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March-April 2009 Clearinghouse Review

Topics covered in this issue include strategies to stop the school-to-prison pipeline, ensuring education stability for homeless children, working with coalitions to improve access for limited-English proficient clients, hospice care for low-income clients, and anti-foreclosure strategies pursued by advocates in Minnesota.

Affirmatively Litigating: Cocounseling with Private Law Firms on Major Litigation
Legal aid programs may seek to cocounsel with private law firms to expand the reach of their advocacy with the assistance that a private firm can give. Two experienced litigators answer practical questions involved in making a cocounseling arrangement work effectively, and they present a sample cocounseling agreement.
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.
Related articles
- Greg Bass, Affirmatively Litigating: "The Computer Ate My Homework, Your Honor":What You Need to Know About the Electronic Discovery Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (Jan.-Feb. 2008)
- Greg Bass, Affirmatively Litigating: How the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Require Early Case Planning: The Rule 26(f) Conference (May-June 2007)
- Greg Bass, Affirmatively Litigating: Using Fed. R. Civ. Pro. 30(b)(6) to Depose an Organization and Avoid the "Discovery Runaround" (Mar.-Apr. 2007)
- Greg Bass, Affirmatively Litigating: Communicating with Your Expert Witness: Is Your Work Product Protected? (Nov.-Dec. 2006)
By Greg Bass and Jocelyn Larkin
Hospice Care: Benefits and Barriers for Low-Income Americans
Hospice care offers terminally ill people choices about their end-of-life care, such as the option to stay in their own homes. Especially for low-income people, accessing quality hospice care is not always easy, and the Medicare hospice benefit is the most common means of payment for such care. Advocates who understand the Medicare hospice care benefit and familiarize themselves with Medicaid hospice care programs, which tend to mirror the Medicare benefit, can help clients make the best choices about their end-of-life care.
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.
Related articles
- Alfred J. Chiplin, Jr., and Patricia B. Nemore, Due Process Considerations for Medicare and Medicaid Beneficiaries in Managed Care Systems (Oct. 1995)
- Charles P. Sabatino and Vicki Gottlich, Seeking Self-Determination in the Patient Self-Determination Act (Oct. 1991)
By Mary T. Berthelot
The Inter-American Human Rights System: A Primer
Poverty lawyers face an increasingly conservative judiciary and narrowing access to federal courts. Their advocacy, however, need not be limited to U.S. courts. Applying the human rights context, advocates can plead their clients’ cases before the Organization of American States (OAS) Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Bringing cases before OAS bodies not only will give clients a day in court but also may yield fresh arguments for legal and policy changes, hold state actors accountable, spur normative developments in U.S. courts, effect legislative changes, spark interest in an issue, or change the framing of a debate.
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.
Related articles
- Youmna Chlala and Chivy Sok, Human Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women: A Strategy for Local Implementation (July-Aug. 2008)
- Martha F. Davis, Human Rights in the Trenches: Using International Human Rights Law in "Everyday" Legal Aid Cases (Nov.-Dec. 2007)
- Maria Foscarinis, Brad Paul, Bruce Porter, and Andrew Scherer, The Human Right to Housing: Making the Case in U.S. Advocacy (July-Aug. 2004)
By Caroline Bettinger-López
How Coalitions Can Help Legal Aid Attorneys Improve Access for Their Limited-English-Proficient Clients
Legal aid attorneys are increasing serving limited-English-proficient (LEP) clients bringing claims of discrimination based upon an inability to access an array of government services, such as public benefits, law enforcement, and the courts. While traditional litigation approaches may offer remedies for individual clients, a systemic advocacy involves the creation of coalitions to push for language accessibility for LEP persons. A coalition of this type was formed in Washington State, and it has produced positive results for that state’s LEP population.
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.
Related articles
- Katharine Hsiao and Gerald McIntyre, What You Need to Know About Advocacy for Limited-English-Proficient Elders (Sept.-Oct. 2008)
- Patricia Hanrahan, Serving Clients with Limited English Proficiency: Resources and Responses (Sept.-Oct. 2004)
- Jane Perkins, Mary R. Mannix, Jack Daniel, and Wanda Boonsurmsuwongse Hasadsri, Enforcing Language Access Rights: Trends and Strategies (Sept.-Oct. 2004)
- Victor Goode and Phyllis Flowers, Invisibility of Clients of Color: The Intersection of Language, Culture, and Race in Legal Services Practice (May-June 2002)
- Yolanda Vera and Jane Perkins, "No Hablo Ingles"--Ensuring Linguistically Appropriate Health Care (May 1995)
By Leticia Camacho and Gillian Dutton
Caro v. Blagojevich: What Happens When Working Families' Health Care Becomes a Political Football
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.
Related resources
Caro v. Blagojevich, Case No. 1-08-1061 (Ill. App. Ct., Oct. 15, 2008) (Clearinghouse No. 56,140)

By John Bouman and Jennifer Hrycyna
Voucher Participant Allowed to Maintain Section 1983 Litigation Against Housing Authority for Improper Termination
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.

By Mary Ellen Natalie, Ed Marks, Ryan Wilson, Kellie Maki, Matt Currie, and Aneel L. Chablani
Educational Stability for Students Without Homes: Realizing the Promise of McKinney-Vento
Homelessness frequently undermines children’s ability to succeed in school. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, with its broad definition of homelessness, seeks to ensure educational stability for children who are homeless—in particular by recognizing their right to remain in their “school of origin.” Many school districts, however, ignore the Act. Multifaceted advocacy to enforce it in several school districts in Maryland has met with considerable success.
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.
Related articles
- Joy Moses, Twenty Years of Federal Homeless Education Law: Where We Stand on Enforcement (Mar.-Apr. 2007)
- Casey Trupin and Richard A. Wayman, From Street Lawyering to Systemic Lawyering: Meeting the Basic Needs of Unaccompanied and Homeless Youth Through Systemic Legal Advocacy (July-Aug. 2005)
- Patricia F. Julianelle, The McKinney-Vento Act: Stable Schooling Despite Unstable Housing (Jan.-Feb. 2004)
- Laurene M. Heybach and Stacey E. Platt, Enforcing the Educational Rights of Homeless Children and Youth: Focus on Chicago (May-June 1998)
By Sally Dworak-Fisher
ABDC's of Medicare for Low-Income Beneficiaries
A federal entitlement program, Medicare provides health insurance for people who are at least 65 or have a long-term disability or end-stage renal disease. The program’s changes over the years directly affect low-income beneficiaries. The four parts of Medicare differ in terms of eligibility, enrollment, and benefits, and advocates must understand these nuances so that they can guide their clients through the complicated and often confusing program.
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.
Related articles
- Mary A. Ashkar, Vicki Gottlich, and Patricia Nemore, Medicare Advantage: What's the Advantage If You've Got Medicaid, Too? (Sept.-Oct. 2008)
- Vicki Gottlich, Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage for People with Disabilities (Sept.-Oct. 2007)
- Sally Hart and Jamie L. Wyman, Medicare Coverage of Dental Care Following Radiation Treatment and Chemotherapy (May-June 2007)
By Elaine Wong Eakin and David Lipschutz
Multifaceted Strategies to Stop the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Many school districts have implemented misguided “zero-tolerance” policies that, by criminalizing students’ behavior, serve to deny them educational opportunities. The policies have a markedly disproportionate impact particularly on students of color and students with disabilities. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act’s administrative complaint resolution system can be an effective tool to challenge suspensions and expulsions under zero-tolerance policies and keep students in school.
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.
Related articles
- Peter Edelman, A Challenge to Lawyers: What We Must Do to End Poverty and Reduce Inequality (July-Aug. 2008)
- Shawna Parks and Maronel Barajas, School Discipline and Special Education (Sept.-Oct. 2007)
- James Bell, Mapping the Criminal Justice System's Impact in Your Community (July-Aug. 2007)
- Fran Fajana, The Intersection of Race, Poverty, and Crime (July-Aug. 2007)
By Ronald K. Lospennato
Minnesota Tenants Gain More Rights in Foreclosure Through Legislative Task Force Collaboration
In Minnesota, legal aid attorneys led cities and counties, public housing authorities, tenant as well as landlord advocates, private attorneys, the banking and mortgage industries, affordable housing preservation and development advocates, and the utility industry to reach consensus on several recommendations that were passed by the state legislature and have greatly helped tenants affected by foreclosure. The consensus recommendations of a task force of active stakeholders ultimately became law with practically no changes.
Copies of this article are available for individual purchase online for $15 apiece.
Related articles/resources
- Archive of October 2008 webinar on helping low-income tenants avoid post-foreclosure evictions
- Prentiss Cox, Foreclosure Equity Stripping: Legal Theories and Strategies to Attack a Growing Problem (Mar.-Apr. 2006)
- Raun Rasmussen, The Impact of Foreclosure on Residential Tenants (Aug.-Sept. 1994)
By Lawrence R. McDonough
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