Domestic Relations
Through the Domestic Violence Project, MWLS provides services to approximately 225 abuse victims each year. We represent victims in their contested Probate and Family Court cases, with the highest priority being those cases involving children, elderly or disabled adults, and those who are linguistically or culturally isolated. Most cases resolve controversies concerning custody or visitation of minor children and child support. We do not handle cases that involve child support only. For some clients, we provide only advice or limited services. Sometimes this is because the victim needs information before taking the next step of separating from the abuser. In other situations, however, it is because limited resources do not allow us to provide more extensive services to all who need them.
Assisting victims with children is our highest priority. They need stable homes, safe contact with the absent parent, and economic security to provide essential food and shelter. Without an attorney's assistance, victims often do not know how to obtain appropriate custody, visitation, support and restraining orders to provide these basics for their children. Often they are misinformed about their rights by their batterers.
Through our PRIVATE BAR VOLUNTEER PROGRAM, MWLS provides basic Family Law services. Local private attorneys volunteer their services and take uncontested divorces, adoptions, guardianships, and paternity cases for MWLS clients.
For further Legal Information visit Massachusetts Legal Services and for other related sites click here.
Disability and Benefits
Two attorneys and a paralegal at MWLS focus on transitional assistance benefits (Food Stamps/Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, TAFDC, EAEDC, EA Shelter), Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Unemployment Insurance benefits and utilities termination prevention and utilities restoration. These advocates help individuals and families navigate a complex labyrinth of state and federal laws and procedures and overcome bureaucratic roadblocks to ensure access to benefits to which they are entitled.
The Disability and Benefits Unit at MWLS is in constant contact with administrative agencies, pursuing both formal and informal appeals through the gamut of agency reviews and fair hearings, all the way through to the state and federal court systems. Many of the clients served by the Unit have physical and/or mental disabilities, and the Disability and Benefits advocates work tirelessly to ensure that these individuals realize full and fair treatment. Few other law offices provide the time, patience and expertise to be successful in this greatly needed, yet not overly serviced, area of law.
For further Legal Information visit Massachusetts Legal Services and for other related sites click here.
Health Care Access Project
The HealthCare Access Project Coordinator provides advice and assistance from application through the appeal process for MassHealth, Commonwealth Care, The Children’s Medical Security Plan and the Health Safety Net benefits. The HealthCare Access Project is funded in part by a grant from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation and the MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation.
KidsCare Connection Project
The KidsCare Connection Project was initiated in conjunction with the MetroWest Health Care Foundation in May 2007 to increase Framingham children’s access to health care services. These services include primary care, mental health, obesity, treatment for chronic and acute illnesses and injuries, dental services and vision services.
The main goal of KidsCare is to develop a culture of preventative and follow-up care in families, to assist families in navigating and overcoming the barriers within the healthcare system, and to support early intervention to address healthcare issues before they become more serious. This culture will bring a lifetime of benefits not only to families but also to the schools and the community as a whole.
Housing
MWLS' housing work focuses on protecting low-income families from losing their affordable housing or their homes. Housing attorneys represent approximately 660 housing clients each year. In the MWLS service area, approximately 2,100 families and/or individuals face eviction and of that number 80% - 85% are unrepresented (70% of those people are low-income). Due to limited resources, we focus our eviction defense on tenants with subsidies, since these are so difficult to obtain. Loss of a subsidy generally results in a family becoming homeless.
Housing attorneys also represent applicants in appeal hearings who have been denied admission into subsidized housing programs, and homeowners facing foreclosure. Representation may include negotiations with lenders, bankruptcy actions, and suits against the lenders for predatory lending violations.
Homeless Advocacy Project
The Homeless Advocacy Project (HAP) focuses its efforts on the homeless of MetroWest to help them obtain permanent, sustainable housing or generate income to sustain permanent housing. Due to the vulnerable nature of this population, an attorney will utilize a holistic legal approach to serve individuals and families facing a myriad of civil legal issues. The HAP attorney helps with the following issues:
- Subsidized Housing Eligibility
- Credit and CORI issues
- SSI/SSDI Eligibility
- Bankruptcies
- Child Support Modifications
The attorney also provides regular outreach and access to the area's homeless shelters and acts as a reference to the network of homelessness agencies in the region.
Pro se Housing Clinic
MWLS offers weekly pro se housing clinics for tenants living in our service area, who are facing eviction. At each clinic, a housing attorney outlines the eviction process, discusses relevant defenses, and explains what to expect at the court appearance. The housing attorney also distributes court forms and helps tenants to complete them.
For further Legal Information visit Massachusetts Legal Services.
Elder Law
Through its Senior Citizen's Legal Project, MWLS provides services to individuals over 60 living in our service area. The advocates help clients with the following:
- Housing - Landlord and Tenant issues, primarily eviction cases involving public, subsidized or private housing and foreclosures.
- Durable Powers of Attorney, Health Care Proxies, and Defense of Guardianships and Conservatorships.
- Nursing Home Issues - Including transfer and discharge, conditions, and evictions.
- Benefits - Social Security, SSI, Unemployment, Medicaid, Medicare, and the Department of Transitional Assistance benefits.
- Domestic Relations - Including restraining orders, divorces, modification of divorce agreements, and contempt actions.
- Bankruptcies.
- Community Legal Education - Attorneys provide presentations to senior groups on legal topics of particular interest to elders.
For further Legal Information visit Massachusetts Legal Services.
Education
MWLS assists students and parents in their special education cases, addressing an unmet community health need. Special needs children have medical, physical, or mental health conditions which interfere with their ability to participate fully in school. In order to succeed in an academic setting, they require specifically targeted assistance, such as physical or occupational therapy, counseling, medication, accommodations for a physical handicap or adjustments for neurological deficits. By working with families, school personnel, experts and treatment providers, the Project Attorney works to ensure that children's needs are correctly identified and that appropriate services are developed and delivered. Low-income and minority children are more likely to receive inadequate services. The Project addresses these existing inequities and thus, we hope, creates lasting and positive change for children with special needs.
For further Legal Information visit Massachusetts Legal Services and for other related sites click here.
Private Bar Volunteer Program
MWLS has a good working relationship with the private attorneys practicing in its service area. The program has a panel of approximately 250 private attorneys most willing to take at least one pro bono case each year. With their help, which otherwise would not be provided, MWLS can expand services to eligible clients. Many cases are referred to the private bar in the areas of adoption, bankruptcy, consumer, family law, housing, and wills.
The Private Bar Volunteer Program (PBVP) in conjunction with Voices Against Violence, coordinates the Volunteer Lawyers Program for the Marlborough Probate Court. This is another way where members of the private bar pitch in to help expand services to eligible clients. Each Thursday morning, a private attorney advises walk-in clients at the court with their legal problems. With their participation in both programs, each year private attorneys provide approximately 2000 hours of legal help in nearly 300 cases.
In return the PBVP makes legal training available to its volunteers in family law and bankruptcy. Volunteers are eligible to attend MCLE training seminars at a reduced cost. In house training is also provided by the MWLS staff members or local experts.
JOIN THE PRIVATE BAR VOLUNTEER PROGRAM Email: hpalencia@mwlegal.org
Additional Information
Staff who speak Spanish and Portuguese are available to help clients in all cases handled. MWLS seeks to make its services accessible to as many residents as possible. This access may be limited to legal advice because we do not have enough staff to handle all the requests for services.
MWLS cannot handle criminal cases.
