/Resources
  21. Disability
  1. Key Considerations
  1. SSDi
  2. Eligibility
  3. Resources and SSDi
  1. Work First Family Assistance
  2. Basic Eligibility
  3. Benefits
  4. Due Process Rights
  5. Application
  6. Change in Benefits
  7. Denials
  8. Terminations
  9. Other: Unemployment Benefits (UIB), LIEAP, EA, Childcare Voucher
  1. Health Care
  2. Medicaid
  3. Children & Family
  4. Basic Eligibility
  5. Benefits
  6. Due Process Rights
  7. Application
  8. Change in Benefits
  9. Denials
  10. Terminations
  11. MAD-MAA-MAB
  12. Basic Eligibility
  13. Benefits
  14. Due Process Rights
  15. Application
  16. Change in Benefits
  17. Denials
  18. Terminations
  19. Medicare
  20. Basics
  21. MQB Programs (Medicare/Medicaid dual eligibles)
  22. SHIIP
  23. Affordable Care Act/PLS Navigator Project
  24. Assessment/Referral Process
  25. Subsidies
  26. Special Enrollment
  1. Legal Assistance for Domestic Violence Victims (1:15-2:05)

Sara Player is a Co-Project Director of the Mountain Violence Prevention Program at Pisgah Legal Services and has been a staff attorney since July 2015. Sara is a South Carolina native and Clemson alumna, obtaining her law degree from Wake Forest University in 2013. Prior to joining Pisgah, Sara worked at Legal Aid of North Carolina and a private family law firm in the Greensboro area.

  1. Obtaining a Domestic Violence Order of Protection (50B)
  2. Statutory Requirements
  3. Court Process
  4. Remedies
  5. What happens next?
  6. Enforcement
  7. Renewal
  8. Setting Orders Aside
  9. ABCs of DV: Comparison of 50B, 50C, and 50D
  10. Child Custody
  11. Temporary Custody, Emergency Custody, and 50A actions
  12. Representing DV Victims
  13. DV Dynamics
  14. Safety Planning
  1. Break (2:05- 2:15)
  2. Ethics (2:15 - 3:15)

Mary IrvineMary Irvine is the Access to Justice Coordinator with NC IOLTA and the NC Equal Access to Justice Commission and the Executive Director of the NC Equal Justice Alliance. The NC Equal Access to Justice Commission is a 25-member Commission chaired by the Chief Justice of the NC Supreme Court with the mission of expanding access to civil legal representation regardless of income. NC IOLTA is a program of the NC State Bar that pools interest from lawyers’ trust accounts to fund programs for the provision of civil legal services. The Equal Justice Alliance is the collaborative planning and coordination council of providers of civil legal aid in North Carolina. Mary began her career at the North Carolina Network of Grantmakers, a statewide association of philanthropic foundations and giving programs. Following law school, Mary practiced family law at a small firm in Chapel Hill and also worked with the UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, conducting research, programming, and outreach to raise awareness of poverty and related issues. Mary received both her undergraduate degree in Sociology and Spanish and her law degree from UNC Chapel Hill.