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2010 March-April Clearinghouse Review

Many low-income workers need assistance in securing their unemployment benefits. The lead article in this issue focuses on best practices for representing unemployment compensation claimants. Other articles suggest how to respond to the legal needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender clients; analyze the False Claims Act violation in the recent Westchester County fair housing case; describe consumer defense of assigned debts; and recommend that, in setting their agendas, legal aid programs put foremost the solving of clients' problems in whatever manner necessary.

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Stepping Across the Threshold: Assembly Bill 590 Boosts Legislative Strategies for Expanding Access to Civil Counsel
A right to counsel for low-income people in civil cases is the focus of increased attention. Most advocacy for such a right has been in the arena of litigation, but California advocates, with the support of judicial leaders including the state’s chief justice, successfully pursued a legislative strategy. Funded by certain court fees, a pilot project will provide counsel to low-income people in certain kinds of cases in limited areas of the state.
Copies of this article are available for purchase online for $15 apiece.

Related Articles
- John Pollock, Lassiter Notwithstanding: The Right to Counsel in Foreclosure Actions and Going Public: The State-Action Requirement of Due Process in Foreclosure Litigation (Jan.-Feb. 2010)
- Paul Marvy, Advocacy for a Civil Right to Counsel: An Update (March-April 2008)
- A Right to a Lawyer? Momentum Grows (Special Issue July-Aug. 2006)
By Kevin G. Baker and Julia R. Wilson
"Expanding Horizons": Thoughts on Agenda Setting and a Full Advocacy Toolbox for Legal Services
Lawyers at effective legal services programs seek to understand their clients’ problems and represent them to the best of their abilities. They examine the facts of their daily caseloads for systemic and policy problems and use an array of tools to solve clients’ problems. A legal services practice focused on problem solving sets its agenda based on clients’ facts. It should expand its strategies and tactics beyond litigation and cultivate relationships with people who can help its clients when the program is not able to do so. Illinois advocates who applied the problem-solving practice model to secure tenants’ rights, social security disability benefits for widows, and the end of illegal delays in Medicaid succeeded without necessarily engaging in activities restricted by the Legal Services Corporation. Programs should ensure that their advocacy toolboxes are up-to-date and complete.
Copies of this article are available for purchase online for $15 apiece.
Related Articles
- John Bouman, Growing the Toolbox: Diverse Strategies for Public Interest Lawyers in Campaigns to Expand Access to Health Care for Low-Income People (July-Aug. 2009)
- John Bouman, Frederick H. Cohen, David J. Chizewer, Stephanie Altman, and Thomas Yates, Litigation to Improve Health Care Access for Children: Lessons from Memisovski v. Maram (May-June 2007)
By John Bouman
Case Note: Strategic Partnership Among Local Organizer, Legal Services Provider, National Support Center, and Pro Bono Counsel Leads to Ninth Circuit Decision that HUD Voucher Regulations Do Not Preempt Local Eviction Controls
Copies of this article are available for purchase online for $15 apiece.

By Christian Abasto, James R. Grow, and Erin Liotta
Case Note: Licensed Foster Parents Have a Right to Due Process Before State Recoups Foster Care Payments, Alaska Supreme Court Rules
Copies of this article are available for purchase online for $15 apiece.

By James J. Davis Jr., Goriune Dudukgian, and Ryan Fortson
Asserting Choice: Health Care, Housing, and Property--Planning for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Older Adults
Health care, housing, retirement and estate planning are all areas in which low-income lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) older adults may need advocates to help them tailor the law to their particular needs: Medicare-participating long-term nursing facilities must comply with “quality-of-life” requirements, and Section 8 housing regulations can be used to secure long-term housing for LGBT partners. Advocates can help LGBT older adults arrange their affairs and name beneficiaries to reflect these older adults’ wishes and protect their partners.
Copies of this article are available for purchase online for $15 apiece.
Related Articles
- Florence Wagman Roisman, Housing, Poverty, and Racial Justice: How Civil Rights Laws Can Redress the Housing Problems of Poor People (May–June 2002)
- Abigail English, Health Care for Adolescents: Ensuring Access, Protecting Privacy (July–August 2005)
- Mona Tawatao, Colin Bailey, Gary Smith, and Bill Kennedy, Instituting a Race-Conscious Practice in Legal Aid: One Program's Effort (May–June 2008)
By Natalie Chin, Alfred J. Chiplin Jr. Kimberley Dayton, and Melanie Rowen
Recognizing and Responding to the Needs of Low-Income Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Clients
The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, contrary to popular belief, has poverty rates comparable to and in some subgroups higher than those of the non-LGBT community. LGBT people have legal challenges and need legal aid attorneys to meet those challenges. Information, skills, and strategies enable attorneys to expand and improve their advocacy for LGBT clients.
Copies of this article are available for purchase online for $15 apiece.

Related Articles
- Mayia Thao and Mona Tawatao, Developing Cultural Competence in Legal Services Practice (Sept.–Oct. 2004)
- Georgia Burke and Katharine Hsiao, Older Women of Color and the Challenge of Regulating Cultural Competence (May–June 2009)
- Tammi Wong, Race-Conscious Community Lawyering: Practicing Outside the Box (July–August 2008)
- Mona Tawatao, Colin Bailey, Gary Smith, and Bill Kennedy, Instituting a Race-Conscious Practice in Legal Aid: One Program's Effort (May–June 2008)
- Suzanne B. Goldberg and Bea Hanson, Violence Against Lesbians and Gay Men (Special Issue 1994)
- Learning About Your Community (March–April 2008)
By Lisa J. Cisneros and Catherine Sakimura
Making Real the Desegregating Promise of the Fair Housing Act: "Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing" Comes of Age
Westchester County, New York, has remained segregated even while receiving millions of dollars from federal housing and community development programs. How to change the status quo? The Anti-Discrimination Center knew that, as a Community Development Block grantee, the county was required to certify that it would work to “affirmatively further fair housing”—an obligation ignored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and grantees alike. In United States ex rel. Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro New York Incorporated v. Westchester County the center alleged that the county’s certifications violated the False Claims Act. The judge agreed that a grantee’s certification was a substantive requirement and enforceable.
Copies of this article are available for purchase online for $15 apiece.

Related Articles
- Valerie Feldman, Local Land-Use Advocacy: Inclusionary Zoning to Achieve Economic and Racial Integration (May–June 2008)
- Elizabeth K. Julian, Still Segregated After All These Years: A review of “The Geography of Opportunity: Race and Housing Choice in Metropolitan America,” by Xavier de Sousa Briggs (Nov.–Dec. 2006)
- Raun J. Rasmussen, Zoning and Land-Use Laws: Tools to Create Housing and Services for Our Clients (Nov.–Dec. 2003)
- Laurie Lambrix and Louis Prieto, How to Use the Fair Housing Laws to Achieve Your Community Development Goals (Sept.–Oct. 1998)
Other Resources
- Co-author Michael Allen Speaking in the Westchester County Case at Emory School of Law
By Craig Gurian and Michael Allen
Letter from the Editor
News and Notes
Representing Claimants in Unemployment Compensation Proceedings: Lessons Learned from Hearing and Deciding These Cases
For those who lose their jobs, securing unemployment insurance benefits is critical. Studies show that for those who must appeal a denial of these benefits, representation by a legal advocate greatly increases the chances of a successful appeal. To encourage this type of much-needed advocacy on behalf of those whose unemployment benefits may be in jeopardy, here are certain basics of unemployment compensation appeals and practice tips.
Copies of this article are available for purchase online for $15 apiece.

Related Articles
- Kevin Liebkemann and Raymond Cebula, Interplay Among Unemployment Insurance, Welfare, Social Security Disability, and SSI(Sept.-Oct. 2007)
- Catherine K. Ruckelshaus, Unemployment Compensation for Victims of Domestic Violence: An Important Link to Economic and Employment Security (Special Issue 1996)
By Susan Nofi-Bendici
Pleading Standards After Iqbal and Twombly
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in Bell Atlantic Corporation v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal nearly eviscerate the notice pleading standards that had long been assumed to govern complaints filed in federal court. To survive defendants’ motions to dismiss, complaints must now be much more specific, requiring the pleading of facts that many plaintiffs will find difficult to uncover in advance of discovery. Advocates should familiarize themselves with these decisions and certain practice tips.
Copies of this article are available for purchase online for $15 apiece.

Related Articles
- Gary F. Smith et al., The Supreme Court's 2008-2009 Decisions on Court Access: The March to the Right Continues (Nov.-Dec. 2009)
By Jane Perkins
Defense of Assigned Consumer Debts
Debt collection occupies an increasing portion of civil trial calendars, and “debt buyers” who claim to be assignees of the original creditors file many of these cases. These plaintiffs commonly lack standing, and consumers frequently have meritorious defenses to the claims, but the consumer defense bar is small. Clients will benefit greatly from vigorous representation against debt buyers.
Copies of this article are available for purchase online for $15 apiece.

By Clinton Rooney

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