New York Times Reports on the Cost of Domestic Violence
By KELLEY HOLLAND

Domestic violence, it seems, is something of a misnomer. We all know that violence against partners is a scourge in many homes. But it can also be a problem in the workplace. One-fifth of all full-time employed adults are or have been victims of domestic violence, according to a survey by the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence. And a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that women, the most common victims, lose nearly eight million days of work annually…(read full story)

Chicago Tribune Reports on the use of Computer Program to Help the Poor get their Day in Court By Chicago Tribune technology columnist Jon Van

When served with an eviction notice or other legal document, a poor person cannot afford to hire a lawyer and seldom knows much about how to represent himself in court, but he may get help from a computer.

Increasingly, state and local legal aid groups across the country are spreading technology pioneered in Chicago to help people represent themselves in court by…(read full story)

Northwest Arkansas Times Reports on Legal Aid Represention of citizens of the Republic of the Marshall Islands
BY TRISH HOLLENBECK

Thanks to a presentation Lee Richardson, Executive Director of Legal Aid of Arkansas, made before the Legal Services Corporation Board at its April meeting in Little Rock, legal aid organizations around the country and especially Legal Aid of Arkansas will now be able to represent citizens of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, as well as the Republic of Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia, who live in the United States.

This will affect the Marshallese population in Northwest Arkansas. The Marshallese population here is between 6, 000 and 10, 000, said Lee Richardson...(read full story)

• A legal aid attorney reunited an elderly couple after a guardianship petition was defeated.   The client’s wife was admitted to the hospital. Upon her discharge, her brother admitted her to a nursing home without her husband’s consent.  Her brother filed a Petition for Guardianship, which they gave to her doctor and the Nursing Home staff.  The client and their daughter were then not allowed to visit.  In his guardianship petition, the brother alleged that the client’s house needed repairs, that his wife had dementia and was being mistreated by the client. A test was done on Ms. White to prove competence.  Hospice nurses had been going to the home and with some investigation legal aid was able to prove that the client’s wife was being well taken care of at home and that repairs had been done to the house.  Legal aid also educated the doctor and nursing home staff that an order of guardianship must be granted by the court; a petition is not sufficient.  After a hearing on the guardianship petition, the client’s wife was allowed to go home with her husband and daughter, with big smiles upon being reunited.
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• A legal aid attorney obtained a settlement for a tenant who was wrongfully evicted.  The client lived at the West Memphis Housing Authority and was padlocked out of her apartment after criminal activity in the common area.  Her only connection to the criminal activity was that her apartment was burglarized.  A lawsuit was filed, and the tenant received a check for $1,270 to dismiss the case.  Although this is a small amount of money, the hope is that it may lead to a revision of that complex’s eviction procedures ....(Learn more About Landlord Tenant Law)

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