Road Warrior

Most days you can find Attorney Joseph Hardgrave on the road, traveling to one of Montana's Indian Reservations. As an Equal Justice Works Fellow running MLSA's Indian Wills project, Joseph meets each week with tribal members hoping to undo some of the damage of the Indian Probate Reform Act of 2004. This federal statute, in some cases, mandates the forced sale of lands owned by tribal members who die without a will. Joe is the only free resource for will drafting available to low income Native Americans in Montana. Here is his description of a recent visit to the Crow Reservation:

December 3rd, 2008

This afternoon I wrote a will for a woman on her deathbed. I had never experienced a more intimate setting. She was a Crow with five children and eleven grandchildren; most of them were there in the tiny transitional hospital room when I arrived. One of her daughters had called me an hour before and she said it was an emergency. The woman was dying from a severe from of lung cancer and the doctors had stopped her treatment. The woman was calm and aware and she seemed happy to have her family around her.

I had my laptop and portable printer with me. I set them up and the daughter handed me an inventory report from the Bureau of Indian Affairs that listed all of the woman's interests in trust land. Under the testator's direction, I went through her property, dividing specific allotments to each of the grandchildren and then dividing all of the remaining property to all of her five children in equal shares. It took a few hours to work through all of the allotments and to identify them in the will. At various times, some of the children talked in Crow. There were a few tense discussions on how to best divide some of the allotments and then there was plenty of laughter.

After the will was drafted, the daughter tried to hand me some money. I told her that I couldn't accept it. One of the sons gave me a bottle of water and the testatrix herself whispered "thank you" to me as I left the room.

I can't imagine what it would be like to be in the twilight of your life and to worry about how your land is going to pass and with no one to help you out. I realized that to these clients, this land that has been in their families for hundreds of years meant so much more to them than dollars and cents.

Joseph feels very privileged to be trusted with this important work of helping tribal members determine the future of their lands. If you have any Native American clients with questions about wills or the passing of allotted land Joseph can be reached at. (406-248-7113).

Tales from the Helpline

When Anne called the MLSA Helpline one Friday morning at 10:30, she was panicked. She and her two girls lived on a fixed income from her Social Security Disability benefits. She had just paid two months rent after falling behind a month. Before her landlord could cash the check, however, a collection agency cleaned out Anne's bank account. Even though some of the funds in Anne's account were exempt from seizure, the collection agency levied everything. Anne's check to her landlord bounced and he was irate. Anne and her two children were suddenly facing eviction.

If Anne had called MLSA 6 months earlier, it's possible the intake system might not have caught the extremely time sensitive nature of her case, leading to a default judgment. Thanks to changes Helpline staff had made to the intake procedure, and to the quick thinking by an MLSA consumer law specialist, Anne's problem was solved that day. (Read more)

Anne's case was so urgent because she had only ten days to ask for a hearing to dispute the seizure. To make matters worse, those ten days ran from the day service of the notice was mailed to her, not when she received it. Months before Anne called, MLSA Consumer Law Specialist, Chuck Munson, noticed a significant uptick in the number of garnishments and seizures coming through the Helpline. He also realized that MLSA's practice of providing an advice call within three days was, in many cases, not fast enough to help those who had had accounts wrongly garnished and who had waited any time before requesting services.

Chuck knew at that time that something needed to change as quickly as possible. He set up a meeting with the Helpline Staff: Tracie, Naomi, Luanne, and Ed. They brainstormed additional screening questions and procedures that would help the Consumer Unit respond to these time sensitive seizures. As it turned out, the new procedures helped in other cases too.

By the time Anne called the MLSA, the Helpline was well prepared to respond to her case. Naomi passed Anne's case to the Consumer Unit within minutes of receiving the call. Chuck knew right away that at least some of the funds taken from Anne's account were exempt from seizure and that she would therefore have a claim against the collection agency. He also knew that a drawn out legal battle wasn't going to help Anne or her two girls keep from being evicted after her rent check had bounced.

Chuck drafted a request for hearing contesting the seizer of Anne's exempt funds and faxed it to the collection agency. He called the agency and explained that he intended to file the request that afternoon unless all of the money was returned to Anne's account. The collection agency agreed to return all of Anne's money (possibly realizing that the cost of the hearing would exceed the total amount taken), and the agency wrote Anne a check two days later on the following Monday. Anne and her children were not evicted.

New Forms!

The Montana Supreme Court Commission on Self Represented Litigants (the Commission) has approved several new forms packets for use by self represented litigants this January. These forms were created by MLSA through a contract with the Commission, and they will be available on the Montana State Law Library Website and MontanaLawHelp.org. The packets cover four legal actions: name changes for adults; name changes for minors; contested parenting plan modifications; stepparent adoption forms; and minor emancipation. The packets contain instructions on how to complete and file each form.

"We are thrilled to offer these well-done, legally appropriate and understandable forms to the public. Many Montanans must represent themselves in court and having solid legal forms and instructions is key to making the process manageable for citizens and the courts," said Judy Meadows, State Law Librarian and co-chair of the Commission.

The forms were researched and drafted by MLSA's Equal Justice Fellows, Lori Gradwell and Tonya Herring and MLSA's forms Attorney Ali Garab. The forms underwent substantive reviews by experts, and a final review by Ali for readability and formatting before being submitted to the Commission.

Ali Garab explained that the average reading proficiency of the general public is between a fifth and seventh grade level. She stated that she loves that challenge of creating sophisticated legal forms that function as necessary but that are readable by the general public. She stated, "It's important for people to realize these forms increase low income people's ability to have access to the justice system. People who can't afford attorneys can use these forms to make their lives easier, to get jobs, access health care, or obtain proper identification."

Ali is excited about future forms already in the works. These will include a host form letters that are commonly needed to solve housing law problems such as: a security deposit request, and an eviction and answer.