8.24.09 Ask-A-Lawyer: Nosy’s Report

8/24/09 Ask-A-Lawyer Call Center at WLTX

On Monday Night, WLTX became ground zero for ASK-A-LAWYER. We arrived in time to start and learned that the calls had started as early as 4:30 p.m. Once we were shown our call-center, we started answering phones “Ask-A-Lawyer, how may I help you?” while our web counter-parts began their online-duty.

Jeff Goodwyn answers questions at WLTX Ask-A-Lawyer

The 6 on-camera attorneys were Cynthia A. Coker, T. Jeff Goodwyn, Edna Primus, Jennifer W. Rubin, Tana Vanderbilt and Robin F. Wheeler.

Cindy Coker, SC Bar Public Services Director

The phones were ringing non-stop. WLTX graciously provided us with water and chocolate; both of which were appreciated. Darci Strickland and Andrea Mock interviewed us during the session and helped us maintain our energy with their enthusiasm. And at the end of the evening, JR Berry dropped by to thank us for our hard work.

Edna Primus and Tana Vanderbilt field questions

Caller Origin:

• 18 of my 30 calls originated from Richland County;
• 1 from Fairfield;
• 1 from Florence;
• 1 from Greenwood;
• 2 from Kershaw;
• 3 from Lexington;
• 3 from Orangeburg; and
• 1 from Sumter.

Mind you, I had 30 calls total in a 2 1/2 hour span and I even took a moment off the phones for an interview.

Caller Issues:

• 6 questions about Divorce/Alimony
• 5 Child Support/Child Custody and Visitation/Adoption
• 4 Consumer Law including Bankruptcy
• 3 Wills and Estates
• 2 Employment
• 2 Medical Malpractice/Health Care
• 1 Social Security
• 1 Landlord/Tenant
• 1 Homeowners Associations
• 1 Immigration
• 1 Traffic Laws
• 1 question about Taxes; and
• 2 non-legal questions.

Ask-A-Lawyer also included the “web-chat” piece. Three attorneys (Peter M. Balthazor, K. Cameron Currie, and Jennifer L. Locklier) fielded web questions during the same time.

All in all, it was a busy time, but I enjoyed every caller and hope that they felt that they had received a worthy service from us. I will DEFINITELY do this again.

Thanks to SC Bar staff Deborah Morris who coordinates the event, Joey Heape who insures that the web equipment functioned properly, and Elizabeth Martin who popped in for a few photos.

And special thanks to our host station, WLTX. You helped us make this a success!

-NOSY WHEELER

LATE PS – I wish I had asked the name of the camera operator at our station because he was an absolute delight. When he saw us running out of water, he brought the new bottle to us. Thank you Camera Operator!

Filed under: 1, Ask-A-Lawyer, Court, HHS, Health Care, Immigration, Law, Legal, Right to Counsel, Rule of Law, SC Bar, SSDI, SSI, South Carolina, South Carolina Access to Justice Commission, South Carolina Bar, South Carolina Bar Foundation, South Carolina Bar Pro Bono Program, Unemployment, access to justice, access to justice blog, advocacy, attorney, blog, children, divorce, domestic violence, employment, foreclosure, housing, indigent, labor, pro bono, public interest attorney, self-represented litigant, state employment security commission, subprime mortgage crisis, veterans , WLTX, SC Bar Ask-A-Lawyer

POVERTY: SC

Is this our future?

Poverty + SC = 4Ever

Is this what we want for our future?

Recently I’ve been referred to a few poverty resources that I want to share.

1. A powerful video (by United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) sent to me by Shannon Scruggs of the SC Bar Foundation.
2. Poverty in America has published its LIVING WAGE CALCULATOR, an interactive online tool.

When I pulled up South Carolina, 10 of the 22 occupational areas had typical hourly wages within the poverty range.

Almost half. Almost half of the people going to work every day in South Carolina are working for wages that keep them in poverty.

That’s scary! Especially when most of us consider that employment helps to break the poverty cycle. It’s daunting when you think that the South Carolina Access to Justice Commission was set up expressly to ensure that people living in poverty receive equal access within the civil court system. Essentially one of the unspoken beliefs is that full access to the same legal rights helps lift people out of poverty.

It’s certainly time for us to wage a war on poverty.

• People living in poverty face barriers within the public education system.
• People living in poverty face barriers within the public health care system.
• People living in poverty face barriers within the civil and criminal justice systems.

If people going to work everyday remain in poverty, then how can we expect to break the cycle of injustice? Educational injustice. Health care injustice. Civil and criminal injustice.

And yes, I’m familiar with the saying that the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, but if Madame Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton will forgive my paraphrase/alteration/juxtaposition of  it takes a village to raise a child – it is much easier to eat the elephant if the whole village takes one bite.

In order for us to break the poverty cycle, it will take effort from each of us.

Please join.

-RFW

Filed under: 1, Court, Law, Legal, South Carolina, South Carolina Access to Justice Commission, access to justice, access to justice blog, attorney, blog, children, employment, indigent, labor, poverty, poverty guidelines, public interest attorney , Hillary Rodham Clinton, it takes a village to raise a child, Living Wage Calculator, Madame Secretary, poverty, Poverty in America, public civil and criminal justice system, public education, public health care, SC, SC Bar Foundation, Shannon Scruggs, South Carolina, the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, typical hourly wages, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Tune In TONIGHT and Tomorrow Morning

The Big Picture is once again featuring a topic of interest to South Carolinians in the civil justice community. This week’s topic is The Working Poor.

For the program, Mark Quinn, the host of The Big Picture, interviewed prestigious guests such as Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, Sue Berkowitz of SC Appleseed Legal Justice Center and Dr. Adolphus Belk of Winthrop University.

TV Air Date: TONIGHT: Thursday – August 06, 2009 at 7:30 pm

Every Friday morning “The Big Picture on the Radio” airs on ETV Radio. Discussion focuses the television topic of the week amongst other timely subjects. Be sure to check ‘The Big Picture’ homepage each Friday afternoon to tune in live starting at 1:00 p.m.

TV repeats of Thursdays broadcast will air each Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and again on Sunday at 1:00 p.m.

-RFW

Filed under: 1, Law, Legal, Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, SC Appleseed Legal Justice Center, SCETV, South Carolina, South Carolina Educational Television, The Big Picture, Unemployment, access to justice, access to justice blog, blog, employment, homeless, hunger, indigent, labor, legal aid, poverty, poverty guidelines, public interest attorney, state employment security commission, subprime mortgage crisis , SC Appleseed Legal Justice Center, Sue Berkowitz, The Big Picture, Mark Quinn, The Working Poor, Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, Dr. Adolphus Belk, Winthrop University, TONIGHT, August 6 2009, ETV Radio

Don’t Get Hurled Away by a Hurricane!

Hurricane season is here! (June 1-November 30) 

A hurricane can have potentially long lasting and devastating effects if you are caught unprepared.  It is not difficult to take steps before a hurricane hits to protect you and your home, but dealing with the aftermath of a hurricane when you did not prepare can be a long painful process.  Don’t wait until a hurricane is on its way toward your home town; take the time now to secure the safety of you and your family so you are not caught off-guard by a hurricane this season.  In South Carolina, the South Carolina Emergency Management Division is a great place to start to prepare for a disaster.

Steps to take before a hurricane hits (FEMA):

1. Secure your home with permanent storm shutters or plywood.
2. Make sure your roof is securely fastened to the frame structure of your home.
3. Trim trees and shrubs.
4. Clean out rain gutters and downspouts.
5. If you have a boat, secure it.
6. Build or determine which room in your house is the most secure in case of an emergency.
7. Make copies of your personal records including Social Security Card, Birth Certificate, Passport, etc.  Give the copies to relatives in another state or keep them stored electronically where they can be accessed from anywhere.

How to get help after a hurricane hits (National Disaster Legal Aid):

1. A list of local organizations that can help can be found at www.lawhelp.org
2. If you lose your ID, passport, Social Security card, or other important documents you can find out how to replace them at www.uslegalforms.com/life-documents.htm
3. Sometimes homes are destroyed or inaccessible in the wake of a hurricane and families are not able to return home.  The US Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Public and Indian Housing and FEMA have programs that provide temporary housing.
4. Families that are displaced due to hurricane might have problems finding employment.  The Disaster Unemployment Assistance Program gives assistance through unemployment benefits.  You cannot be eligible for these benefits if you already receive unemployment.  Visit their website for eligibility requirements.
5. If you are displaced because of a hurricane then your children will need to find a temporary school to meet their education needs.  www.serve.org/nche/downloads/dis_hb/parents.pdf.
6. Disaster food stamps assistance is available in the wake of a hurricane.
7. Legal aid attorneys can help with landlord/tenant issues, contractor disputes, insurance issues and more.
8. Other websites that can help in disaster preparedness:
   1. www.redcross.org
   2. www.abanet.org/disaster
   3. www.nilc.org/disaster_assistance/index.htm

-Allie

Filed under: 1, HHS, Health Care, Immigration, Law, Legal, Legal Documents, SSDI, SSI, South Carolina, South Carolina Legal Services, Unemployment, access to justice, attorney, disability, elderly, employment, homeless, housing, labor, legal aid, veterans , American Bar Association, disaster, emergency, FEMA, food stamps, housing, HUD, hurricane, insurance, legal forms, National Immigration Law Center, NILC, Red Cross, SCEMD, South Carolina Emergency Management Division, Unemployment

Hot off the Press: SC Jobs Down 76,100 from 1 year ago (Jan. ‘09)

South Carolina’s Unemployment Up in Double Digits at 10.4%

The South Carolina Employment Security Commission press release today noted that unemployment reached the highest levels since April 1983 when levels were 10.7%.

Allendale County has the dubious honor of having the highest statewide rates at 23.4% (up 2 from December 2008) while 11 counties kept their rates under 10%. Lexington County had the lowest unemployment rate in the state with 7.5%.

Nationally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that national unemployment rate rose from 7.2 percent in December to 7.6 percent in January and was 2.7 percentage points higher than a year earlier.

-RFW

Filed under: 1, South Carolina, Unemployment, access to justice, access to justice blog, advocacy, blog, employment, labor, poverty, state employment security commission , Allendale County, Bureau of Labor Statistics, December 2008, January 2009, Lexington County, South Carolina Employment Security Commission, South Carolina's Unemployment, Workforce Trends Newsline

Check it out: Can My Boss Do That?

In Bright Orange Letters, Interfaith Worker Justice lets people know:

Can My Boss Do That?

This site offers information and a general how-to, not legal advice, for workers with general employment and unemployment questions. Some of the headers on the homepage include:

• Health Benefits and the Stimulus COBRA Subsidy
• Unemployment Insurance
• Can they fire me?

There’s more. Check it out here.

-RFW

Thanks Techno.la for referring us to this site.

Filed under: 1, Health Care, Unemployment, access to justice, access to justice blog, advocacy, employment, labor , Can My Boss Do That, COBRA, health benefits, Interfaith Worker Justice, technola, Unemployment Insurance, www.canmybossdothat.com

Breaking News from Columbia Business Report

More on UNEMPLOYMENT . . .

According to the Columbia Regional Business Report (CRBR), the South Carolina unemployment numbers are off by 21,000,per revised figures released today by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Also in CRBR’s report: 

The U.S. Department of Labor reports that South Carolina still has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. Only Michigan, Rhode Island, California and Washington, D.C., had higher unemployment for 2008 than South Carolina, which ended the year with 6.9%.

-RFW

Addendum re: SC Unemployment

South Carolina: 3rd highest unemployment in the USA

see also

Filed under: 1, Unemployment, access to justice, employment, labor, poverty, state employment security commission , Columbia Regional Business Report, CRBR, South Carolina, US Department of Labor, US DOL