October 05, 2007

LEGAL CLINIC ANSWERS CALL TO SERVICE
A San Bernardino Group Offers Free Legal Aid to Marines in Need
By Jason W. Armstrong
Daily Journal Staff Writer

JOSHUA TREE - As a Marine corporal, Amanda Moritz said, she spent a stressful seven months last year in the dusty, remote desert of Al Asad, Iraq, missing her family and adjusting to a dangerous environment.
Moritz, who fixed radios and other military electronics during her Iraq tour, said the assignment was even tougher because she didn't know where to turn in a custody battle with her ex over her 3-year-old daughter. And she couldn't get help from her Marine legal affairs office because her ex, then also an active Marine, was already using the service, creating a conflict.
When she returned from Iraq to the Marine base in Twentynine Palms, Moritz said she got many of her legal questions answered through an innovative clinic put on by the Legal Aid Society of San Bernardino.
The program, which may be the only one of its kind statewide, has helped dozens of troops with legal problems since its inception six months ago. Legal Aid lawyers make twice-monthly 180-mile round-trip treks from their San Bernardino office to Joshua Tree, near the Twentynine Palms base, specifically to give troops free help in civil cases.
The clinic's lawyers help military personnel make sense of paperwork and file documents in divorces, custody disputes and property fights, although they don't represent them in the courtroom.
Officials said the program, housed in the Joshua Tree Community Center 12 miles from the base, helps Marines mainly when the base's legal division has a conflict.
Moritz, 25, who spent five years in the Marines before being discharged in August, said she appreciated the clinic's accessibility and assistance.
Though her custody case has "just begun," Moritz said the program made her more comfortable with the process. Also, she said, because she's on a tight budget, paying a local lawyer for help would have been more than she could afford.
"It was a free service, and there's really no other free legal advice available in this area," Moritz said. "There's a definite need because of that aspect."
Roberta Shouse, the Legal Aid Society's executive director, said her team started the military-centered civil clinic because of the remoteness of the area around Twentynine Palms and the dearth of nearby comparable free services.
Before opening the clinic, Shouse said Marines stationed on the base would call her San Bernardino office every so often or hitch a ride there looking for legal help.
"We're happy to now be able to ... give them greater accessibility" to the legal aid program, Shouse said.
State Bar officials who handle funding for various legal aid programs said they weren't aware of other clinics statewide in which a legal aid provider sets up shop near or at a base specifically to serve the military.
"There are different legal services providers that provide services to military personnel, but this is a unique effort," said Lorna Choy, senior grants administrator for the State Bar's legal services trust fund program. "It might be the only one."
Some other legal aid groups in the state agreed.
Gregory Knoll, executive director and chief counsel for the Legal Aid Society of San Diego, also called the San Bernardino program "very unusual."
"I don't know of any other legal services program that does this," Knoll said.
He said his group doesn't host such a clinic because a lot of service members exceed minimal earning requirements mandated by law to be eligible for legal aid.
"I've received isolated calls from a JAG guy or [other military personnel] needing advisement," Knoll said. "I think what [the San Bernardino group] is doing is very unique."
The San Bernardino program fills a gap that confronts many Marines needing legal help.
Generally, armed forces members can tap base lawyers for free legal assistance through U.S. Code Title 10, Section 1044 (a). The code provides military civil legal aid for active and retired military personnel, their dependents and some reservists. But the free help only goes so far. Various bases interpret the statute differently and provide representation under different scenarios, said Capt. John Seeds, an attorney with the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate at Twentynine Palms.
Some bases in the state, including Camp Pendleton in San Diego, offer an assortment of on-base legal assistance programs. And several attorneys around the state help Pendleton troops pro bono who can't get legal help on base.
But base lawyers don't represent troops in cases in civilian court. In civilian court cases involving Marines at Twentynine Palms that require hearings, the base lets them choose from a list of local lawyers, Seeds said.
In the event of a conflict, such as an instance where two Marines need help with legal paperwork on the same issue, Seeds said, his division routinely refers troops to legal units at other bases such as Pendleton.
But Seeds said it is often difficult for Marines or their families to make long treks to other bases. Camp Pendleton is a 350-mile round-trip journey from Twentynine Palms.
He said the base welcomes the partnership with the Legal Aid clinic.
"Legal Aid will be augmenting what we do," Seeds said of the clinic, which military officials are considering moving onto the base.
A big chunk of the work of the base's civil division, made up of one lawyer, a civilian paralegal and two Marine law clerks, is preparing wills and powers of attorney for Marines about to deploy.
The San Bernardino Legal Aid team doesn't handle such affairs, nor does it handle criminal matters. The base's criminal legal unit, composed of two Marine prosecutors and three Marine defense lawyers, handle military courts-martial matters and some off-base crimes involving troops.
Depending on the crime, some arrests away from the base get referred to the district attorney's office for prosecution, Seeds said.
Community Development Block grants make up funding for some legal aid programs, and they have income limits that vary from county to county.
While there are exceptions, under such grant money, poverty-level guidelines in San Bernardino County dictate a range of salaries for a person getting legal aid services in the county that shouldn't exceed $33,150 per year.
But Shouse said she's relying on other types of funding for the military clinic that give her leeway to help people who earn more than guidelines allow. One such source was a $10,000 grant from the San Bernardino and Riverside Community Foundation. The foundation, a local charity group, funds nonprofit organizations and college scholarships.
Earning caps don't apply to that grant, Shouse said.
"A lot of factors go in to our decision to help," she said. "So far we haven't had to turn anybody away based on income levels."
Nationwide, some law schools offer programs geared at helping the military solve legal problems. Those include a program at Virginia's George Mason School of Law, in which attorneys supervise law students who help troops with civil issues such as bad business transactions or fights to obtain apartment security deposits.
Lawyers helping with that program do represent clients in trials from time to time, said Joseph Zengerle, a lawyer and George Mason professor. Zengerle advises the program, called the Clinic for Legal Assistance to Service Members.
Zengerle said his school's program, in many cases, helps local troops get their issues resolved more quickly than waiting for an available lawyer on base.
"What usually happens in these [base] legal assistance offices, is they run a mass justice proceeding," Zengerle said. "They'll have appointments with six or seven soldiers a day, and there's always a lineup."
Nicole Powers, an E-4 petty officer in the Navy, visited the legal aid clinic near Twentynine Palms several weeks ago for help filing paperwork for a pending case in which she's seeking custody of her 18-month-old daughter.
Powers, who works in the obstetrics unit of a Naval hospital on the Twentynine Palms base, said the clinic's lawyers in the hour-long visit showed her how to fill out the forms and get them "processed with the courts."
"I needed to get help through a lawyer or paralegal, but I would have ended up paying," Powers said. "I don't know what I would have done without the clinic - it was such a great help."