Date: 12/7/2008
By MANUEL VALDES
Associated Press Writer
SEATTLE (AP) — The day before Maria Nunes fled Florida for Seattle, her abusive husband beat her unconscious. The native of Jamaica didn’t dare divorce him because she depended on her marriage for her legal residency in the United States.
But in Seattle, attorney Jorge Baron and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project — an organization that provides legal aid to immigrants in Washington state at no or reduced cost — stepped in to help. The project’s lawyers guided her through a 7-year legal fight to get her divorce and a residency green card.
“I didn’t even know I had rights,” Nunes said. “It takes a long time but they didn’t quit.”
Now, however, the project is one of hundreds of legal aid organizations nationwide that face losing a significant amount of their operating money, which comes in part from interest on funds that lawyers hold in trust for their clients.
All 50 states have some form of a law that earmarks such money for legal services for the poor. Nationally, it added up to about $370 million last year, but advocates say that figure could drop by as much as 50 percent in 2009 because of both the economic meltdown and low interest rates.
“We’ve never had this type of decline,” said Susan Erlichman, president of national association of IOLTA programs — the acronym stands for interest on lawyers trust accounts. “In many cases, it’s the double whammy, not only have the interests plummeted, many states are seeing smaller (trust) balances.”
In Ohio, revenue from IOLTA is expected to drop 50 percent this year to $11 million from $22 million in 2007. Projections for 2009 look even grimmer with incoming revenue dropping to $4 million.
Washington state revenue for grants is expected to drop from $9 million in 2008 to $6 million next year. Texas initially projected $28 million for 2007, but interest rate cuts chopped the figure to $20 million. The shortfall in Texas is acerbated by Hurricane Ike’s destruction, an advocate there said.
“Legal services programs are dealing with issues such as FEMA appeals, public benefits, consumer scams, insurance issues. All of these disasters end up with (low income) people needing legal aid lawyers,” said Betty Balli Torres of the Texas Access to Justice Foundation.
Legal aid firms also face decreases in government and private grants.
Erlichman said some legal aid firms have already begun cutting workers, and case files are piling up.
While funding is dwindling, the demand for free legal services increases during economic downturns, when people need help in the cases of foreclosures or landlord disputes, advocates say.
Baron said the federal government’s increased crackdown on immigration is also straining legal services for immigrants.
“If our funding is reduced, then again we’re going to have a situation where we’re going to have even less resources to handle cases,” said Baron, who serves as the executive director for the staff of 40.
After years in legal limbo, Nunes got her green card late last year and is going back to school. She hopes to get a technical degree so she can better provide for her two small boys.
Shortly after winning her green card, Nunes went back home after more than 14 years to visit her mother and siblings.
“That was one of my happiest days for me, getting my green card,” said Nunes, who also wants to become a public speaker about domestic violence. “It was awesome, I thought that day would never come.”
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On the Net:
IOLTAL: http://www.iolta.org/
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project: http://www.nwirp.org/
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Supporters ask court to uphold malpractice caps
Date: 11/13/2008
By JOHN O’CONNOR
AP Political Writer
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) _ A 2005 law limiting the amount of money juries may award in medical malpractice cases unfairly targets those most seriously injured who deserve the most compensation, lawyers told the Illinois Supreme Court Thursday.
Proponents of the law asked the court not to limit what they called lawmakers’ attempt to stem a health care crisis.
The law restricts awards on non-economic damages such as pain and suffering to $500,000 against doctors and $1 million against hospitals. It was aimed at lowering medial insurance rates blamed for driving physicians, particularly specialists, out of the state.
A trial court ruled last year that the law violates the Constitution’s separation of powers clause by allowing the General Assembly to restrict deliberations by judges and juries. The Supreme Court will study the matter and issue an opinion later.
Supporters argued Thursday that courts should allow lawmakers to impose reasonable remedies to problems.
“This court should not adopt an absolute limit on legislative authority. People have got to go to the Legislature,” said former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, who is defending a doctor accused of malpractice in the brain damage suffered at birth by 3-year-old Abigaile LeBron. The case is one of three out of Cook County testing the three-year-old law.
“The Legislature is equipped — this court is not equipped — to hold hearings, take testimony, and set the policy for the state,” Olson said.
The law not only limits damages, it gives state regulators more power to review and change malpractice insurance rates and tougher oversight of doctors to punish mistakes.
“Everyone has been asked to give something, including those who have suffered injury,” said Michael Scodro, solicitor general for the Illinois attorney general.
But the sacrifice is uneven, said Michael Gottesman, a Georgetown University law professor representing Abigaile LeBron and her mother. Past court decisions, he said, have ruled that laws cannot differentiate between levels of injury, which Illinois’ does.
The LeBron family’s non-economic damages, for example, might far exceed the caps, Gottesman said. In the case of a wealthy person whose injury causes millions of dollars in lost income, he would recover all of it because the law puts no restrictions on jury awards of economic damages.
“Even though the attorney general says health care consumers ought to contribute to the solution, the only people being asked to contribute to this solution are the most seriously injured people — almost by definition the people least capable of making this contribution,” Gottesman said.
Under questioning by justices, Gary Feinerman, who represents defendant Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in the LeBron case, said the court must reject Gottesman’s argument that the law must be nullified just because caps affect severely injured patients.
Rather, the court must focus on why lawmakers acted.
“The General Assembly had a very good reason. There was a health care crisis and the General Assembly chose a multifaceted solution to that problem,” Feinerman said.
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The case is LeBron v. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital.
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On the Net
Illinois State Medical Society: http://www.realitymedicine.com/
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By JOHN O’CONNOR
AP Political Writer
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) _ A 2005 law limiting the amount of money juries may award in medical malpractice cases unfairly targets those most seriously injured who deserve the most compensation, lawyers told the Illinois Supreme Court Thursday.
Proponents of the law asked the court not to limit what they called lawmakers’ attempt to stem a health care crisis.
The law restricts awards on non-economic damages such as pain and suffering to $500,000 against doctors and $1 million against hospitals. It was aimed at lowering medial insurance rates blamed for driving physicians, particularly specialists, out of the state.
A trial court ruled last year that the law violates the Constitution’s separation of powers clause by allowing the General Assembly to restrict deliberations by judges and juries. The Supreme Court will study the matter and issue an opinion later.
Supporters argued Thursday that courts should allow lawmakers to impose reasonable remedies to problems.
“This court should not adopt an absolute limit on legislative authority. People have got to go to the Legislature,” said former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, who is defending a doctor accused of malpractice in the brain damage suffered at birth by 3-year-old Abigaile LeBron. The case is one of three out of Cook County testing the three-year-old law.
“The Legislature is equipped — this court is not equipped — to hold hearings, take testimony, and set the policy for the state,” Olson said.
The law not only limits damages, it gives state regulators more power to review and change malpractice insurance rates and tougher oversight of doctors to punish mistakes.
“Everyone has been asked to give something, including those who have suffered injury,” said Michael Scodro, solicitor general for the Illinois attorney general.
But the sacrifice is uneven, said Michael Gottesman, a Georgetown University law professor representing Abigaile LeBron and her mother. Past court decisions, he said, have ruled that laws cannot differentiate between levels of injury, which Illinois’ does.
The LeBron family’s non-economic damages, for example, might far exceed the caps, Gottesman said. In the case of a wealthy person whose injury causes millions of dollars in lost income, he would recover all of it because the law puts no restrictions on jury awards of economic damages.
“Even though the attorney general says health care consumers ought to contribute to the solution, the only people being asked to contribute to this solution are the most seriously injured people — almost by definition the people least capable of making this contribution,” Gottesman said.
Under questioning by justices, Gary Feinerman, who represents defendant Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in the LeBron case, said the court must reject Gottesman’s argument that the law must be nullified just because caps affect severely injured patients.
Rather, the court must focus on why lawmakers acted.
“The General Assembly had a very good reason. There was a health care crisis and the General Assembly chose a multifaceted solution to that problem,” Feinerman said.
___
The case is LeBron v. Gottlieb Memorial Hospital.
___
On the Net
Illinois State Medical Society: http://www.realitymedicine.com/
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
