Serving the Legal Community in Assisting Low-Income Persons To Navigate the Justice System
PRO BONO SPOTLIGHT By: Caitlin Torney Pro Bono Project Attorney for Legal Aid of East Tennessee
COVID-19, THE HOUSING CRISIS, AND HOW YOU CAN HELP Here at Legal Aid of East Tennessee (or “LAET”), we strive to be an asset to our community and a benefit to our neighbors. In service of this goal, I have decided to use this monthly opportunity to familiarize you with some of the services we offer to our clients. Hopefully, you will be able to assist people in need that you might not have been able to assist otherwise by guiding them to these services. The especially-timely focus of this installment is our housing attorneys and the work they do. For the last year and a half, our housing attorneys have been extremely busy trying to aid clients impacted by the COVID-19 eviction crisis. As the pandemic persisted, the practice of our housing attorneys changed dramatically. The CDC moratorium seemed to provide protection for our clients, but we saw a commensurate rise in alternative methods of eviction, such as the cancellation or disruption of essential services and lockouts. Meanwhile, we found ourselves working from home, filing injunctions remotely when we could and begging admittance to the clerk’s office when a remote submission was not allowed. At times, we searched for a judge to hear an emergency pleading. When our clients’ needs were greatest, our ability to help them seemed to be at a nadir. Eventually, it dawned on us that the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes to court orders and work adaptations it brought with it were not ending anytime soon. In a welcome turn of events, LAET was given a grant that allowed us to ask members of the Knox County and surrounding bar associations to work with us as contract attorneys. If we could find a nexus between a housing case and the pandemic, we were able to alleviate some of the pressure our housing attorneys were under by getting help from our fellow community attorneys. We were never so humbled to be a part of the East Tennessee legal community than when we received a multitude of answers to our call for help. Attorneys in Knox, Blount, and Sevier counties – as well as our other service areas in our East Tennessee offices – took housing cases upon themselves, working their magic for our clients to stop evictions and negotiate agreements with landlords so our clients would not be branded with an eviction on their record. Our Contract Attorney Program members quickly became an invaluable resource to our team. We can say with confidence that LAET is stronger with you as partners. For the other members of our legal community that serve as plaintiff landlords’ attorneys, your willingness to work with us during the moratorium and navigate the understandable frustration your landlords felt is greatly appreciated as well. At the end of the day, we could not be more grateful for the community that we work with. Now that the CDC moratorium has come and gone, we are left with only the emergency rental assistance program. We are committed to doing what we can to motivate our clients to file their applications as quickly as possible so they can secure help with past due rent. We are excited to (hopefully!) have some new positions within LAET in the not-too-distant future as new grants become available for us to use to help our housing clients. We are also taking inspiration from surrounding states and cities as they deal with the same eviction crisis we are faced with. For example, Kentucky and Nashville have robust eviction diversion programs, which could be implemented to great benefit in the Knoxville service area. LAET and several of our community partners have been discussing what best practices we have seen in other places that could benefit our clients in need. We are still struggling under the weight of the resurgent pandemic to meet the demand for legal assistance with housing matters. We welcome any volunteers from the private bar who would be willing to donate their time and energy to this very worthwhile cause. If you
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are interested in taking on clients for direct pro bono representation, please contact me at ctorney@laet.org or call with questions or ideas at 865-251-4951. We are also hoping to staff a rotating phone advice clinic for housing matters to help alleviate the burden on our staff by shifting advice cases to this clinic. As of mid-September, one attorney has committed to doing one day a month and we would love to add other attorneys to the schedule. If you would be willing to commit to 2-3 hours a month to call clients about repairs, deposits, and general landlord/ tenant questions, please reach out. It would be a wonderful way to assist in-need populations in our area as we continue to press through this pandemic together
Upcoming Clinic Opportunities:
DICTA
Legal Advice For Veterans:
In person at the Public Defender’s Community Law Office at 1101 Liberty Street in Knoxville. Phone advice options available.
Wed. October 13 (12:00noon – 2:00pm) Wed. November 10 (12:00noon – 2:00pm)
To sign up, please use the form on the KBA Website or email ctorney@laet.org.
Legal Advice Clinic for Victims of Domestic Violence:
In person at the Family Justice Center in Knoxville.
Sat. October 16 (9:00am – 12:00noon) Note: The previous column incorrectly provided the date for this clinic as October 14, my apologies for the confusion To sign up, please email ctorney@laet.org
Faith and Justice Clinic:
In person at the Lennon-Seney United Methodist Church in Knoxville.
Sat. October 23 (9:00am – 12:00noon) General legal advice and a minority-owned business clinic
To sign up, please use the form on the KBA Website or email ctorney@laet.org.
Debt Relief Clinic:
In person at the Public Defender’s Community Law Office at 1101 Liberty Street in Knoxville.
Sat. November 6 (9:00am – 12:00noon)
October 2021
