LSC grantees across the country are beginning to represent evacuees as they recover from the chaos and calamity left by Hurricane Katrina. Even as many lawyers once based in Louisiana and Mississippi are struggling to reopen practices in other states, they, along with attorneys throughout the country, are providing essential legal services to low-income evacuees. The cases range from the expected (insurance claims, government benefits issues, landlord-tenant disputes, school registration difficulties, and others) to the unusual. For example, LSC-grantee Prairie State Legal Services recently represented a New Orleans woman, now living in Rockford, IL, in an emergency custody modification hearing opposing her former husband, a California resident. The father had petitioned a California judge to remove the children from the mother's custody because the children were living in an allegedly unstable environment after fleeing New Orleans. But the mother successfully argued via audio conference that her kids -- who she already had signed up for welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, and school -- were perfectly safe and stable. Additionally, national organizations such as the ABA and the National Legal Aid and Defender Association have succeeded in establishing funds to benefit Katrina victims. (You can contribute to the NLADA's Helping Hands Fund, which provides assistance to staff in legal aid and public defender offices who have suffered direct and significant personal loss as a result of Hurricane Katrina, at http://www.nlada.org/About/About_Donate.) At a state and local level, a variety of legal organizations are also inviting donations to support relief for the victims. For example, the Texas Equal Access to Justice Foundation, which distributes funds for civil legal aid in the Lone Star state, is inviting donations to its Katrina Legal Aid Fund (www.teajf.org) and also has set aside up to $1 million in emergency funding for disaster related civil legal aid.

PRWeb: Press Release, Southern Lawyers Band Together to Offer Legal Aid to Hurricane Katrina Victims, Sep. 21, 2005; Texas Equal Access to Justice Foundation Responds to Katrina Disaster, Business Wire, Sept. 15, 2005; also based on original reporting by Brennan Center staff.