Montgomery Bar Association

By Kate M. Harper, Esq., President, Montgomery Bar Foundation

Sue was almost finished nursing school and just about to apply for jobs when she was told something stupid she had done years before had given her “a record” that would prevent her from getting a job as a nurse. It was a shoplifting charge, and she had been granted a pardon for the crime nearly 25 years ago, but that did not expunge her criminal record. She couldn’t believe that it could derail a lifelong dream of becoming a nurse when she was so close! She was desperate and ashamed but she just couldn’t afford a lawyer. Someone told her to call Legal Aid, and she did.

That story is true and because of Legal Aid of Southeast PA (LASP), “Sue” got a lawyer who worked to obtain the expungement she needed and she graduated and got a job as a nurse. LASP’s Community Engagement Unit got a thank you note saying, “I want to thank you so much for all of your hard work and dedication to helping me get my life back after 25 years.”

Joe was 63 years old and at the end of his rope. He had diagnosed medical conditions that caused chronic pain and mobility issues that just got worse as he aged. He just couldn’t afford medical care. He had worked his whole life but just couldn’t do it anymore. He did not know what to do. Bills were mounting and he was worried about his family, when someone told him to talk to Legal Aid’s Disability Advocacy Project. Boy, was he glad he did.

Legal Aid helped him apply for Medicare to pay the medical bills, and eventually got him a monthly disability benefit, with a check for an amount in arrears. He told his Legal Aid lawyer he felt financially secure for the first time in his life.

These stories happen every day at LASP, which serves the four counties in the Philadelphia suburbs, but could not happen without the support of lawyers. Most people assume that LASP is a government agency, but that’s not the case. It’s an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation that gets its funding from federal sources, state sources that rely on IOLTA funds, court filing fees, cy pres awards, program funding (like veteran’s programs and CARES Act funding for specific programs) and donations, including those made by the Montgomery Bar Foundation, the charitable foundation for Montgomery Bar Association lawyers.

In Montgomery County, Legal Aid has offices in Norristown and Pottstown and provides legal advice and advocacy for low income folks with civil law issues. “There’s no ‘Right to Counsel’ in a civil proceeding,” explained Shawn Boehringer, Executive Director of Legal Aid of Southeastern PA, “but people often need that kind of help.”

During the COVID pandemic, he noted, Legal Aid was busier than ever and made it a point to answer their Helpline (877-4295994) when government agencies couldn’t or didn’t answer their phones, and the callers were often people facing homelessness who needed immediate help. Shawn gives LASP Communications Director Marion Fraley credit for upgrading the Legal Aid website so it could handle the increased traffic during the COVID pandemic. The website (www.lasp.org) features easy to find Hurricane Ida help, rent and utility assistance programs to help people behind in either and help for victims of domestic violence, who often have housing or custody concerns, too.

While eligibility for services often depends on meeting lower income regulations, Legal Aid offers its free legal services like family law, expungements, domestic violence assistance, Protection From Abuse (PFA) help, housing assistance, help in obtaining public benefits for which people are entitled, elder law and consumer issues like bankruptcy and defending debt collection actions to veterans, renters and homeowners, and those who need them.

Through the Your Way Home Montgomery County Program, and the EPIC program (Eviction Prevention and Intervention

Coalition), Legal Aid partners with government agencies, district courts, other nonprofits and Montgomery Bar Lawyers acting as pro bono advocates to help vulnerable families and individuals facing eviction or homelessness by providing legal and social services to prevent evictions and guide their clients to long-term stability in having a home. In Montgomery County, since more than half of all evictions occur in Norristown and Pottstown, Legal Aid staff lawyer Michelle Dempsky helps coordinate services in seven local courtrooms in those places to help tenants have someone on their side.

As the LASP lawyers have learned, evictions are often the cause of job loss and poverty as evicted tenants find it harder to get housing due to the negative impact an eviction has on one’s credit and rental history. Households with young children and babies, tenants who are pregnant, senior citizens, veterans and disabled people are particularly vulnerable. The Your Way Home and EPIC programs don’t just help out in the courtrooms, although the help there has been proven effective in greatly reducing evictions, people in need are also given advice, counseling and support to help them from becoming homeless.

As Shawn Boehringer puts it, “We focus on basic human needs.”

After two years of a pandemic and record unemployment, gas prices rising and inflation at a 30-year high, those “basic human needs” affect more and more of our neighbors.

The Montgomery Bar Foundation regularly supports the work of Legal Aid of Southeastern PA with grants, as its mission is to promote and provide “Access to Justice,” particularly for the most vulnerable among us. Legal Aid of Southeastern PA needs the support and delivers justice, compassion and advocacy every day to our neighbors in Montgomery County.

The Montgomery Bar Foundation, the charitable arm of the Montgomery Bar Association, raises money for Legal Aid and other nonprofits that provide access to justice services, and has given away nearly one million dollars in its 30-year history.

The Bar Foundation relies on the support of MBA members.

Montgomery Bar Fellows support the Foundation, and different levels of giving are available. A new option is available for Young Lawyers who can earn the Montgomery Bar Fellow designation by donating just $10 a month for the year. Check it out on the Montgomery Bar Foundation page at www. montgomerybar.org.

The annual MBF Golf Outing is a fundraiser to raise the money to help Legal Aid and other programs that give those who need it the access to the justice they desperately need. Whether or not you are a golfer, you can support the Montgomery Bar Foundation at the golf outing with a sponsorship or by bidding on auction items. Check your email for sign-ups for the Golf Outing to be held at Cedarbrook Country Club on Monday, June 27, 2022. We hope to see you there!

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