Federally funded legal services programs in New York engage in litigation
that can end up costing both state and national taxpayers greatly. In
effect, taxpayers are being required to fund lawsuits against themselves.
Moreover, as the following cases demonstrate, these lawsuits are often legally
dubious and socially reprehensible.
Legal Services Uses Ignorance As Evidence To Get Higher Benefits Level
Westchester/Putnam Legal Services, in seeking to help Martin Brown get a higher level of SSI disability benefits for his anxiety and chronic depression, argued on appeal in federal court that Brown was not married even though he had claimed his fourteen-year long ‘roommate,’ the mother of his children, as a “spouse” on several SSI forms during the applications process. These forms had led the administrative judge initially hearing the case to determine that “while the claimant has now denied that a marital relationship exists, this was not [the claimant’s] position prior to realizing that such a determination would result in a lower benefit amount.” Legal Services successfully convinced the federal court hearing Brown’s appeal that all the SSI forms were wrong because Brown did not understand the meaning of the word “spouse,” supposedly thinking it meant ‘the mother of his children.’ This case is a prime example of how taxpayer-funded Legal Services programs expand welfare eligibility on a piecemeal basis by making outrageous arguments in individual cases that are occasionally accepted by the courts.
See Brown v. Apfel, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2976 (S.D.N.Y. March 15,
1999)
Legal Services Sticks Up for Profanity in the Workplace
Southern Tier Legal Services, a recipient of taxpayer dollars from the Legal Services Corporation, represented Carl Hirschfeld in his attempt to get unemployment benefits after quitting his job. Hirschfeld had used profanity in refusing his supervisor’s order to return to work, after which Hirschfeld was given the option of returning to work or quitting. Hirschfeld chose to quit, but came back a short time later and was refused permission to resume his job. In fact Hirschfeld had previously been admonished by the employer for his use of profanity in the workplace. Not suprisingly, the appellate court hearing the case refused to grant Hirschfeld unemployment benefits. Given Hirschfeld’s choice to leave his job voluntarily and the circumstances of his departure, it is inexplicable why Legal Services would use its resources in a case with no real chance of success or socially redeeming value of any kind.
See In the Matter of Hirschfeld, 681 N.Y.S.2d 619 (App. Div. 3d 1998)
Legal Services Goes After Yonkers Taxpayers As ‘Deep Pockets’
Westchester/Putnam Legal Services represented Kim Palmer and the estate of her husband Frank in a federal lawsuit that appears to have been a fee generating case, which is generally off-limits to legal services programs. A private ambulance company operating in Yonkers refused to carry Frank Palmer, an AIDS patient, to the hospital during a medical emergency in 1996. Kim Palmer subsequently transferred Frank to the hospital in her own car, and he later passed away in 1997. Mrs. Palmer, with the help of legal services sued both the ambulance company and the City of Yonkers claiming violations of the U.S. Constitution and the Americans With Disabilities Act. The ambulance company proceeded to declare bankruptcy, leaving the city as the sole defendant in the case, even though the ambulance company was not city-owned or controlled. Predictably, the trial court threw out the case since legal services was not able to show that the city had any control over the actions of the ambulance company. It would appear that legal services was simply attempting to soak the taxpayers of Yonkers as a ‘deep pockets’ in the event that the ambulance company would not be able to pay a large judgment. Moreover, it is highly questionable whether legal services should have been involved in a case that could have been profitably taken by a private lawyer.
See Palmer v. City of Yonkers, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16199 (S.D.N.Y. October 15, 1998)