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September - October 2002

The September-October issue includes articles on parents with mental illness, housing preservation, child care, and health care receivership.

Parenting in the Face of Prejudice: The Need for Representation for Parents with Mental Illness
Misconceptions and misgivings about the ability to parent while dealing with mental illness abound. Although mental illness can render some individuals unfit to parent, the vast majority of mentally ill parents simply need access to services and supports that will help them parent effectively. One important, often overlooked, service is legal assistance. Parents with mental illness must have skilled and knowledgeable legal representation when the issues of child protection, termination of parental rights, custody, visitation, and the patient-psychotherapist privilege arise.

By Colby Brunt and Leigh Goodmark
The Prevailing Winds After Buckhannon
The U.S. Supreme Court, in 2001's Buckhannon Board and Care Home Inc., rejected the "catalyst theory" for determining whether a party prevails in an attorney-fee motion. The lower courts, in applying Buckhannon to most of the fee-shifting statutes that they are considering, have been taking various approaches to determining what constitutes a "prevailing party." Attorneys who plan to seek fees for their work should pay close attention to developments in this fast-breaking area.

By Gill Deford
The Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Receivership: A Case Study in Consumer Activism
Health Care for All, a consumer nonprofit organization, and its public interest law firm, Health Law Advocates, applied aggressive advocacy skills to a complex set of proceedings and substantially influenced health care insolvency proceedings for the public benefit.

By Renée Markus Hodin, Laurie Martinelli, and Marcia Hams
South Brooklyn Legal Services' Child Care Network Support Project: How Legal Aid Programs Can Support Family Child Care
South Brooklyn Legal Services' work with New York City's child care networks benefits both family day care providers and low-income legal aid clients who need child care subsidies to make the transition from welfare to work. The project undertakes to correct illegal agency practices in making subsidy payments, helps providers obtain and renew their licenses, represents providers whose landlords try to impose additional rent charges or evict them for providing child care, and advises providers on insurance and tax matters.

By David Ehrenberg and Raun J. Rasmussen
Seven Reasons to Do Housing Preservation Work: Protecting Federally Subsidized Housing from Conversion to Market-Rate Rents
Housing preservation work offers exciting legal practice opportunities for legal aid attorneys: seven reasons to continue the pursuit of public housing preservation.

By Timothy L. Thompson and Ann Norton
A Quick and Easy Method of Screening for Medicaid Eligibility Under the Pickle Amendment

By Gordon Bonnyman
The Wellstones: A Tribute

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