Southern Arizona Legal Aid

SOUTHERN ARIZONA LEGAL AID, INC.
2003 Annual Report of Activities and Accomplishments

SALA's Mission provides the basis for all decisions:
To provide quality legal services to people who would not other-wise have equal access to justice, in ways which affirm their individual and collective dignity, integrity, and power.

SALA Meets Clients' Expanding Needs
Southern Arizona Legal Aid, Inc. (SALA) provides high quality legal services in nine Arizona Counties (Pima, Cochise, Santa Cruz, Graham, Greenlee, Pinal, Gila, Navajo and Apache) and 11 Indian Reservations with offices on the Gila River, White Mountain Apache and Tohono O'odham Reservations. SALA successfully balanced a fully integrated basic field and Native American program. SALA offered services to 209,790 eligible clients living in its service area. The ethnic composition of our off-reservation client population is approx-imately 27% Hispanic, 57% Anglo, 3% Black, 1% Asian-P.I., 11% Native American and 1% Other. In 2003, SALA provided emergency assistance and other direct services which help families and individuals achieve self-sufficiency. Some services were offered which are not technically defined as cases but still offer one-on-one assistance; we classify these as matters. Our services helped meet the fun-damen-tal human needs of 10,365 (9,817 Cases plus 548 Matters) clients which benefitted 27,986 individuals. In addition, SALA provided community legal education at various locations throughout its service area to approximately 30,000 individuals.

SALA was more efficient through the use of technology in the offices. SALA provided information to more than 1,000 individuals through its Web Site (sazlegalaid.org). From the Web Site, community members have access to general information about services, where service offices are located, eligibility information and program priorities. Community members also have access to community legal education and self-help materials which is available to assist them in resolving their own legal problems through Arizona=s statewide web site - AzLawHelp.org. AzLawHelp.org is a project of the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education; Legal Service Corporation; Community Legal Services, Inc.; DNA People=s Legal Services, Inc. Southern Arizona Legal Aid, Inc.; and, the William E. Morris Institute for Justice. As an integral part of the local communities' prevention plans, access to ser-vices from SALA allowed people to avoid the need for other emergency services and provided assistance for people in crisis who had exhaus-ted all available short-term emergency care.

SALA services include: safety and protection for children and women who are vic-timi-zed by domestic violence; preservation of shelter for those wrong-ful-ly evic-ted from their homes; access to food stamps to people who are star-ving and unable to obtain ser-vices from the Depart-ment of Economic Security; access to health care for those denied ser-vices; and a means to survive for disabled persons who are unable to obtain benefits from the Social Security Administration.

The Arizona Supreme Court continued SALA's grant of $100,000 which allowed SALA to maintain its statewide Elder Law Hotline (AELH@). The ELH provided telephone consultations to 2,572 Arizona Seniors in 2003. The response from Seniors has been overwhelmingly positive.

SALA's Domestic Relations and Immigration Program continued representation for victims of domestic violence with strong support from the Governor's office, the Department of Economic Security, and funding from the Violence Against Women's Act (VAWA) from the Department of Justice. The program also provided services to Tribal members both on and off reservation.

SALA's Private Attorney Involvement Program continued collaboration between its Volunteer Lawyers Program (VLP) and local Bar Associations. In 2003, the VLP provided services in 2,628 cases and matters benefitting over 7,096 people; and, accepted 2,879 new cases and matters referring 2,759 clients to1,100 available vol-unteer attorneys. The VLP offers pro se assistance Workshops and Clinics to community members who seek assistance with legal issues within the SALA priorities. We offer workshops and clinics in English but also offer individual attention for Spanish-speaking clients. These workshops are intended to educate clients so they may pursue their own pro se representation. If a group session is not sufficient to meet the needs of an individual, we offer Follow-up Clinics for additional assistance; or, sometime a one-on-one session. This assistance may rise to the level of a case; however, many times the assistance is classified as a matter. The VLP staff estimated volunteers contribu-ted approximately 20,693 hours of legal services valued at $4,138,500.

The staff demonstrated broad expertise to meet the multifaceted needs of clients. The need for assistance with housing, public benefits issues including TANF, food stamps, general assistance, unemployment benefits and social security benefits continued to increase. The following tables describe the poverty popula-tion, cases closed by substantive area, and type of representation:

	Poverty	Cases/Matters
Pima (urban, rural, and Native American)	120,778	6,138 cases
Cochise, Graham, Greenlee (rural/Mexican border)	27,566	642 cases
Santa Cruz (rural and Mexican border)	9,356	414 cases
Navajo/Apache (rural)	15,522	678 cases
Pinal/Gila (rural and Native American)	36,568	923 cases

2003 Program -Wide Closed Cases
Family Law - 4,325
Consumer - 1,767
Housing - 1,248
Income Maintenance - 644
Limited Services (Advice/Brief Services, etc.) - 8,069
Expanded Services (Negotiation/Decision, etc.) - 2,296

Vignettes:
1. One of the local car dealers decided to entice people in by promising they could use their refund as a down payment on a new car. This involved the car dealer preparing the tax returns (or rather farming them out to a tax service at $250 a pop). Unfortunately, the car salesman is not a tax preparer, and he missed some income of our client, thus reducing the refund and making him ask for another $200 to cover the loan. The client came to us, and we called the salesman, double checked the new refund amount, and then arranged for the salesman to put the $200 on the end of the loan rather than require the client to come up with the cash now.

2. The client=s marriage was dissolved several years ago. Because she suffered from significant health problems, the dissolution decree provided her with an award of spousal maintenance. Former spouse discontinued payment of spousal maintenance. At the time case was assigned to volunteer the client had gone without any support for many months and was living off borrowing from credit cards and loans from family. Volunteer attorney filed a petition to have the court order that spousal maintenance continue. A motion to dismiss was filed by former spouse. The Superior Court denied the motion to dismiss. A Special Action was then filed by the former spouse with the Arizona Court of Appeals. Court of Appeals denied the Special Action. The parties then entered mediation and the client=s former spouse agreed to pay her $42,000 in a lump sum.

3. In another case, our client discovered that her husband had obtained a divorce in Nevada, with custody and child support awarded to him, despite the fact that the children resided with mother. Husband knew the whereabouts of mother but did not serve her with the divorce petition. Husband then came to Arizona to attempt to enforce his divorce decree by domesticating it in Navajo County. We petitioned for modification of custody rather than trying to declare the divorce decree void. Temporary orders are currently in place giving mother sole custody, with father having visitation on alternating weekends.

4. A volunteer attorney undertook investigation of status of title to clients= mobile home and represented client in an administrative proceeding at the Arizona Department of Transportation resulting in an administrative order issuing clear title to the client.

5. A client was on SSI disability since she was a minor child. Social Security mailed her a letter informing her they were terminating her benefits (Social Security Cessation). We submitted the necessary medical information and her disability benefits were restored.

SALA's Priorities
The following priorities represent the most compelling and critical needs of eligible clients of Southern Arizona Legal Aid, Inc. ("SALA"). SALA endeavors to maintain a high level of profes-sion-alism and quality in the deliv-ery of all legal services in accordance with ethical standards and in compliance with Legal Services Corporation ("LSC") regulations. Within SALA's Basic Field and Native American Units, all decisions regarding the accep-tance of cases will be determined according to the following priorities which are listed below in no particular order. Meritorious cases will be accepted for advice or representation as appropriate and as resources permit.

These priorities may be expanded for cases in Pima County which are referred to SALA by the Pima Council on Aging pursuant to a Title III contract to provide legal services to the elderly. SALA may also provide assistance to clients in areas outside these stated priorities as requested and supported by non-LSC grantors.

• Tribal Sovereignty
• Preservation and Defense of Individual Rights in Tribal Courts
• Maintaining and Enhancing Economic Stability
• Support for Families and Children
• Safety, Stability, and Health Care
• Housing
• Delivery of Legal Services

In addition, SALA may participate in community economic devel-op-ment and may provide legal assistance for other not-for-profit organizations in the community.

SALA's Goals and Objectives
1. Make periodic, in-depth, effective assessments of the priorities of the poverty population in the service area;

2. Maintain responsiveness in order to adjust to new devel-op-ments and opportu-nities affecting the target communities;

3. Continue to determine priorities for case acceptance guide-lines, concentrating on the most pressing needs, and target program and non-program resources accordingly;

4. Adopt appropriate strategies for delivery of legal services;

5. Implement the strategies with focused and efficient resource alloca-tion;

6. Evaluate the effectiveness of the delivery of legal services;

7. Ensure that SALA's legal representation comports with the relevant provisions of the American Bar Association Standards for Providers of Civil Legal Services to the Poor;

i. provide adequate, effective, and targeted resources to imple-ment strategies and accomplish desired goals for clients
ii utilize training systems, approaches and activ-ities suf-ficient to ensure that representation is effective
iii. achieve satisfactory results for clients

8. Ensure that community legal education furthers SALA priorities and objectives;

9. Facilitate self-help and pro se opportunities for target populations that meet SALA objectives and accomplish desired out-comes for clients;

10. Coordinate with the judiciary, bar associations, govern-ment agencies, and other relevant organizations to the extent necessary to reduce the pressing problems faced by the client population;

11. Provide sufficient access to SALA offices, staff, and other resources for all eligible clients including groups who tradi-tionally have difficulties gaining access;

12. Ensure appropriate Board involvement in governance of the corporation;

13. Provide appropriate resources to enable management to operate the corporation;

14. Ensure integrity of financial operations;

15. Provide for productive intra-staff, staff-management, and staff-board relations;

16. Provide for effective staff recruitment and training;

17. Maintain and cultivate funding sources;

18. Leverage and direct new and available resources to meet most pressing community needs;

19. Coordinate with other community organizations and agencies serving the client community;

20. Coordinate effectively with local bar associations;

21. Develop and maintain a positive reputation and stature of SALA in all communities within which the program interacts;

SALA's Directors and Chief Administrative Personnel
SALA's Bylaws define the Board of Directors as consisting of 27 members including sixteen attorneys representing nine different bar associations, nine client-eligible members from client-based organizations within the SALA service area, and two at-large members. SALA's Bylaws require that Board members serve a three-year term. All SALA Board meetings are conducted between the hours of 11:45 am and 1:30 p.m. Board meetings are held at the SALA Tucson office located at 64 East Broadway Blvd., Tucson or at the Clarion Hotel & Suites located across from the SALA offices at 88 East Broadway, Tucson.

SALA's Chief Administrative Personnel consist of an Executive Director - Thomas J. Berning, a Chief Operations Officer - Doris Lee Butler, a Chief Financial Officer - Rose Marie Castro, and a Chief Administrative Officer - Barbara Anderson. They all work in the Tucson Office of SALA.