Grant Provides Legal Help for Lower Incomes

    Feb. 6, 2007
    Noblesville Daily Times
    By Rebecca L. Sandlin


    Money from unclaimed lawsuits will soon give county residents access to some legal clout they may not otherwise have.

    Hamilton County Superior Court 3 Judge William J. Hughes, chair of Heartland Pro Bono Council, said Hamilton County is one of eight central Indiana counties benefiting from nearly $116,000 in grants to fund three innovative programs to help indigent people obtain legal services.

    “It’s called a ‘cy pres’ award,” Hughes explained Monday. “The primary money came from a class-action lawsuit that involved people receiving unwanted faxes. There was a sum of money set aside for the claim process, and there were substantial dollars that were never claimed.”

    Money from that lawsuit and two others was set aside into a special account and is now mainly being used to fund three pro bono services:

    Indiana Legal Services — $52,040

    “It is providing assistance to individuals who are re-entering our community after service of time in prison,” Hughes explained. “They often have lots of issues — getting back property that they lost when they went to prison that was in their homes and things like that, taking care of license issues, dealing with child support issues — all of those things that have to be done in a way that they can live legally within our society with some kind of parameters, and they come out without any income at all.”

    Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic’s Immigrants in Crisis Project — $50,000

    This program, which helps new immigrants or those seeking asylum or protection from human trafficking, has an intake center at First Presbyterian Church, located at 1207 Conner St. in Noblesville.

    Hughes said there are services through the program available to Hispanics who do not have legal services available to them, but they also provide services to English-speaking individuals, as well.

    “Their specific grant request was to provide services for individuals who are here under asylum or basically white slavery kinds of issues,” he said. “There’s nobody doing that service to assist people who are being brought here under false pretenses and then required to basically become slaves.”

    Family Law pilot project — $13,500

    The smallest portion of the grant will go to start-up a new project specifically in Hamilton County, aimed at providing legal services to indigent individuals embroiled in domestic disputes.

    Those who qualify can obtain free legal services such as divorce, a post-dissolution action and juvenile paternity action with issues of child support, custody, visitation and property distribution.

    “The purpose of it is to come up with a program that we can then replicate in the other eight counties in our district,” Hughes said.

    The pilot project will also create a night court program in order to bring the necessary parties together to deal with disputes quickly.

    “Frequently the indegency is the result of one party to the marriage having access to all the finances, which they cut the other party out of,” Hughes said. “It will be a limited representation by pro bono council in order to get an award of attorney’s fees so private counsel can be retained.”

    Shot in the arm

    Hughes said he hopes the one-time funding will provide a much-needed boost to county residents who might otherwise not be able to stand up for themselves legally or be forced to represent themselves in court because they can’t afford an attorney.

    “You’re never guaranteed there’ll be additional funds of that nature, at least from that case. There may be other cy pres awards,” he said.

    Hughes added that request for pro bono services far outweigh Heartland’s abilities to provide those legal services. However, he said lawyers are required to make donations of their services as part of the oath they take as attorneys.

    “Heartland’s job in this process is to screen the people who qualify and help match those people with individual attorneys who are volunteering their time,” Hughes said.

    Laurie Beltz Boyd at Heartland Pro Bono Council said of the nearly 300 requests for services from people in 2006 and part of 2005, 42 were assigned a pro bono attorney and 28 people received a reduced-fee attorney.

    “A lot of these people we are able to help by answering their questions or referring them to the appropriate agency,” Boyd said. “A lot of times, when people call in they don’t really need a lawyer. It may be a child support that the prosecutor’s office can handle, it may be that they’re just wondering what, if anything, they can or can’t do about a situation. Then we’re able to advise them.”



National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)
1660 L St., NW, 12th Floor, Washington, DC 20036
(202) 872-8600 • Fax (202) 872-8690 • assist@nacdl.org