Legal Aid

Emeka Orjiakor spent his first six months as a real estate lawyer in a sleek glass-and-steel downtown high-rise. Now he's feeling more down to earth in the humble offices of a public-service practice, helping the poor fight foreclosure and eviction. Orjiakor, an associate at Sidley Austin LLP since September, is on loan -- at a substantial pay cut -- to the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice through a program designed to retain young talent whose jobs are disappearing in the recession.

Thousands of residents in Los Angeles' poorest neighborhoods will get new legal help in fighting high-stakes eviction cases involving slumlords and foreclosures under a pilot project approved by the state's judicial leaders Friday. The new Eviction Legal Assistance Center at Los Angeles County Superior Court's downtown civil courthouse will provide legal representation to about 15,000 people facing eviction over three years, according to legal aid groups, which will be jointly running the center.

Liberal groups and the American Bar Assn. are opposing President Obama's nomination of Sharon Browne, an attorney at the Sacramento-based Pacific Legal Foundation, to the board of the Legal Services Corp., which oversees legal aid for the poor. So far, however, the critics haven't made a persuasive case. No more than six members of the corporation's 11-person board can come from the same party, and Browne was recommended for a minority seat by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.

Federal policy on immigration has tilted toward enforcement in recent years, and the number of deportation proceedings has risen sharply. As a result, the nation's detention centers, where immigrants often are held while their cases are adjudicated, have become increasingly overburdened. One of the many negative consequences of the 60% increase in the number of people held since 2004 is detainees' dwindling access to legal counsel. Having a lawyer makes a difference. A 2005 Migration Policy Institute study found that the odds of success double when detainees seeking to become lawful permanent citizens have attorneys.

Maria de Leon and her husband, Jesus Batista, were on the verge of homelessness when they arrived at the nonprofit Inner City Law Center on skid row. They'd always paid their rent on time and never complained to their landlord, even as conditions in their unit deteriorated. But then their landlord fell into foreclosure and the bank holding the mortgage attempted -- illegally -- to evict the family. A man who had promised to help with the eviction disappeared with $1,400 of the couple's money.

Richard Massey's suburban Anaheim home was valued at $700,000 two years ago when the bills for his cancer surgery came due and he had to tap the equity to pay them. The cosmetics company executive had lost his job and health insurance just before getting ill -- the start of a run of bad luck that accelerated with the real estate meltdown and has left the 50-year-old and his disabled wife facing eviction from their foreclosed home.

The U.S. Supreme Court's term ended last month with rulings on sexual harassment that drew praise for their clarity and sensibility. But the court's earlier decision on legal services for the poor was dismaying if unsurprising. The justices cast a long shadow over a major source of legal aid funding by ruling that interest earned on the money that clients often must deposit with their lawyers for short periods belongs to the clients. Were that decision made in a vacuum, it would seem sensible.

Poor immigration amnesty applicants can continue to receive subsidized legal aid until a court determines if a 1986 immigration-reform law intended to deny them that low-cost service, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Thelton E. Henderson on Friday temporarily put off nationwide plans to withhold legal aid from amnesty applicants after finding the law vague and deciding that implementing it could pose a severe hardship on people who face eviction and other civil matters.

The Legal Aid Society of Orange County has received a total of $300,000 in federal grants for pilot programs to determine the most financially efficient way to provide the county's poor with legal assistance. An additional $150,000 federal contract also is expected to be awarded soon to the nonprofit county agency. The grants were awarded by the Washington-based Legal Services Corp.

The Union Rescue Mission and the Pepperdine School of Law announced Tuesday the launch of a clinic that will provide free legal aid to the city's homeless. In a ceremony to inaugurate the Pepperdine Legal Aid Clinic, Union Rescue Mission board member Mablean Ephriam--better known as "Judge Mablean" from the TV show "Divorce Court"--said there "is great need for these services. The clinic is located at the Union Rescue Mission headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.

Even as the Obama administration seeks to create a more humane system of detention for illegal immigrants, most continue to be held in rural jails without ready access to legal representation, a human rights group says in a report to be released today. In a survey of immigration detention facilities nationwide, the Chicago-based National Immigrant Justice Center found that more than half did not offer detainees information about their rights, and 78% prohibited private phone calls with lawyers.

Maria Perez's fever had climbed to 103, her body ached and she had trouble breathing. After being told in the emergency room that she had pneumonia, Perez went to a clinic in South Los Angeles for a follow-up appointment. The doctor asked Perez about her housing situation. Her apartment had cockroaches and mice, Perez said, and rain came through a broken window and filled the walls with mold. The doctor wrote prescriptions to treat the pneumonia and an asthma flare-up and then did something that he hoped would prevent her from getting even sicker: He sent her down the hall to talk to a lawyer.

Raymond Chavez sat down at a legal clinic at the Midnight Mission on skid row Wednesday afternoon with two jaywalking tickets in his hand. Chavez, 56, who is homeless, said he didn't have the cash to pay the citations when they were issued last year and he had missed the hearings where he could have contested them. The fines had since ballooned to $821 and led to a warrant for his arrest. A city attorney who listened to his story quickly offered a deal: The citations would be dismissed if Chavez attended seven hours of counseling at one of several social service providers.

Liberal groups and the American Bar Assn. are opposing President Obama's nomination of Sharon Browne, an attorney at the Sacramento-based Pacific Legal Foundation, to the board of the Legal Services Corp., which oversees legal aid for the poor. So far, however, the critics haven't made a persuasive case. No more than six members of the corporation's 11-person board can come from the same party, and Browne was recommended for a minority seat by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.

A Los Angeles-based law organization Wednesday launched a program to provide free legal assistance to veterans who hit bureaucratic roadblocks when filing claims for federal medical and mental health benefits. Public Counsel, a pro bono law firm, will offer the free service throughout Southern California and, in partnership with other volunteer attorneys, in more than 25 states. "Many veterans who return home to their families are facing a system that routinely rejects their benefit claims," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said at a Veterans Day news conference to announce the effort.

California is embarking on an unprecedented civil court experiment to pay for attorneys to represent poor litigants who find themselves battling powerful adversaries in vital matters affecting their livelihoods and families. The program is the first in the nation to recognize a right to representation in key civil cases and provide it for people fighting eviction, loss of child custody, domestic abuse or neglect of the elderly or disabled. Advocates for the poor say the law, which Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed this week, levels the legal playing field and gives underprivileged litigants a better shot at attaining justice against unscrupulous landlords, abusive spouses, predatory lenders and other foes.

A decision on moving a legal aid office from Pasadena to West Covina has been delayed at least until Monday while options that could keep the office in Pasadena are explored. Lauralea Saddick, executive director of Legal Services Programs for Pasadena and San Gabriel-Pomona Valley, said the organization has asked the city of Pasadena to help find space in city facilities or elsewhere in the northern part of Pasadena. The request was made after City Atty.

The first trial in November's Mumbai terrorist attacks was abruptly adjourned an hour after police pulled a large cloth off the head of the defendant to reveal the blinking, scruffy-bearded Pakistani who police say is the lone surviving gunman. The presiding judge ordered the much-anticipated proceedings delayed after dismissing the defense lawyer for suspect Ajmal Amir Kasab for a conflict of interest. Trial Judge M.L. Tahiliyani said legal aid lawyer Anjali Waghmare failed to disclose that she had agreed to represent a victim in a compensation claim case, who is also a witness against Kasab.

Emeka Orjiakor spent his first six months as a real estate lawyer in a sleek glass-and-steel downtown high-rise. Now he's feeling more down to earth in the humble offices of a public-service practice, helping the poor fight foreclosure and eviction. Orjiakor, an associate at Sidley Austin LLP since September, is on loan -- at a substantial pay cut -- to the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice through a program designed to retain young talent whose jobs are disappearing in the recession.