The Legal Aider - May 2024

May 8

Written By Hayley Grant

DOCTORS & LAWYERS for KIDS

For over a decade, Doctors & Lawyers for Kids has been helping families in our community remove barriers to long-term health. We are proud of what the program and our partners have accomplished.

At Family Health Centers in the South End of Louisville, Attorney Grace Chambers is just beginning to set up shop for the day. It’s a Tuesday in April, and Grace is holding her weekly office hours for Doctors and Lawyers for Kids, a program of Legal Aid Society. Originally its own independent nonprofit, Doctors and Lawyers for Kids became a program of Legal Aid in late 2020. As the Program Attorney, Grace has been hard at work since then pursuing the program’s mission—to eliminate the legal obstacles to a child’s health and well-being.

Grace is no stranger here at Family Health Centers. “Normally, I’ll grab a spare exam room and make that my office for the day, or I’ll sit in the hallway,” Grace says, waving at a few familiar nurses as she boots up her laptop. She holds office hours to meet perspective DLK clients at community health centers across the Greater Louisville Area weekly. Currently, she rotates between six area health centers, including three Family Health Centers clinics (Iroquois, Portland, and East Broadway), two Norton Pediatrics locations (Broadway and Norton Children’s Hospital), and the Smoketown Family Wellness Center.

By providing free civil legal services on-site in medical clinics that serve primarily low-income patients, Doctors & Lawyers for Kids catches problems early before families are in crisis. Lawyers practice preventative law alongside preventative medicine, effectively becoming part of the health care team.

Through a combination of clients met through office hours like these and doctor referrals, Grace closed 148 cases for Doctors and Lawyers for Kids in 2023. Cases included 22 special education cases, 51 family law cases (such as obtaining adoptions, protective orders, sole custody orders, divorces, and adult and juvenile guardianship), 43 housing cases, and more.

But Grace is certainly not the sole member of the team—the ‘Doctors’ in Doctors and Lawyers for Kids are equally essential to the equation. At Family Health Centers, Dr. Julia Richardson stops for a quick chat, describing the medical-legal partnership between the Center and Legal Aid Society as “critical.”

Dr. Richardson estimates of the 15-20 patients she sees each day, 100% are income-eligible for legal aid, it’s just a matter of identifying their civil-legal needs. The standard health screening administered by medical staff often discovers those needs. For instance, a question about whether a child feels safe at home can help doctors identify prospective domestic violence or child abuse cases, and noting the adult escorting the child to the health center may identify custody or power of attorney needs. Once these needs are noted, physicians like Dr. Richardson refer the patient to attorneys like Grace.

In one memorable case, Dr. Richardson was able to identify the cause of a child’s health condition very quickly—ongoing exposure to toxic lead paint. Lead-based paint exposure, along with other unsafe housing conditions, disproportionately affects low-income families who are often living in older housing that the landlord has not maintained well. In this case, the Johnson family was living in an apartment with documented lead paint and experiencing clear symptoms of lead poisoning, yet the landlord did nothing.

“Folks are stuck reporting to code enforcement,” Grace explained to Courier Journal reporters earlier this year. “Their landlord’s response is normally just a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. It is not an actual substantive fix, and it keeps coming back.”

MEDICAL LEGAL PARTNERSHIPS WORK!

Studies show that when legal services and expertise are used to address social needs, people are:

admitted to the hospital less frequently,
more likely to take their medications as prescribed, and;
reporting lower levels of stress.

Don’t take our word for it, check out the research supporting the impact of programs like Doctors & Lawyers for Kids!

READ THE RESEARCH

Thanks to our donors who make this work possible!

Family Health Centers
Norton Hospital
Norton Children’s Hospital Foundation
Greater Louisville Medical Society

DLK BY THE NUMBERS

In 2023, DLK tackled 148 total issues for your families, including:

Join us Friday, March 25 from 11 AM - 1 PM at our Shelby County Office (203 Alpine Dr., Shelbyville, KY) for a casual luncheon. Stop by for a few minutes or stay awhile to learn more about what Legal Aid Society is doing in Shelby, Henry, Oldham, Trimble, and Spencer Counties.

Meet our team and share the good work you are doing in the community – maybe we can learn from each other and spark new ideas!

RSVP by Wednesday, May 22

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we want your input

MAKE OUR VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS BETTER!

Legal Aid Society, in partnership with the Louisville Bar Association, wants your input on how we can design our volunteer programs to encourage more pro bono engagement in our community and serve more clients. Complete the survey now through May 24.

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VOLUNTEERS NEEDED for PRO SE DIVORCE CLINICS

If you're looking for a way to make a big impact in a short amount of time, consider volunteering with our Pro Se Divorce Clinics. The Spring 2024 clinics are now posted online. Use the link below to sign up. You’ll receive a follow up email from Legal Aid Society with more details and training opportunities.

SIGN UP HERE!