Students in the University Law School will have the opportunity to assist in providing pro-bono legal services to low-income members of the Charlottesville community through a new program starting next semester.
The Family Advocacy Program is a partnership between the Law School, the University Medical Center and the Legal Aid Justice Center.
"Our clients have medical problems and legal problems that seem to be all intertwined," Legal Aid paralegal Liz Moore said. "This program seems to be taking into account all of their problems and refers them to people who can help them."
Students will work directly with medical care providers and social workers to help patients with a "broad range of civil-legal problems" such as housing, employment and Medicaid, Legal Aid Executive Director Alex Gulotta said.
Students participated in the program initially, but there were problems with allowing students to work in patient-care areas of the Medical Center, said Kimberly Emery, Law School Dean of Pro Bono and Public Interest.
Students are expected to be able to begin volunteering with the program in January, said Greg Nelsen, a clinical social worker at the Medical Center.
"It gives people a way to access services without having to get that on their own," Nelsen said. "There are a number of people who are aware of legal aid but who may not know how to contact legal aid or be aware of what they actually do."
Diane Pappas, director of child advocacy at the Medical Center and associate professor of clinical pediatrics, along with Emery, approached Legal Aid about starting the program last year after learning of a medical-legal clinic in Boston.
The University "is perfectly situated with the Law School, the Medical Center and Legal Aid," Pappas said. "So we had all the right players in town."
The medical-legal clinic currently operates two days a week and is staffed by Emery, Moore and Nelsen.
"Dr. Pappas and those at the clinic recognized that they have such a significant volume of low-income people coming through there that there would be a lot of people that could benefit from this," Gulotta said. "They can identify families that have social-legal problems that are compounding their health problems."
Although there are hopes that the program will be able to offer more help more days a week and expand into other areas of the Medical Center, it does not have any funding at this point, Nelsen said.
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