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The Erie County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project, Inc. (VLP) is a 501(c)(3) not for profit corporation which provides free civil legal services to low income individuals and small not-for-profit groups in Erie County. VLP provides these important services by utilizing both its staff and volunteers to represent clients.
VLP involves volunteer attorneys by recruiting, training, coordinating and assisting attorneys who volunteer to represent VLP's clients on a pro bono basis. VLP has been doing this work since 1983 when it was created as a joint project of the Erie County Bar Association and Neighborhood Legal Services. The Bar Association incorporated VLP as a separate not-for-profit corporation in 1988.
Approximately 400 attorneys in Erie County volunteer through VLP each year. Each year, attorneys and paralegals provide nearly $1 million dollars in donated legal services to assist VLP's clients. All of these donated legal services are in addition to those services provided by VLP’s staff. These volunteers represent clients in a variety of important types of civil matters. They represent women who are victims of domestic violence and handle a variety of other family law matters. They represent tenants in eviction proceedings and home owners in tax foreclosures to help them avoid becoming homeless. They represent people who have lost their jobs to help them to get unemployment insurance benefits and keep them off of the welfare rolls. They assist people with consumer problems or who are victims of unfair debt collection practices. VLP staff and volunteers also assist families infected with HIV, especially with permanency planning for the care of their children. They assisted long time lawful permanent residents who are now facing deportation due to harsh changes in the U.S. Immigration law. They also assist low income individuals with a variety of other legal problems.
In addition, the volunteer attorneys represent small not-for-profit groups. These groups are primarily ones that assist the poor, the handicapped, the disabled, and the elderly. By providing legal assistance to these small not-for-profit groups, we secure assistance for hundreds or thousands of the less fortunate members of our community. Some examples of groups the VLP has assisted are Helping Hands of Greater Buffalo (WNY's largest soup kitchen and food pantry), the WNY Coalition for the Homeless, and Literacy Volunteers of America Buffalo and Erie County.
VLP's efforts have been extremely effective. VLP opens approximately 3,000 cases each year. The VLP staff provides full representation on some of those cases, counsel and advice on some, and refers approximately 1,000 cases each year to pro bono attorneys. In addition, we provide information and referral service over the telephone to about 2,000 more people per year.
Approximately 89% of VLP’s non-immigration clients live within the City of Buffalo. About 98% of all of VLP’s immigration clients are at the Federal Detention Facility in Batavia. When immigration clients are included, approximately 63% of all of VLP’s clients live within the City of Buffalo.
VLP’s efforts are also cost effective for taxpayers. In each of the past several years, VLP assisted clients in ways that saved local taxpayers an estimated approximately $1,000,000/year. These tax payer savings come through homelessness prevention and helping people to stay off of the welfare rolls by helping them to get the SSI or unemployment insurance benefits that they are entitled to.
VLP has not only concentrated on quantity, but has long been viewed as a quality program.
In fact, in 1992 when the ABA's Center for Pro Bono hired a new Assistant Director and sent him out on some site visits to see some good pro bono programs in operation, VLP was one of the ones chosen.
Part of VLP's success over the past few years has been due to some special projects that it operates. One of these projects is the Attorney of the Morning Program which operates Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning in Buffalo City Court. Under this program, attorneys who have been trained in landlord/tenant law represent low income tenants who are facing the possibility of eviction. The attorneys are scheduled ahead of time and represent all low income tenants who show up in court without an attorney. In 1991, the State Bar presented an Award of Merit to the Bar Association of Erie County in recognition of VLP's Attorney of the Morning Program. That program is now being copied around the country.
The second program is VLP's Haven House Intake Program for victims of domestic violence. Haven House is the largest shelter for victims of domestic violence in Erie County. Each Tuesday night trained volunteer attorneys and law students travel to a site near Haven House to meet with several of Haven House's clients. The purpose of this program is to give the women counsel and advice regarding legal issues they are facing. By reaching out to them in a setting which is comfortable and supportive, the program is able to help plug these clients into systems which are already in place to help them with their legal problems.
A third special project provides free legal assistance to individuals and families that are affected by HIV/AIDS. This project started as an outreach program at the Parents and Children Together (P.A.C.T.) Clinic at Children’s Hospital. In a quiet setting, clients are helped by a VLP staff member and a volunteer attorney to begin Permanency Planning for long term plans for the care of their children. With the support of their nurses and case workers they plan who will take care of their children once they are no longer able to. A VLP attorney remains involved in the case until the legal issues are resolved. By reaching out to them in setting which the clients know and feel comfortable in, they are ready and open to discussing perhaps one of the most important and difficult decisions they will make in their children’s lives. This project has grown and now has two full time attorneys, Lillian Medina-Zelazny (847-0662 ext. 319) and Elizabeth Ollinick (ext. 315), who represent individuals and families affected by HIV/AIDS.
VLP also began an immigration project in 1999. In its first years, the project focused on representing individual clients, as well as providing training throughout upstate NY and technical assistance to pro bono attorneys and immigrant service providers. More recently, the project is funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Justice to provide legal orientations for the men detained by the Department of Homeland Security at the Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, NY. We do not generally provide individual representation due to funding limitations at this time, although detained cases with merit are screened for and may be referred to pro bono attorneys working under our guidance or represented by our two Immigration attorneys. The project’s Supervising Attorney is Sophie Feal at 847-0662 ext. 314. Jessica Lazarin (ext. 316) is our staff attorney working with the Immigration Project. Both speak Spanish, and Sophie also speaks French. Detained immigrants are encouraged to leave their names on our immigration line, which may be accessed for free at the Batavia facility. The number for detained immigrants to call is (716) 847-0752.
Our newest special project is a collaborative effort with the 8th Judicial District Pro Bono Committee and programs from around the 8 county 8th Judicial District. We have been awarded a contract from the Unified Court System and hired attorney Amanda Warner (ext. 318) as the 8th Judicial District Pro Bono Coordinator. Amanda is an employee of VLP and has her office at VLP, but works to assist pro bono programs around the district. Her job is to recruit attorneys to do pro bono work to handle cases for pro bono programs around the district.
Part of the reason for VLP's success has been its close ties with not only the Bar Association of Erie County; but also the Minority Bar Association of Western New York, Inc.; the Women's Bar Association of NY State, WNY Chapter; and the State University of NY at Buffalo Law School. Each of these organizations appoints one or more members of VLP's Board of Directors and works with and supports VLP's efforts.
The Bar Association of Erie County (BAEC) appoints most of VLP's Board and each year the President-Elect of the BAEC serves on VLP's Board. In addition, throughout the year, the BAEC publicizes VLP to its members and encourages them to participate as VLP volunteers.
The Women's Bar works jointly with VLP to recruit its own members to volunteer on cases of particular importance to women.
VLP also works with the Minority Bar and with the St. Thomas More Guild (an organization of Catholic lawyers) to recruit their respective members.
In addition to its staff and pro bono attorneys, VLP also involves law graduates, law students, paralegals, paralegal students, and even high school students as “in-house volunteers” helping to screen, intake, prepare and process cases. The high school students help with clerical tasks and the others all get directly involved working with VLP clients. Newly admitted attorneys often volunteer as “in-house volunteers” and represent VLP clients out of VLP’s office with the support and supervision of members of VLP’s staff
The law students come to VLP as externs/interns, recipients of grants/fellowships or as volunteers. VLP works to involve students in the delivery of legal services and to sensitize them to the needs and problems of low income clients. Many of these students become volunteer attorneys after they are admitted to practice. Therefore, VLP's work with law students is really long-term recruitment.
VLP works collaboratively with other local legal services providers and shares some space and equipment with Legal Services for the Elderly and the Western NY Law Center. VLP is part of a 20 program upstate Legal Services Funding Alliance and works with an overall state-wide effort to publicize the legal needs of low income people. VLP also participates in the NYSBA Committee on Legal Aid, the NY Pro Bono Coordinators Network, the NY Project Directors, and the National Association of Pro Bono Professionals.
For more information, contact VLP’s Managing Attorney/CEO Bob Elardo by calling 847-0662 ext. 312.
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