Talk Justice, an LSC Podcast: Aging With Dignity—How Legal Services Keep Seniors Safe
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WASHINGTON – Legal experts discuss the critical role civil legal services play in addressing the legal needs of older Americans on LSC’s “Talk Justice” podcast, released today. Host Lee Rawles is joined by Jeffrey Hittleman, supervising attorney for the Senior Citizen Law Project at Coast to Coast Legal Aid of South Florida; Michael Forton, director of advocacy at Legal Services Alabama; and Alfred Cutturini, director of the Elder Law Project at North Mississippi Rural Legal Services.
Last year, LSC-funded legal organizations assisted more than 312,000 Americans age 60 and up with their legal problems. Issues surrounding wills, power of attorney and advance directives are common for aging Americans, and seniors are often targeted for scams and fraud. These legal crises can exacerbate other stressors, such as rising housing costs and medical issues that can undermine seniors’ safety, stability and ability to age in their home with dignity and autonomy.
“We always see that, that the impact is like a domino effect, where one issue turns into a whole snowball of other issues,” says Hittleman.
Transportation is one of the most significant barriers to justice for seniors seeking civil legal aid. In addition to the limited resources available for legal aid providers across the country, seniors are disproportionately impacted by “legal deserts,” since many older Americans do not drive and some live in remote and rural areas without reliable internet access.
To overcome this, legal services providers have found ways to meet seniors where they are, at senior centers, nursing homes and even their private residences. Cutturini has focused on building strong partnerships with other community services that commonly serve seniors. He collaborates with senior citizen centers in Mississippi to set up “will days,” where people sign up for 30-minute appointments to discuss legal issues related to wills and related documents.
“We bring the notaries, we bring the witnesses—they just need to have some form of ID or a driver's license,” Cutturini says. “They would never get that [kind of] service if they had to find a private attorney to come out and do that for them.”
Coast to Coast Legal Aid employs a van called the Mobile Justice Squad, which has helped over 530 home-bound seniors in the past five years. Hittleman shares the story of a 100-year-old woman whose condo association revoked her gate access because she did not have a car. Without the transponder to open the gate, her caregiver could not get in to help her.
“We sent the Mobile Justice Squad van, got the paperwork signed same day, [then] soon after the gate access was restored and she was so relieved and happy,” Hittleman says. “Having the Mobile Justice Squad and our van, it's been a gamechanger and it's literally removed one of the biggest barriers to accessing justice for our home-bound seniors.”
Legal Services Alabama has assembled their comprehensive “Legal Guidebook for Older Adults in Alabama,” and has distributed over 5,000 physical copies, as well as provided an online version.
“People just seem to love it,” says Forton. “It's about 40 pages [and] it covers everything—every single legal problem that we see with seniors—it covers advanced directives, it covers consumer law, housing law, even senior abuse, scams, everything.”
These initiatives receive funding from local foundations or agencies focused on seniors, but the attorneys explain that this is not the case for most of their organizations’ funding, which are federal dollars granted to them by LSC. They say that without LSC funding, their programs would struggle to continue serving seniors in need.
“At Legal Services Alabama, and many of the other legal services [programs], the funding from Legal Services Corporation makes up 70 - 80% of what we receive,” says Forton. “If that were to go away, it's simply impossible [to continue because] there's no infrastructure.”
Hittleman is concerned about what the ripple effects would be for seniors if Congress cuts LSC’s funding, calling LSC dollars “a direct investment in keeping our seniors safe, stable, and treated with the dignity that they deserve.”
“Imagine being 80 years old on the brink of homelessness and having no one to help you,” Hittleman says. “Those LSC dollars are what allow us to say, ‘You're not alone. We can help. We're going to figure this out together.’”
Talk Justice episodes are available online and on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Podcasts. The podcast is sponsored by LSC’s Leaders Council.