Around the Community

AROUND THE COMMUNITY By: Thomas H. Dickenson

Hodges Doughty & Carson

DEBT RELIEF CLINIC AWARDED PRESTIGIOUS ABA AWARD

What started in 2017 with a simple e-mail to the co-chairs of the KBA Bankruptcy Section from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Suzanne Bauknight turned out to be a huge success in the eyes of the American Bar Association. That e-mail gauged the interest of the bankruptcy bar to start and participate in a Pro Bono Debt Relief Clinic serving Knox and surrounding counties. The KBA Bankruptcy Section thought it was a great idea, and from that initial e-mail, the Debt Relief Clinic was formed.

The Debt Relief Clinic is a joint project spearheaded by Judge Bauknight and supported by the KBA Bankruptcy Section and Legal Aid of East Tennessee. It started out as a local project but expanded in November 2020 to a virtual (Zoom) clinic with sponsorship by the TBA Young Lawyer’s Division, the Tennessee Supreme Court Justice for All Initiative and the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services, local chapters of the Federal Bar Association, and state-wide legal aid offices. The virtual forum means that COVID-19 could not stop the quarterly clinics. Legal Aid advertises the clinics and pre-screens potential clients to ensure that they qualify. The local, in-person KBA-LAET clinics (which serve clients who qualify for legal aid because their income does not exceed 125% of the federal poverty level) resumed in 2021 and are planned for 2022, and the TBA-YLD virtual Debt Relief Clinic is expanding in 2022 to benefit citizens across Tennessee.

The TBA-YLD virtual clinic is designed to expand access to the Debt Relief Clinic to clients of moderate income whose income does not exceed 200% of the federal poverty level. Clinic clients receive personalized and confidential advice in Zoom break-out rooms during the clinic to determine if a chapter 7 bankruptcy case might benefit them. Some clients would not benefit from bankruptcy, but volunteer attorneys explain what it means to be “judgment proof,” and the clients are given information about their rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Clients for whom bankruptcy would be beneficial learn about their right to file a request to pay the bankruptcy filing fee by installments and how to assert applicable exemption rights, and if the client is eligible and wants to move forward to pursue bankruptcy protection, they are paired with an attorney who is willing to represent the client pro bono.

At the start of each virtual and in-person clinic, Judge Bauknight presents the general framework of chapter 7 bankruptcy, focusing on the costs and benefits with a goal of sending the message that bankruptcy is not the solution for everyone so that the clinic clients should carefully consider the advice they receive from the experienced bankruptcy attorneys with whom they meet at the clinic. Following the short presentation, the clients, who are required to complete a one-page form concerning their income and liabilities, meet with pre-assigned volunteer attorneys who interview each client and provide individual advice. At some clinics, LMU Duncan School of Law students shadow private attorneys as an assignment for the consumer bankruptcy class taught by KBA Bankruptcy Section co-chair Tom Dickenson.

Clinic clients who qualify and desire to file chapter 7 are assigned either to the attorney who provided advice at the clinic or to another attorney who is willing to represent the client on a pro bono basis. From there, chapter 7 cases are filed for those who need it.

This innovative program was recently awarded the prestigious ABA Louis M. Brown Award from the ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services as a program expanding access to legal services to those of moderate income. This award “honors the work of those who advance the mission [of access to legal services] in ways that are both remarkable and replicable.” The announcement of the award was made by Fritz Langrock, Chair of the ABA Standing Committee, at the ABA’s mid-year meeting on February 12, 2022. He noted that the clinic aims “to improve delivery of legal services and legal information through leveraging virtual services held four times per year.” More than 40 attorneys in the Eastern District (most of whom are KBA members) have contributed to the clinic’s success. Judge Bauknight continues to make a presentation at the start of each clinic that serves Eastern District clients, and she has recruited judges from the Middle and Western Districts to serve similarly at clinics that are targeted to citizens in those districts in 2022.