You have until November 15th to nominate a South Carolina Legal Services attorney for the Ellen Hines Smith Award.
This year the award event is especially exciting because it will take place during the South Carolina Bar Foundation’s Annual Gala on March 11, 2010.
I can’t wait to learn who receives the award!
-RFW
There’s an article in the Free Times that features Commissioner Sue Berkowitz. It focuses on the Opt Out idea that is currently circulating in D.C. regarding the Health Care Reform Package.
Some statistics from the article:
Currently, South Carolina ranks 48th in the country in overall health, according to data from the United Health Foundation. The state ranks near the top in such categories as stroke deaths, infant mortality and percentage of uninsured children and near the bottom of such lists as access to prenatal care and percentage of healthy children.
Also, approximately one in six South Carolinians are uninsured, according to Census data, and 80 percent of the uninsured are from working families, according to Families USA.
Tell us what you think:
-RFW
I was raised in a low socioeconomic background. Both of my parents are on Social Security Disability. My mother has been on SSD since I was in the 5th grade. My father has been on SSD since I was in the 12th grade. Our family has struggled even more since both of my parents are on disability. Getting through paying bills from month to month is a blessing for the household. Moreover, my parents have only a high school education, and the rural Pee Dee region of South Carolina is what they know. I have seen my parents and members of the family have legal issues but not have access or the financial means to afford an attorney. One of my uncles has had a long battle with trying to acquire Social Security Disability, but he has had to fight the system on his own and with no outside legal help. I have seen my father in an extended involvement with probate issues of his deceased father’s estate, but he has not had an consistent legal help or someone to just guide him on the ins and outs of probate law with regards to his inheritance. From a few of my family experiences, I realize firsthand how crucial pro bono is to providing access to justice for those who are unable to or who just do not know how to go about exercising their rights to justice.
As a law student, it is so easy to get caught up in the chaos of assignments, papers, job searches, jobs, organizations, and social life. Involvement in pro bono is the priceless opportunity that gives you that necessary outlet. It opens your eyes and helps you to realize that it is not about you and your personal goals. It is about my community and what I can do to service my community as a present law student and in future practice of law. Involvement with Pro Bono helps you to become more well-rounded and improves your ability to work with and interact with all degrees of life from different socioeconomic, race, and ethnic backgrounds.
A good percentage of the population of my law school comes from privileged or comfortable middle-class backgrounds. A lot of these students come to law school very much oblivious to the extent of the critical need for pro bono service within our community. Involvement in Pro Bono is needed to make them understand just how much the community needs their service.
I have talked to a few friends at Charleston Law, and they informed me that a certain amount of pro bono hours are required for every law student. At University of South Carolina, we do not require pro bono hours. I believe that a pro bono requirement would be a great investment for the law school and the community that we service. This will get the students out into the community who would not get involved on their own otherwise. The requirement would also plant seeds into the law students –seeds that would hopefully grow and continued to be nourished when they are out in practice.
That’s the question that Commissioner Thomas C. Keith asked in his Op-Ed in Friday’s The State newspaper.
And, it’s likely you’re not going to like the answer – LESS THAN CONNECTICUT. A LOT LESS.
In Connecticut, each child in poverty is allocated $1,052 a year via TANF, whereas in South Carolina that same program allocates only $179 a year per child.
And in his Op-Ed, Mr. Keith is urging Congress to do the right thing, fund each child living in poverty according to poverty level, not according to “state” advantages.
Good job Commissioner Keith!
-RFW
Just a little while ago, I was on a conference call with representatives from California, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah and Vermont as we discussed 2009 Model Approach Grants awarded to our respective states. The press release is below:
AoA-Grants.Announcement-09_18_09
Exciting news for SC and access to justice for senior South Carolinians!
-RFW
In perusing the 2009 Edition of Future Trends published by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), I saw that the South Carolina Courts website was featured prominently as an example of user-friendly design.
This is exciting because it highlights the SC Court’s interest in serving the general public and making information easy to find. And the following Excerpt indicates why the site is so successful:
The South Carolina Judicial Department’s Web team compiled over
a year’s worth of e-mailed requests from court staff, the legal community,
and the public to help design the site’s e-mail notification system, through
which Web visitors can sign up to receive opinions, orders, rules, forms,
court news, and more.
The report also contains information about the rising number of self-represented litigants within the nation’s court system. While South Carolina has been working to address this area with our access to justice SRL efforts, SRLs are exponentially increasing their presence in the courts.
If you are interested in court trends in SC and around the USA, I would definitely recommend taking a few minutes to check out the recent NCSC report.
Special Thanks to technola for pointing us toward the report.
-RFW
If you guessed that South Carolina has seen a marked increase in foreclosures and requests for food have markedly increased, you win!
According to the Columbia Regional Business Report (CRBR):
South Carolina’s foreclosure rate from July to August 2009 was up 1.94%, reported national real estate tracking company RealtyTrac.com. That number is more than 78% higher than it was one year ago.
According to Harvest Hope:
In the first quarter of 2009, Harvest Hope experienced a 142% increase in the number of families needing assistance.
Earlier today I attended a fundraiser luncheon for Harvest Hope. It made me focus on how the problems faced by so many living in poverty are faces of our neighbors, our friends, our loved ones.
The “featured” speaker at the luncheon was someone who had been working – two jobs. Two good, solid jobs. Then she got ill. Which started the medical bills and absence from work. Which caused her to lose her jobs. Both jobs. The bills kept coming. When it came to paying bills, she used her money for medical bills and medication. Then she lost her home. She stopped eating so much. That made her sicker. Then she found Harvest Hope.
She was able to eat.
The doctors are still trying to figure out what is “wrong” with her. In the meantime, she can eat. Without Harvest Hope and the necessary nutrition it provides, she would be even more sick.
While these societal problems may not be legal, I guarantee that the Legal Aid Telephone Intake Service (LATIS) has been referring people to Harvest Hope.
And once people have nutrition and can think about something other than an empty belly, then they may call LATIS for assistance with a problem with their Landlord. Or maybe for help with their Medicaid benefits. Or help with a way to escape their abusive spouse.
-RFW
Recently I’ve been receiving a lot of inquiries from fathers who want assistance with child support or child custody issues. And I have the perfect resource for them, the South Carolina Center for Fathers and Families.
The South Carolina Center for Fathers and Families, a statewide nonprofit organization, was founded in 2002 by the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina. If you are not already familiar with the center, please explore their website.
And, for additional information about the impact, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration of Children and Families Office of Family Assistance featured the SC Center for Fathers and Families in a report released in May 2009.
-RFW
In South Carolina, when you think of poverty law and advocacy, you often think of the SC Appleseed Legal Justice Center.
What you may not know is that SC Appleseed also publishes brochures, manuals and pamphlets for South Carolinians. Like the SCATJ Commission, SC Appleseed is a fan of PLAIN LANGUAGE and has some material available in Spanish (en español).
-RFW
Is this our future?
Is this what we want for our future?
Recently I’ve been referred to a few poverty resources that I want to share.
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.
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
SC Access To Justice Weblog 