Pro Bono from page 9
• Access Justice Brooklyn( Brooklyn, New York). One of the cases closed during the period was for Amelia, a Spanishspeaking client who came to Access Justice Brooklyn to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in late 2023. Amelia is in her late 60s and, like many of AJB’ s senior clients, lives on her own in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn; she had $ 25,000 in debt that she wished to discharge, and her only income came from Social Security and disability benefits. After confirming eligibility for our services, we placed Amelia’ s case with a pro bono volunteer who had completed our Continuing Legal Education( CLE) training program. Shortly thereafter, Amelia and the volunteer attorney met at Access Justice Brooklyn’ s office to review Amelia’ s case. One of our legal assistants also joined the meeting as a translator for Amelia and to assist with completion of the retainer and bankruptcy questionnaire. Following the initial meeting, AJB’ s Director of Legal Services and Supervising Attorney provided the volunteer attorney with guidance at various stages throughout the case, including to address questions about the client’ s taxable income and the required documents to submit to the Trustee prior to Amelia’ s hearing. As Amelia did not have access to a computer, she and the volunteer attorney joined the hearing from AJB’ s office, where AJB’ s Supervising Attorney was present to provide support as needed. Two months later, in mid-December 2024, Amelia’ s case was discharged, allowing her to move forward without being burdened by debt.
• Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project( Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). Mr. E is an older gentleman who had a physical job working forklifts most of his adult life. He
also helps take care of his autistic grandson, driving across the Greater Philadelphia area to do so. Due to being laid off, he got behind on his already lean budget. It took some time to find a new position and as a result he accrued a significant amount of debt. The price of gas had gone up as well and he was unable to catch up from the time he was out of work. Knowing he is approaching retirement age, he wanted to file for bankruptcy, to wipe out the back debt and plan for retirement. While in the process of working with us, he was injured at his current forklift job and went on worker’ s compensation income. We connected him with a worker’ s compensation attorney, once again stabilized his income so that he could pay his post-petition bills, and then completed his bankruptcy. Similarly, in the process of the bankruptcy, it became clear he was a good candidate to discharge longtime student loans under the relatively new Department of Education guidance that allows for discharge in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy through an adversary filing. With significant work put into that plan, it then changed after his workplace injury. He was at that point eligible for a Total and Permanent Disability waiver to discharge the student loans. Mr. E’ s advocate worked with his physician to get the paperwork completed and submitted. Mr. E is a wonderful example of a client who, even when presenting to us with a straightforward factual and legal case, still took extensive time and resources as well as coordination with multiple other parties. As a result of his advocate’ s hard work and persistence he received a full discharge of his unsecured debt and his student loans. He is now entering into his retirement with new financial security.
• DC Bar Pro Bono Center( Washington, D. C.). Ms. S, an elderly woman, suffered an
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