Agnone, Anthony J.

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Legal Services to the Elderly - Revisited

University of Baltimore School of Law

University of Baltimore Law ForumVolume 7Number 1 October, 1976 Article 1610-1976Legal Services to the Elderly - RevisitedAnthony J. AgnoneUniversity of Baltimore School of Law, aagnone@ubalt.eduFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/lfPart of the Law CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@University of Baltimore School of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion inUniversity of Baltimore Law Forum by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@University of Baltimore School of Law. For more information,please contact snolan@ubalt.edu.Recommended CitationAgnone, Anthony J. (1976) "Legal Services to the Elderly - Revisited," University of Baltimore Law Forum: Vol. 7: No. 1, Article 16.Available at: http://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/lf/vol7/iss1/16One of the better learning experiencesmade available to students at the Uni-versity of Baltimore School of Law is aprogram called Legal Services to the El-derly. This project, located in the WaxterCenter for Senior Citizens at 861 ParkAvenue, is designed with a two-fold pur-pose: providing legal assistance to thoseBaltimorean senior citizens who cannotafford it, and at the same time providinga way in which a student intern can putinto practice the theory he has learned inthe classroom.Currently funded in part by a federalgrant, with cooperation by the City ofBaltimore, the program is administeredby Assistant Dean William I. Weston andis operated by Director Anne K. Pecora.Ms. Pecora, a 1972 cum laude graduateof University of Baltimore School of Lawand a member of the Maryland Bar, isassisted by legal secretary Barbara Kat-zoff and approximately four studentinterns from the law school.Through this intership program, muchneeded legal services are afforded to theelderly within the community. In far toomany instances the nation's senior citi-zens, who must depend upon Medicare,Social Security, and other Federal, Stateand local programs, lack adequate legalservices. A 1976 survey shows that over24% of the nation's elderly are "poor",yet only 7% are able to obtain legal assis-tance through Legal Aid programs. TheU. of B. clinic attempts to fill some of thisvoid by offering individual counsellingconcerning legal problems. Additionally,photo byChrisMichael I____________________LegalServicesto theElderly-Revisitedby Anthony J. Agnonephoto by Chris Michaelit monitors newly developed govern-ment regulations and specificationswhich affect the elderly. The programalso assists in cutting through thebureaucratic complexities, which oftenoverwhelm laymen, particularly thosewhose mobility is somewhat hamperedby age or lack of transportation, or both.Participation in "Legal Services to theElderly" can be as beneficial to the internas it is to the individual served. Theintern will have a first hand experiencewith a real legal problem. He will also beable to sharpen his skills in client inter-viewing and counselling. In the initialinterview, the intern has to elicit the sa-lient facts, as well as digest all of the in-formation given by the senior citizen.The student then must do the necessaryresearch associated with the problemand contact the interested parties. After adiscussion with Director Pecora on thecourse of action to be taken, the intern istasked with writing the necessary legalcommunique and following the caseuntil completion. Although the internsare not assigned to any fee-generatingsituations or criminal cases, they do re-ceive assignments in the areas of torts,criminal cases, contracts, wills, deeds,landlord-tenant relationships, guardian-ships, and pleadings and motions, as+ ,.~-. IRecollectionsof theDemocraticConventionby Ronnie WainwrightThe Maryland delegation at the Dem-ocratic National Convention in NewYork's Madison Square Garden was sur-rounded with an air of camaraderie, justplain folksiness, and quite a bit ofcigarette smoke. The last perhaps wasmy own problem, since I sat betweentwo chain smokers. It certainly wasn't agarden by any stretch of the imagination.By lot Maryland was the forty-seventhstate to select seating at the conventionand therefore the delegates sat on theextreme right and in the back while thealternates sat in the opposite directionand high enough to have a perfect viewof the podium. Needless to say, we dele-gates found it advantageous to switchfrequently with our alternates just to hearand see. In fact, on the first day of theconvention I didn't really know therewas a podium until Barbara Jordanspoke and everyone sat down.Born a New Yorker, I was grateful fora reason to return and my first impres-sion was that New York certainly hadphoto by lore BashamRonnie Wainwrightchanged. The big apple was coated withcandied syrup: shopkeepers werekindly, policemen were fatherly, andNew Yorkers, as a whole, were consid-erate. Perhaps Art Buchwald was cor-rect, and the real New Yorkers wereshipped to Staten Island while Midwes-temers were imported to take theirplaces. Even the public transportationwas free to the delegates, and the sub-ways were stamped with safety guaran-tees. Law students, however, may takeissue with the validity of such a guaran-tee.well as other legal problems of the el-derly.The "Legal Services to the Elderly"program is open to second, third, andfourth year law students. Each participat-ing intern must complete fifty academi-cally related hours per semester for eachacademic credit. This amounts to aboutfour hours per week per credit on a regu-lar basis during the fall or spring semes-ter. Internships are also available duringthe summer months. Students who wishto receive more information about theprogram may contact Dean Weston,Anne Pecora, or Tony Agnone (752-4528).As to the technicalities of the conven-tion, although Jerry Brown won themajority of Maryland's popular vote,Jimmy Carter won the majority of thedelegates. Thus, in New York, the Carterdelegates controlled the Maryland dele-gation and harmony prevailed in theDemocratic party.Three committees reported to theconvention: Credentials, Platform, andRules. Again, harmony prevailed. Therewere no credentials fights as there werein 1972 between the old guard and thenew. A platform dispute involving amandatory equal representation be-tween the sexes for the 1980 conventionwas averted by the women's caucus:Carter endorsed the women's platformexcept for that single issue, and thewomen decided to concede that issue inlight of the gains made as a whole. Thearguments on the convention floor oc-curred as to the Rules. I will detail onerather sad example of democracy in ac-tion: the delegates voted on Minorityrule # 4 proposed by a Maryland dele-gate, Joseph Gebhart of Bethesda. TheAlabama delegation, sitting directly infront of Maryland, cast 35 votes againstMinority rule #4 (the Minority wanted anelected mini-convention rather than anappointed one in 1978). One observantMarylander noted that only one person,not thirty-five, was seated in Alabama'ssection. Since no proxy voting was al-lowed, this violated the conventionrules; however, when we tried to chal-lenge the vote, the answer was that onlya member from within a delegation35

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