The Work

The work that we are doing for the New Orleans Pro Bono Project involves successions. In order to receive settlements or government aid for damages resulting from Katrina, clients have to prove they own the affected property.

Many of the properties in New Orleans are historic homes that have been passed down through generations. The problem that we are addressing arises when the legal owner of the property dies and there is no succession opened to legally transfer the property to their heirs. The resulting problem is that when people go to get money for their recovery, they are turned away because they are not legally recognized as the owner of the property. This problem disproportionately affects low-income residents because it costs money to open a succession and it may result in tax obligations.

Many intricate issues arise while we are trying to figure out these successions. The law firm of Kilpatrick Stockton, who has supported our efforts from the very beginning, has again sent two of its attorneys - Brian Corgan and Maria Baratta - down to help supervise us. Our supervising attorneys have been an amazing help in resolving the complex issues that pop up. Pictured above, Kilpatrick Stockton attorney and Tulane alum Brian Corgan helps UNC Student Julie Zibulsky go over the pleadings she has drafted.

The work is intricate, challenging, and often frustrating but we are figuring it out together.

Students In Action...

The drive down here took 15 hours, but the students put the time to good use.
















UNC Law students Suzanne Buckley and Julie Zibulsky get into their case files and research how to resolve any of a number of issues.















The law firm of Jones Walker is graciously hosting us this week. At left, UNC Students Nana Atsem and Willie Spruill are busy trying to learn Louisiana law in order to start helping their clients.















One of the great things about this experience is how we all work together to help resolve the legal issues facing our clients as they try to get ownership of their property.

**photo credit to Carmen Boykin**

UNC Law Back in New Orleans

Twelve of us make up UNC's fifth contingent to New Orleans. We will be here from December 16th through the 22nd doing what is asked of us in order to help the people of New Orleans recover. As always we are working with the wonderful people at the New Orleans Pro Bono Project. Please check back regularly throughout the week in order to get first hand accounts from the students on the trip as they experience a city being reborn.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

Back to "Reality"

Let me first start by apologizing for my inability to count. In my last blog I said “closing in on three years after Katrina,” and I meant to say closing in on two. Thankfully, basic math is not required in order to graduate from law school.

I am home from New Orleans and reading for my classes tomorrow. I have caught myself saying “back to reality” several times only to laugh at myself… I am actually leaving reality and headed back into my 1L law school bubble. This transition is difficult because I had become so invested in my client’s situations. I was not yet ready to leave New Orleans because there was so much more to do on each case. After talking to several peers and Ellen Artopeus of the Pro Bono Project, I have learned that this is an issue with many students. Successions take many months to complete and we only have five days to work on them. Nevertheless, once I have started something, it is more than difficult for me to leave it unfinished. However, I must remember that I did move each case along, if only a little bit. My phone calls and research saved the New Orleans Pro Bono Project a minute here and an hour there. That alone makes a difference.

My time spent in New Orleans was eye opening and valuable for me both as a law student and a citizen of the United States. New Orleans is a resilient, vibrant city that still needs the support of the country. It is easy to forget about Hurricane Katrina because it has been one and a half years since it hit. However, the city still needs all the assistance it can get - including helping hands, contractors, materials, and money.

What I found most striking and troubling is that as a tourist, you can fly into New Orleans, take a cab to the French Quarter, stay a week and take a cab back to the airport without seeing much effect from the hurricane except maybe for a "For Sale" sign here and there. Basically, unless you are really looking for it, you wouldn't notice too much difference in the city. There is jazz music on every corner, drinking on Bourbon Street and tourists EVERYWHERE. But, if you drive out of the French Quarter and into District 6, the 9th Ward or over to the Canal Street breach, it looks as if the hurricane hit last week. Some homes are gutted but many have been left untouched. Some homes are leveled with only cement foundation remaining, but many display "No Bulldozing" signs and "we are coming home" messages. Those signs have been there for one and half years and who knows if and when those people will actually have the means to rebuild and come home.

These areas were the areas hit the hardest, but unfortunately they are easy to avoid, if you want to avoid them. It is clear from talking to any citizen that the city of New Orleans has not forgotten about the Hurricane, no matter where you live and work. However, I worry that our country has now started to forget when the city needs our help the most. New Orleans is attempting to rebuild their homes and communities from the ground up, and they cannot do it alone.

Fortunately, there were a number of other organizations including other law students and undergraduate students who chose to spend their spring break working to help the city of New Orleans. Law students from Iowa, Indiana, St. Louis and Howard were all working for the Pro Bono Project this week. In fact, it was the largest group they had taken on since Katrina. Also, during our drive through the 9th Ward on Wednesday morning, we saw a hefty group of students forming at the Common Ground 9th Ward headquarters. Each was wearing a protective suit and carrying a mask. Each was ready to help clear and gut homes.

Support is there, but I say the more the merrier.

Rebirth Got Fire

New Orleans, and our work this week, has been a study in stark contrasts. Tourists bustle in the French Quarter; parts of the city are still silent. We work in a fancy firm conference room on successions for some of New Orleans’ least well-off residents. Colorful yellow flowers bloom in Jackson Square; a yellow waterline mark still runs through houses and roofs in the lower 9th Ward.

When I traveled to New Orleans last year, I saw how much hope and little help existed in the region. Returning a year later, I’ve discovered that the strength of this community is in its resiliency, but the government is not making anything easier. Community residents seem to have come to the conclusion that the government isn’t going to help them.

We’ve worked all week on successions, helping area residents prove they own land, so they can receive government assistance and insurance payments. I’ve been proud of how dedicated my Tar Heel peers are to helping their clients. 1L Amy Dessel refuses to be slowed down by holes in her cases, and has literally been on the phone all day. Justin Flores, also a first year student, has almost finished a succession in a mere 2 days.

In addition to working on successions, supervising attorney (and recent Carolina Law grad) Diane Standaert has allowed us to help on a research project for the Center for Civil Rights, and a consortium of other public policy entities. Land partitioning has adversely affected many lower-income residents of the rural south, and each day several Carolina Law students help Diane mine through the New Orleans Pro Bono Project’s files, looking for further evidence of the problem. To me, this task initially appeared to be overwhelming. However, after sorting through the files, it has been a striking to realize how many of the clients’ stories are similar. It’s frightening to discover that the structure of many states’ laws, not natural disasters, could prevent low-income residents from living on their land.

My favorite part of traveling with the UNC Pro Bono Program is getting to talk to people and interact with the community. Luckily, Diane afforded myself and 1L Ashley Erickson the chance to get out into the community after work yesterday.

We met up with Professor Oscar Barbarin, of the UNC School of Social Work, who took us on a tour of District 6. Professor Barbarin is part of a UNC consortium made up of the School of Social Work, the Planning School, the Law School, and several other University departments that is adopting District 6. Currently plans call for UNC to set up information resource centers in the district, and work on clustering plans.

Professor Barbarin grew up in District 6, and took us on a tour of the area with his sister, Sylvia. Ms. Sylvia is a current resident of the area, and in addition to providing a candid assessment of how the city is progressing, she provided a rich commentary on the culture of the city. The sense of community was palpable in our trip around District 6. However, people are sick of planning. Hopefully the UNC programs will provide constructive help to the area.

I was tremendously bothered by several housing projects we saw that were boarded up. Ms. Sylvia told us buildings hadn’t suffered any damage from Katrina, rather the landlords used the evacuations as an opportunity to buy out their tenants’ leases. Now the landlords want to tear down the projects and develop the properties. With the majority of New Orleans’ residents displaced or in FEMA trailers, it was shocking to see habitable buildings empty.

The New Orleans Pro Bono Project was kind enough to set up a meeting with Judge Zainey of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana and Louisiana Civil Court Judge Giarrusso. Yesterday we attended one of the first Katrina insurance trials in state civil court, over which Judge Giarrusso presided.

The trial was something out of a movie; the plaintiff was a 91 year old holocaust survivor from Poland, who ended his testimony by yelling, “America is the greatest country ever, God Bless America.” Yes, the insurance company did look evil.

I was also perplexed how the insurance company was going to get a fair trial. To find 12 people that don’t feel like they have been screwed by an insurance company in this city has to be impossible. A bench trial probably wouldn’t help the insurance company either; all but 2 district civil court judges lost their homes.

Driving back from the 17th Street Canal yesterday, 2L Matt Liles and I discussed how you can see solid improvements in the city. In the 9th ward, you can see a house or two in each block where people have moved back in. It’s not a lot of progress, but it’s something. I don’t know whether to say New Orleans is back or will be back; I guess time will tell.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4307972.stm

District 6

I will blog more on my overall experience later – the following is my time with Professor Barbarin and District 6:

Tuesday evening, I had the opportunity to tour District 6 with Professor Oscar Barbarin from the UNC School of Social Work, his sister Sylvia who is a life long resident of District 6, Boz Zellinger a 3L, and our supervising attorney Diane Standaert, from the UNC Center for Civil Rights. Professor Barbarin and Sylvia were both raised in District 6 and Sylvia is currently working on renovating her home with plans to move back into her neighborhood as soon as she can. Due to his close ties to the district, Professor Barbarin has chosen to focus his and the UNC School of Social Work’s relief efforts on District 6.

Professor Barbarin first drove us through the district. The Pontchartrain Park area was one of the worst hit in District 6: a middle class African American community built around a golf course which is now completely devastated from the storm. We saw a sprinkle of FEMA trailers and vehicles; however, on the whole, the neighborhood is vacant. In fact, this is true for a lot of District 6 neighborhoods. This becomes most apparent when the sun goes down. Driving down streets lit only by street lamps… no people, no cars, and no lights in windows. Empty.

We also attended two community meetings. At those meetings Professor Barbarin introduced his two pronged “proposal” to help move District 6 forward and ultimately set an example for the rest of the city. The first part of the proposal is “clustering.” “Clustering” is an attempt to get citizens to move back into their neighborhoods by grouping them in houses close to each other in each neighborhood. Essentially, those who move back to their neighborhoods literally cluster around each other regardless of whether they are in their original homes. Everyone really seems to like the idea of clustering; however, everyone wants the clustering to occur around their home.

The second part of the proposal is information centers that would be placed throughout the district and would serve as a data base for citizens to get their lives back in order. For example, at the second meeting we attended, a man from Global Green introduced environmentally friendly energy conserving construction measures in order to “re-build right.” These measures would be beneficial to all citizens of the city and exactly the type of information that would be placed in these information centers. While some data would be helpful to the entire city, other information would be better suited only in certain areas. Therefore, the goal is to tailor each center so that it fully accommodates each district or area.

My feeling from both meetings was that the citizens are extremely thankful for any and all help they can get. Both groups seemed responsive to Professor Barbarin’s proposal. However, it is clear that the community is tired of planning. They have been planning since August of 2005, and now, in March of 2007, they are ready to do. Sadly, what they are most in need of in order to do, is money.

Touring District 6 and listening in on the meetings gave me a very real look at where the city is today, closing in on three years after Katrina. It opened my eyes to the fact that each effort, no matter how small, does not go unnoticed. In fact, as we were leaving the second meeting, a man tapped me and said that he had been reading our blog, and thought is was great. That brought a smile to my face and should give each person who has given their time to the victims of the hurricane a great sense of fulfillment. Seeing the community band together to literally rebuild their neighborhoods is inspiring and telling of this city’s character as a whole. The people here are resilient and the least we can do is help them stay that way.

Destruction and Rebirth

Greetings from New Orleans! First off, I wanted to thank everyone for supporting our trip. We've had some great experiences so far and are looking forward to finishing the week out strong.

Almost from the start of the trip we've been amazed and saddened by all the destruction around New Orleans. On our ride in to the city, almost every single house along Highway 10 seemed to be damaged in one way or the other. The landscape was littered with piles of trash and debris.

But as bad as this was, the damage we saw on the way in to New Orleans really paled in comparison to the damage we saw on our tour of the 9th ward. Whole sections of the ward were gone, the sole remnants of many houses just the concrete porch steps leading up to nowhere. Other houses were just piles of debris, waiting to be demolished. Perhaps most sobering of all were the spray paint markings left on houses by the National Guard and other authorities looking for survivors. Most markings we saw indicated that the house was found empty, but occasionally we did see a circle with a slash through it, indicating that a person inside had died.

But not all in New Orleans is bleak. We've enjoyed getting to know the French Quarter, from the bars and restaurants on Bourbon St. to the Cafe Du Monde for breakfast (I'll leave these adventures to our other bloggers). My most enjoyable experience by far, however, has been seeing the "Rebirth" brass band perform. The band was fantastic and it was definitely one of the best concerts I've ever seen. I felt like I was taken back to a previous era, and i could only imagine our grandparents swing dancing to this New Orleans sensation "jazz". The Rebirth brass band was slightly different from New Orleans jazz of old, as it combined elements of hiphop, funk, rap, you name it. But the band was amazing, and the crowd was loving it. Large parts of New Orleans might have been lost to Katrina, but New Orleans culture is alive and well.

We're in the Herald Sun!

http://www.heraldsun.com/
orange/10-828652.cfm

It's in their Chapel Hill section today!

Donate money to support our trips!

If you are inspired by what you read here, please support us and our community partners with monetary donations. All donations are tax deductible and you will receive a letter from the University recognizing your gift. There are two easy ways to donate:

1) You can send us a check payable to UNC School of Law, with “Pro Bono Program-New Orleans” in the memo line, to this address:

Sylvia Novinsky
Assistant Dean for Public Service Programs
UNC School of Law
CB #3380
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3380

2) You can also donate easily and safely online at https://s4.its.unc.edu/ALDevCPS/Type_Of_Gift.jsp. Please select “School of Law” as the University Designation, “Other” as the University Fund, and then indicate “Pro Bono Program-New Orleans” in the “Other Instructions” below that.

Thank you for your support!

We're in the Chapel Hill News!

http://www.chapelhillnews.com/108/story/5687.html

Lawyers Weekly article....

Our work is featured in a piece in last week's N.C. Lawyers Weekly -- check it out if you get a chance!

We were in the campus paper!

http://media.www.dailytarheel.com/media/
storage/paper885/news/2007/01/12/University/
Students.Spend.Break.Providing.Free.Services-
2628330.shtml?sourcedomain=www.dailytarheel.
com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com

Bourbon Street....

Katie mentioned in one of these fine blog posts a small musical band we ran into on our first evening in New Orleans while walking down Bourbon Street to dinner. I actually shot some video of them as we walked past -- not all that much footage, but here you go, along with a couple stills I took....

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c23/jderrick/
?action=view&current=bourbonstreet.flv

My first trip to New Orleans

Close your eyes and imagine a neighborhood full of people. Children are running down the street, maybe on foot, with others riding bikes or skateboards. Two weeks ago we drove through this neighborhood… with one thing missing – the people. Much of New Orleans is alive. Bourbon Street is thriving, with scantily clad tourists laden with beads around their necks and long-necked plastic hand grenade shaped cups in their hands who are walking, laughing, talking down the street. The voices of karaoke singers ring through the open windows of “Cat’s Meow” and music from brass bands leak out into the dark nights in the French Quarter. So much of the city is here, so many people are back working, living, and playing. However, we visited a part of New Orleans that isn’t so lively. We went to St. Bernard’s parish, one of the hardest hit areas outside the city limits of New Orleans and a parish that is still trying to begin the rebuilding process. As we were driving down the dark, empty streets we talked in our (ever so stylish) van about the fact that this neighborhood probably held so many happy memories for families. Some have returned, with their FEMA trailer now a permanent structure on their front lawns and masking some of the emptiness in the house structure behind. There are Christmas lights, and wreaths hung on the doors.

Everyone has seen the pictures and heard the stories, but seeing just a fraction of the destruction of the storm is still so powerful, even over a year afterwards. So much of our trip has been filled with orientations, videos, case files, preparations, instructions, interviews, walking, prisons, food, and laughter. It has been a great time with some even greater people. However, it was nice to be reminded today of why we are in this special city, the city where (as Mindy will confess) people create their own way of life that often influences much of the rest of the country. Paris Road is pronounced by locals as “Parish Road” which can be confusing to out-of-towners. A “roof” and a “room” are said with the same vowel inflection that we North Carolinians give to the sound a dog makes (ruf). New Orleans is such an amazing city, full of life, sound, smell and taste. The French Quarter has some of the most beautiful architectural structures I’ve ever seen. I will come back to this city for many, many reasons (the aforementioned hand grenades maybe?) but I am so glad that I got the opportunity to remind myself of the reasons I made my very first trip.

Did It Matter?

As my friends and classmates return to Chapel Hill for the start of classes on Monday, I’m often asked to tell my New Orleans story. I tell of interviews with inmates in Orleans Parish Prison, the hoops that we had to jump through to get interviews lined up, and the chaos that Katrina left on not only the legal system but also the city in general.

Often, the recipient of my story will ask, “Were you really able to help anyone?” or “Did you make a difference?”

Unfortunately, this is not an easy question to answer. Months later, the inmates that I interviewed will, unfortunately, still be sitting in jail, and the destruction that I witnessed will be far from gone. I didn’t change the world in a week, and it would be naïve of me to expect that I could. Having to answer this question has really made me think about what we accomplished in New Orleans and why we went in the first place.

One of our goals in going to New Orleans was to continue to make others aware that the devastation of Katrina has not gone away. A year and a half later, people are forgetting and New Orleans is no longer front page news. With our stories, we hope to remind others that the battle to rebuild is much more than just building houses and is far from over. At a university so engaged in community service, it is important for us to go beyond Chapel Hill, the Triangle, and North Carolina, and hopefully, we have spread this message.

Another way in which we helped was through our support, care, and understanding. Our presence alone told the inmates, the divorce and succession clients, and the attorneys that we want to help. One of the inmates that I interviewed didn’t realize that she had a lawyer, and when I explained to her that the state will provide her with representation, her surprised and relieved smile said it all. If our interview that afternoon brought that inmate some reassurance and optimism, perhaps we did make a difference afterall. Conducting inmate interviews also allowed the inmates to tell their stories. I will never forget the inmate next to me, pressing pictures from a photo album against the Plexiglas with tears in her eyes as she spoke to her interviewer. This was a woman dying to tell her story, and through the interview project, she finally had that opportunity.

Finally, working in New Orleans gave me a new perspective on the legal system. I understand now that change takes a lot of time, and problems cannot be solved in a day. I will never forget the horrors that the inmates in OPP faced (http://www.aclu.org/prison/conditions/26198res20060809.html), and I will never again see an inmate as an orange suit with a number. These are lessons that I will take with me throughout my legal career and will hopefully make a difference in my interactions with clients for years to come.

No, we didn’t change the world, but we definitely did some good.

Success in Successions

I think it was very appropriate that we took this trip to New Orleans just before Christmas. With exams having just ended and being on break, the last thing that I was in is a Christmas spirit. Two days after exams ended, we left Chapel Hill at 6am for our journey to the city of both despair and hope. When we arrived in New Orleans it was nighttime and we couldn't see anything, including the miles and miles of devastation that we would see on the way out of the city at the end of the week. Having never been to New Orleans (or even LA for that matter), I wasn't sure what to expect, but on the first night as we walked to dinner, we stumbled across a group of musicians playing on the sidewalk. It looked like a group of about six or seven, each playing a different instrument, wearing street clothes and attracting quite a few listeners. That was the last group of musicians I saw playing on the sidewalks and I was surprised. I thought that there would be music everywhere, livening up the city, but this emptiness seemed to be the theme of the week. As we began our work, we were given instructions on what we were to be doing and we hit the ground running. My group worked on successions, which is a process which one must go through to have a deceased relative's estate passed on to their heirs, regardless of whether or not a will exists. This process is unique to LA because of their civil legal system and it is very tedious. There are over 26,000 successions to do in New Orleans alone and as a group we only worked on about 35 so it sometimes felt like we weren't making good progress, but I got over that feeling very quickly when I began to speak with my clients. Those people whose successions the pro bono project is able to handle are of little means and are very grateful for the time that the pro bono project volunteers spend on their file. They were very eager to speak with us and would respond so quickly when we asked for documents and information. Our clients were so kind and grateful to us. It was amazing the kind of spirit these people still had after all that they have been through. They cannot even rebuild their homes until they can collect insurance and FEMA money, which they cannot do until they have their home in their name, which will not happen until these 26,000 successions are done. So we got to work and made good progress as a group. We got our first taste of writing petitions and affidavits and it tasted better than I had ever expected. Especially because we were working hard to make sure that by next Christmas, some of these people would be back in their homes. I left New Orleans in the best Christmas spirit I think I've ever been in. It was amazing to think what these people gave me this holiday season when they have so little to give, but that is what Christmas is about. Giving what you have when you can, even if it is the last you have to give may be just what someone else wants or needs. I am only a first year law student and my time and my service is about all I have to give these days, but it was appreciated. Some clients were surprised to hear from us when we would call, thinking that they had been forgotten and part of going down to New Orleans a year and four months after Katrina is to remind everyone not to forget and to remind ourselves not to forget what happened there or how many people still need help. There are still families with no home, no power in their FEMA trailers, no job, and no neighbors. But these people do still have a lot of hope and spirit and although nothing else was, that was beautiful to see. The last day as we drove out of town, we saw more of what we saw on our tour of the 9th ward, which was desolation and emptiness. Empty apartment buildings, empty homes, empty stores, empty motels, empty restaurants, and even an empty Six Flags. It will take time for the city to rebuild itself and to fill itself with laughter and music and people again, but with the help of those who have just a little bit of time and service to give, it will happen. Thank you to everyone who supported us in our efforts!

Judge Landrieu and The Misery Tour

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c23/jderrick/
?action=view&current=judgetour_0001.flv

The morning before we took The Misery Tour through some of the hardest hit areas of the city, we met with Judge Madeleine Landrieu, and here is some of what she had to say and some more of what we saw....

More video of the 9th Ward....

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c23/
jderrick/?action=view&current=9thward2.flv

9th Ward, Lakeview....

"Noah's Arc, No Politicians"

A little video from the 9th Ward....

Well, today we got up, had a debriefing about our experiences over the past week, and started driving back to Chapel Hill.

It's now past 3:30 a.m. and I'm headed to bed. but before crashing I had the chance to rough out a small bit of video I shot while we were in the hard-hit 9th Ward.

http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c23/
jderrick/?action=view&current=9thWard.flv

We did some good things and completed some files, but the duty of rebuilding New Orleans is larger than I can understand.

Some of us are already planning how to get back down there....

Bittersweet

When I moved away from St. Bernard, a small town 15 miles southeast of New Orleans, people would often ask where I was from, and my answer was always "New Orleans." For me New Orleans connoted a truly unique culture that didn't disappear when you crossed the city limits. The fact that I lived on the other side of the sign that read, "Welcome to St. Bernard" made me no less a New Orleanian than those that resided on Esplanade or St. Charles. I camped out at 5am to secure a "good spot" for the parades during Mardi Gras, I grew up listening to Fats Domino and Irma Thomas, and my family's favorite take out place was "Levi's," a small po-boy shop in St. Bernard . My point is that I know the culture, the uniqueness, and the grandeur of "The Crescent City", and unlike many of the rest of my classmates on this trip, when I come to this city, I'm coming home.

I've been back three times since the hurricane, and while I could write all day about my experiences, I would like to make two points. First, that while the physical devastation appears to lessen every day, it takes more than money to repair the devastation that resides in the souls of New Orleanians. Second, Even though surrounding parishes do not bear the name "New Orleans," the devastation in these parishes is unbelievable and should not be forgotten.

Our first night here, we walked out of our hotel, crossed Canal St., and ate at one of my favorite downtown restaurants-- Acme Oyster House. The bars on Bourbon were open, the street musicians were entertaining, and the tourists were partying. It was a typical night in "the quarter." The next day we drove down St. Charles Avenue gawked at the enormous houses and pointed at the Mardi Gras beads on the power lines. Sure there were areas of the city that were still in need of major repair (see other blog postings) but to me it appeared that Mid-City was well on its way to recovery. Then I spoke to the people. Our welcome speech at the Office of the Public Defender gave us insight into how the storm affected the justice system in New Orleans, and while I am not allowed to go into great detail, I stress that Katrina touched every aspect of the legal system. Even the small things such as having the ability to makes photocopies were taken away. When I had the opportunity to speak to the prison guards, the prisoners, the lawyers, and any other person I came into contact with, there wasn't a word that came out of their mouths that wasn't laced with the despair brought by Katrina. I sense that they are reluctant to mention Katrina because they feel people are tired of hearing about it, mostly they talk about how much they miss family members that have been relocated. Many of the prisoners don’t even know where their families are. The TRULY amazing thing about the people in this city is that despite their grief, their loss, and the unforgettable images that surely haunt them daily, they are full of hope.

On our third night here, we went to what the locals refer to as "da parish," what the map labels as "St. Bernard Parish", and what I call home. Even though I have been there since the storm, I know I'll never get used to what I see when I arrive. My house is in lower St. Bernard Parish, so on my way home I drive past my high school, the baseball parks where I spent the good part of my childhood summers, the Burger King where my sister and I ate breakfast every morning in high school, the doughnut shop where my grandmother and I ate beignets after church on Sunday, and the many neighborhoods where my friends and family lived. These places are gone, the school gates are bent, the windows are broken, and many of the houses are rotting. We didn't get to my house on Wednesday, but when I leave this downtown hotel on Friday, I know what I'll be going home to, and while I always look forward to seeing my family, I don’t look forward to living the life of a post-Katrina resident of St. Bernard Parish, not even for two weeks!

Not So Easy in the Big Easy

A few memorable observations from our week in New Orleans:

-The District Attorney’s office has one copy machine, and it was broken all of last week.

-The Sheriff’s office is still run on a generator. When the generator was down on Tuesday morning, they had no power, no phones, and no internet, and the databases run by the sheriff were inaccessible.

-Louisiana law allows a person to be held for 60 days until the DA decides whether or not to press charges.

-Temporary prisons have just been built next to Orleans Parish Prison. They look like a colony of giant bubble shaped tents surrounded by barbed wire.

-It is difficult to interview a client through Plexiglas using telephones, especially when the client is incompetent. (And it is a long, difficult process to get that client into an interview in the first place.)

-The McDonald’s across from the public defender’s office now only consists of a sign, a set of concrete picnic tables, and an empty lot. The sign still advertises McGriddles from before Katrina.

-Many streets are completely abandoned, with no sign of any residents returning. Some homes look as if they have not been entered since the hurricane.

-Food is amazing in New Orleans.

The lower 9th ward....

... isn't there anymore.

This afternoon one of the lawyers from The Pro Bono Project of New Orleans drove with us outside the islands of urban normalcy we've become accustomed to in the business district and the French Quarter. We saw some of the hardest hit areas and they hit pretty hard.

Personally, I'm from Eastern North Carolina and I've seen my share of hurricanes. And I was on the Gulf Coast immediately following Katrina. I've seen a little meteorological nastiness.

But this looked like a bomb had gone off.

There are blocks of houses that just aren't there anymore, front porch steps leading to nothingness, and this afternoon there were UNC law students walking through it and we were pretty quiet.

I've shot some pictures and some short videos on my camera. I'll be posting them as soon as I get back home.

The real story...

Let me begin by saying how much I love this city ... New Orleans has always been and will always be to me the home of excellent jazz, incredible people, and one of my favorite NFL teams. However, this particular trip has given me new insight as to the happenings in this city and the devastation still experienced by the people of this city. A New Orleans native said to me today something that I will always carry with me, no matter the tragedy or location. She said that the people of this city are utterly grateful for the volunteers giving of their time and efforts to aid in the recovery still yet to be had in NO. However, she brought to my attention the injustice that occurs when the volunteers become the spotlight and not the victims themselves. In the same vein, I am not going to innundate you with the day to day efforts of our group, their efforts being amazing notwithstanding. I want to share with you the story of the victims, and the recurring obstacles they face in their respective trials for normalcy.

I interviewed a client in prison today, we'll call him Mr. Doe. Mr. Doe told me of his "storm story", and relayed to me that he was not removed from NO's maximum security prison until nearly five days after Hurricane Katrina hit. He was without food and water from a day before the storm until he was rescued. Although water was plenty in this time, he made sure that I understood that he was standing in it, nearly chest high on his 5'7" frame. This was not drinking water. This, he said, could have been his death. Mr. Doe also wanted me to understand that my pity was unwarranted- he committed a crime for which he had been convicted and he realized his wrong. However, no matter how heinous his crime, he is still a human being, and articulated that he did not deserve what happened to him during the hurricane. This was an incredibly humanizing experience for me- no matter what crime Mr. Doe had been convicted of, I realized that his suffering was that of any other human being trapped in circumstances beyond his/her control and definitely beyond his/her wildest imagination. I think that Mr. Doe's story of the storm is what I will take away from this trip ...

We must realize that we, as human beings on this planet cohabitating in the same environment and using the same resources, deserve to be treated as such. We deserve food and water. We deserved to be rescued. And, when that doesn't happen, we deserve to be able to voice our concern and our tragic memories to those who will listen. I am but a 1L law student, not nearly a lawyer, and yet I was completely humbled by Mr. Doe's story. All he wanted were the basic needs of our existence, and someone to talk to. I am honored to have been able to provide him with an ear to listen. I think we all should, and perhaps even have the responsibility to provide the people most tragically affected by the storm our unwavering support, patience, and empathy. In my young life I have never experienced such pain and uncertainty as Mr. Doe, and I do not wish that for anyone. However, I am incredibly grateful to have heard his story, and to pass it along to you. Do not let the victims fade into the background. They are the main characters, the bit-part players, the directors, and the audience. Listen to their stories, and advocate for them to be heard. Please don't forget that our efforts, however incredibly valiant and praise-worthy, pale in comparison to the victims' stories. The victims, like Mr. Doe, should take centerstage, and deserve all of the attention, publicity, advocacy, help, and support that they can garner. Remember the victims- they are our number one priority here.

Calling all Heels

I can't pretend to know what the city was like before the hurricane (beyond a very touristy visit in the fifth grade), but it is obvious that the drastic effects of Katrina on the city are just beginning to heal, and it is going to be a long, hard road to health. Our small contribution to a broken legal system was truly a drop in the bucket. However, we met many very dedicated professionals who realize what they are up against and are ready for the challenge. I think it will be a daunting task, and I encourage any UNC law students reading this to take advantage of the spring break trip or other future trips. You will not be disappointed.

I expected to be affected by this trip, but I had no idea that I would be infected by a deep respect and admiration for the city and its residents. I can't wait to return.

So this is how it feels...

Too exhausted to think, to move, even to sleep. We spent the day in and out of Orleans Parish Prison interviewing inmates who have been declared incompetent and been remanded to Feliciana, the state mental health facility, in an attempt to restore them to competency so that they can stand trial. However, since Katrina, all the mental health facilities in the city of New Orleans (including group homes and halfway houses) have been closed, meaning that Feliciana is always full. No patients are being transferred out to transitional housing, so no inmates can be transferred in for treatment and potential restoration of competency. The end result is that a large number of mentally ill or mentally retarded defendants are being held indefinitely without trial in violation of their constitutional rights. Our job has been to interview a handful of these defendants in hopes of finding a good exemplar case or two for habeas corpus petitions that will potentially provide some impetus for a change in the system.

It's probably obvious to all that this is easier said than done. Today, Allison and I interviewed an OPP inmate who was declared competent in April, then incompetent in July and again in September. He was remanded to Feliciana, but because of the lack of beds, he is still being held in OPP. At first he was absolutely silent, nearly catatonic, in response to our questions, but later began to speak. He told us that today was March 27 and that all he had to do was wait eight and a half months until September 16, when he would be getting out, so he had nothing to say to us. We tried to explain that we were there to help his lawyer get him out, but to no avail. When he saw us taking notes, he decided that we were reporters with the Washington Post, and refused to speak to us further. We couldn't even get him to give us his birthdate, let alone tell us about his medical treatment, what medications he should be taking, and so on. After 10 minutes of trying to coax him to tell us more, we gave up and left, feeling bereft and powerless. Clearly the man is in need of significant medical treatment that he is not receiving, which is pretty much all we can tell his lawyer. So, more likely than not, he will continue to sit in jail for many more months, perhaps more than the presumptive maximum sentence for the crime with which he has been charged, but not tried or convicted. And there's very little that anyone can do about it. At least for now.

None of us need belabor the fact that the criminal justice system here, especially after the storm, is in desperate need of reform. In fact, before we started our work here, we were asked to sign a contract stating that we would not make any public statements about the quality of the system or the work of any of the partners in the Katrina Gideon Interview Project. But there's really nothing I can say about the system that hasn't already been said. What I can say, however, is that I am utterly exhausted from only three days of trying to manuever in the system, trying to stay on the sheriff's good side so that we can keep going in and out of the jail, trying to figure out when and if inmates will be available for interviews, trying to hear them through the thick plexiglass that separates them from us in the interview rooms, trying to squeeze in a midday meal in the midst of the chaos, walking the several blocks from the public defender's office to the jail and back in the rain, and generally ending each day feeling completely ineffective.

If what I am feeling is even one one-thousandth of what these attorneys go through every day here in New Orleans, I can't imagine how they manage to pull themselves out of bed in the morning. I have the deepest respect and admiration for their courage and their determination in the face of tremendous obstacles. If I turn out to be even one one-thousandth of the lawyer that most of them are, I'll consider myself pretty good.

The group working on divorces....

Let me give you a little background on what we as a whole are working on and what specifically my smaller section is working on.

We have a group of folks doing criminal work. This is the side of the legal field that deals with folks who may or may not have broken some official law. Our students have been spending time at a local prison -- interviewing inmates and working to aid them.

We've also got a group doing civil work -- not the cops and robbers side of the law -- but wills, contracts, administrative stuff.... One part of this group is working on successions -- property getting passed from one person to another by way of lots of paperwork.

Another part of the civil group is working on divorces. This is the group of four students I'm working with.

The idea of helping folks get divorced raised my eyebrow. Folks and families getting split up isn't a warm and fuzzy thing, but these are uncontested, pretty amicable splits and our work helps folks get on with their lives.

Some of these cases may be linked to Katrina, but a lot of them are cases that have simply been in the backlog since the storm hit and so many things have been put on the back burner.

These cases involve an amount of paperwork -- things need to be signed, filed, mailed, drafted... and done correctly in the right order. The lawyers we're working with give us some files, we figure out what's the next step in the process, and we take care of it: so and so needs to be mailed a waiver of service, the next thing needs to be filed at a courthouse, somebody needs to be informed that their divorce has gone through....

And that's my little corner in a nutshell....

Day three....

Well, today my group, which has been working on helping some divorce files along, is going on what I've heard call the "Misery Tour." So far we've stayed in the business district and the French Quarter -- working, exploring and eating at good restaurants. But today after meeting a judge and doing a little more pro bono work, we'll be seeing some parts of the city that haven't fared so well.

I'll be taking pictures and will keep folks posted....

A City Still in Need

Thirteen hours in a van, two Wendy’s stops, and six states later, we arrived in New Orleans Sunday night. As we drove into the city last night, we saw the first signs of Katrina—entire neighborhoods still unoccupied and dark. Seeing those dark neighborhoods showed all of us just how much work was yet to be done.

As a member of our criminal group, I’ll be spending the week interviewing inmates in Orleans Parish Prison. We got our first glimpse into the state of the New Orleans legal system today when we met at the Office of the Public Defender for training. During training, we heard stories of inmates lost in the system, flooded evidence rooms, and a huge backlog of cases.

Many of the inmates that we will be interviewing have been held in prison without convictions longer than their sentence would last even if convicted. Our job is to conduct an interview with the inmate and compose a memo for the public defender assigned to the case. This way, the public defender will have a good head start when he or she gets the case.

Katrina may have hit over a year ago, but its impact still overwhelms the city. From the flood line marking the abandoned houses to the box of “Unidentified Floating Evidence” from the basement of the courthouse, the struggle for normalcy is far from over.

Back to the 5-0-4

Did you miss us? The blog’s been quiet for a few months, but never fear, we’ve been busy behind scenes working on our next event. That’s right -- the UNC Pro Bono Program is returning to New Orleans for this year’s winter and spring breaks!

This year, in addition to our civil work with the New Orleans Pro Bono Project, we're expanding our work into criminal justice issues. The winter break trip is scheduled for December 18 through December 22, 2006. We’ve got 20 students committed and raring to go.

Watch this space – exciting things are coming up!

If Only Every Week Were Spring Break Week

Several of the posts on this blog allude to the reality that one week is not nearly enough to make a dent in the havoc that Katrina wrought. It is awesome (in the true sense of the word) that so many students and others with a spring break week to spare spent the past week in New Orleans working on clean up and recovery efforts. See http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1142581987218460.xml?nola#continue. And helping each "starfish," as Aaron wrote last week, is surely important. I am proud of the work that the succession workgroup was able to do, even if our contributions only helped to push our files a little closer to completion and even if I wish I could have filed papers for at least the one client I worked with whose father had died in the flood.

Still, as I sat in the airport on Friday waiting to leave town along with other spring break travellers, I couldn't help feeling sad. I think the sorrow stemmed from the fact that there were, literally, hundreds of us leaving town -- students on spring break leaving after our five or six or seven days of work and contractors who spend their weeks in New Orleans and surrounding areas, but escape on weekends to go home to Chicago or Saint Louis or other, similar places that are far-removed from the storm -- and, simultaneously, merely a trickle of people coming in to the city. As it had been on Sunday when I arrived, more than half of the gates at the airport were deserted. And I don't just mean that there weren't people travelling; the airlines had pulled out, leaving the information screen behind the gate desk dark and blank, and restaurants in both the gate area and the terminal were shuttered. The contrast became ever more clear on my layover at O'Hare in Chicago, which looked like an airport is supposed to look on a Friday evening -- people everywhere, crowds at the food counters, lines in the bathrooms. How long, I wondered, before New Orleans's Louis Armstrong International Airport -- where ghosts of those who were stuck there for days during Katrina still linger -- will approach even one-tenth or one-fifth of that level of activity?

Spring break comes only once a year. True, there were students in town the week before us, and more are likely on their way this week and next, but a massive and sustained effort is needed to help New Orleans and other Gulf areas get back on their feet. And its not just about the bandaids that we apply retroactively by cleaning up destroyed houses, helping survivors with divorces or successions, or figuring out how to address particular unmet legal needs that have been brought to light by hurricane recovery efforts. The social, economic, and political barriers to true recovery are much larger and require more attention than students on a week of spring break can provide. If only every week were spring break, maybe we could make a larger difference, but even then, the problems are bigger than that, and, frankly, I'm not sure that outsiders are best-equipped to deal with these issues or find workable solutions. As I reflect on my week in New Orleans, I think I agree with Mike Petrusic's blog comment that the most important thing we can do going forward, in lieu of (or in addition to) our continued labor, is to keep the attention of policymakers focused on the deep-seeded problems that were brought into focus so sharply last August and September. The state of the Ninth Ward speaks for itself -- Katrina did a lot of damage but, as Aaron wrote in his blog entry, things clearly were not all that great before Katrina.

Thanks to the UNC Pro Bono Program, Diane Standaert and Dan Harrison for their unbelievable organization of this trip, the New Orleans Pro Bono Project for allowing us to help them with their work, Phelps Dunbar for housing us for the week, and the Donald & Elizabeth Cooke Foundation and the Carolina Center for Public Service for covering part of our expenses. This truly was the capstone of a nearly-concluded law school experience.

Vicki

Succession 101

If you are anything like me, then to hear us say we are working on succession probably doesn’t mean a whole lot. Therefore, I am going to give a brief introductory lesson on what a succession is and how it is achieved.

When someone dies, her land is transferred to her successors. This is called a succession. Depending on the type of property and who was alive at the time the decedent died, the procedure for a succession can get pretty complex.

But before I get too far head of myself, let me explain why an heir needs to establish a succession in the first place. Before an heir can get possession of the property, use it as collateral for loans, or, in the case of the people of New Orleans, receive insurance payout or governmental assistance after the hurricane, he has to open a succession and show that the property is now legally his. To complicate matters even more, sometimes previous generations passed down their property without opening a succession. This means that the new heir has to prove not only his immediate succession, but also that of the previous owner. Let me given an example. Even though a son remained on his parent’s property after their death, title was never transferred to his name. So in order for this son’s daughter to now prove her legal possession of the land to get FEMA assistance, she must first show that the property was legitimately transferred from her grandparents to her father before she can show that it was transferred from her father to her. When someone who is dealing with the death of a loved one is faced with this daunting task, it is easy to lose hope.

Herein steps The Pro Bono Project—and us.

Most of the property we worked with this week was owned by someone who died intestate (or, in other words, they didn’t have a will). The first question to ask is, Was the property was acquired before or after marriage? If it was before marriage, we call this “separate property.” This kind of property first goes to the children, then to the siblings and parents and finally to the spouse. If the property was acquired during marriage, we call this “marital property,” and a slightly different order of inheritance is applied. The only heirs that we consider are those that were alive at the time of the property owner’s death.

The second question we ask is, Is the heir going to accept the property or renounce it? If they accept it, then we make sure they qualify for our assistance. If they renounce it, then we have to send them a letter and a form to secure from them a written renunciation. But wait, you say, why would anyone want to give up free property? There are a few reasons someone would want to renounce their property. First, the process of opening a succession is a hassle, and some people might not want to deal with it. Second, if one heir qualifies for pro bono assistance but another doesn’t, then the two might decide to just let the pro bono office handle it. Finally, the family members might decide that one heir in particular should have the property because they have already been living on it, or because they simply need it the most. Regardless, every eligible heir must be contacted to see whether they want to accept or renounce.

While we are requesting and receiving these renunciations, we are also doing separate research to make sure we have all of the information necessary to complete the documents that must be submitted to the court. For example, we need to know the value of the property and other assets, how much debt the property owner had, and the amount of funeral expenses. We also need to have the property description, any marriage certificates, divorce judgments, birth and death certificates, and adoption papers. Finally, we need to have information on any possible heirs.

Once all of this information is gathered through trips to the court house, city hall, and the convention center, and through numerous phone calls, we can prepare the necessary documents. The first of such documents is the Affidavit of Death, Jurisdiction, and Heirship. This document testifies who the property last belonged to, who the eligible heirs are, and why the petitioner is entitled to possession. Next, we have to write a Petition for Possession. This explains step by step why the property belongs to this particular successor. After the petition, we write the Judgment of Possession, the document that, once signed by the court, actually passes possession to our client. Finally, we have to write the Sworn Detailed Description, which specifies the property and assets in question, as well as any liabilities. Once these documents are completed, the client has to come in and sign them in front a notary public.

The final paperwork to prepare is the tax form. Here we determine whether any inheritance taxes are due. If there are, then the client needs to pay them. Once they are paid, or if there are not any due, this form needs to be taken to the tax office to obtain a receipt. This receipt, along with the affidavit, petition, judgment, and description are all taken to the court house to be signed by the deputy clerk.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how a succession is done.

For the Good of the Gulf: UNC Law Winter/Spring Break Pro Bono Project

I am writing this blog while on the plane headed back to North Carolina. I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to New Orleans. It has been nice to bond with and get to know some new UNC law students whom I wouldn’t have crossed paths with otherwise. Everyone on the trip had such interesting backgrounds. For example, I recently learned that Diane was in the Circus as an undergrad at FSU. She performed the double trapeze and the Mexican cloud swing -- whatever those are. Apparently FSU has a circus to go along with their nationally ranked football team.

Speaking of Diane...I was not sure how organized or disorganized the trip, as a whole, would be but I was very pleased with how smooth everything has been and Diane deserves most of the credit. I have been on several service oriented trips similar to this one and having a good group leader is crucial to the trip's goal and everyone’s enjoyment. Diane is amazingly well organized and good at relating to the different personalities in the group. Having talked to my fellow travelers I know we all appreciate her hard work and dedication.

I was in the group working on succession files. It was exciting for me because as a 1L, it was the first time I was able to apply material I have learned in my law school classes to a practical legal task. I was very pleased that the work we were doing had a direct connection to Katrina. In order to receive FEMA money, one’s real property has to be in his or her name. By filing a succession, heirs are able to legally claim their dead relatives real property, in which they are already living or at least were before the storm, and thus receive their FEMA money. We each had our own succession case to work on which was beneficial because we got to see all the steps/paperwork required to file a succession action. More importantly, I could say "my case", which made me feel important and I felt a certain connection and responsibility to "my client". There was some client interaction over the phone which was the most fun aspect of working on the succession files. Personal client interaction is one of the reasons I wanted to become a lawyer. "My client" was extremely nice and thankful which made her a pleasure to speak with on the phone.

Emily, Rachel, Elliot, and I went over to the Garden District on Monday night to check out a local bar, The Bulldog that Ellen (a lawyer with the New Orleans Pro Bono Project) had suggested. I felt that I was being helpful to the injured New Orleans tourist economy by eating out in the French Quarter and going out for a few drinks at night. We stopped in another bar while we were in the Garden District called Ms Mae's. While at Ms. Mae's I met a woman who had to be at least 70. She was born and raised in New Orleans and told me she had ridden out the storm in the bar drinking…only in New Orleans.

While on the trip we had the unique experience of seeing the 9^th ward and one of the larger levee breaches. The 9^th ward was a ghost town….it was eerily quiet and the neighborhood next to the levee breach was just flat out destroyed. It was hard to get a feel for the destruction from outside the homes. I think the gravity of what was lost really struck me when I peeked inside one of the homes near the levee breach. As I stuck my head in the door I was hit by a wave of mildewed air that made my eyes water. What I saw was a room just like my living room except it looked as though it had been sitting at the bottom of a muddy lake for months…which when I think about it, I guess it was. Everything was destroyed.

Finally, I was fortunate enough to be able to tag along with Ellen to the only men’s shelter in New Orleans that had reopened at the time. The shelter was called the Oz. We went to do uptake which basically involved listening to any of the homeless men’s legal problems and getting them into the Pro Bono system if appropriate. The most interesting thing about The Oz was the fact it was a self contained community. The men that stayed there also worked there, either in the kitchen, at the front desk, or as custodians. According to a man working the front desk a lot of the homeless have already moved back to New Orleans, or never left, because they didn’t have anywhere else to go.

I accomplished what I set out to do on the trip: I provided aid to a Katrina victim, got my first real taste of pro bono work and the UNC Pro Bono Project (I liked both and was extremely impressed with the UNC Pro Bono project), had my first practical legal experience, met some great new people, and hopefully represented the State of North Carolina well.

Back in North Carolina

We’re back and school starts tomorrow. Here I am trying to capture over two months of planning and a roller coaster of a week in just one blog post. So instead I will focus on just one day.

Thursday

Earlier that week, Ellen asked one of us to go in her place to the weekly succession clinic at the New Orleans Legal Assistance Coalition (NOLAC) on Thursday afternoon. Thursday was her birthday and she hoped for the afternoon off. Since I had been working on the succession cases, I thought it would be a fairly simple task to conduct intake for folks seeking to begin the probate process. I was wrong.

By Thursday afternoon I was emotionally and physically tired. All week we had been immersed in the lives’ of our clients. The husband of Vicki’s client died in the flood. Mike’s client can’t recover her insurance claim and the probate process cannot continue because the co-owner is missing. One of the clients for the divorce workshop showed up from Houston the day before coming into the Pro Bono Project’s office to sign her divorce papers. In addition, coordinating the week’s activities was in full force. Thursday, the van we shared among the 14 of us needed to be in about 5 different places. Cory, Boz, and Dan had a 10 a.m. appointment with Common Ground’s legal coordinator in the lower Ninth Ward. The Divorce Workgroup needed to be at the Gretna courthouse at 12 p.m. to file their clients’ petition for divorce and then they were to head to the 17th Street Canal levee breach. The Succession Workgroup was scheduled to head to the canal breach at 3:30 and we needed to get Rachel Hundley to the airport by 6 p.m. Not only did the van need to carry us around town, but the Succession Workgroup had to close out and print all of its files by 1:30 that afternoon.

Yes, at that point, I was a little bit tired about hearing about Katrina, FEMA, recovery, rebuilding, etc. I was tired and frustrated that the process is going to take so long and that the need far outweighs the resources. As Ellen provided me the instructions for the afternoon’s clinic, I was bearing all these emotions and serving as point person (but luckily not the driver) to make sure than van made it to its scheduled destinations. As Ellen spoke to me, all I could think was: “Can I really handle this?” Well, I had already committed and Ellen had made her birthday plans with her husband. I had no choice. Plus, I knew I could handle it since I was certain that my emotional exhaustion was just one tenth of that experienced by those who live there.

Before heading out, I made sure Donna knew where our extra office supplies we brought for the week were located, said my final goodbyes to Rachel Piercey and Catherine Drake, gave Pro Bono Project staff t-shirts from UNC’s Pro Bono Program, and talked with the Iowa law students about their invitation to meet up later to discuss how they might be able to start a pro bono program at their school.

I headed to NOLAC’s offices on the 14th floor at 1010 Common Street. I was glad to have an excuse to walk around during the business day to see what else was going on. Even at midday, the streets were relatively empty. I was worried because it meant I might have few people to ask for directions in the event I got lost. Ironically, while walking from the Pro Bono Project to NOLAC, I ran into a law student from Columbia. We had seen each other about three times that week – at the airport, at the Rebirth concert, and now again on a street corner. He was headed to the courthouse to meet up with the rest of his group for lunch. We exchanged comments about how our week had been going. His group was working with the criminal justice system. He happily reported that they found a man who was improperly detained in jail. He couldn’t discuss much of the details, but said it had happened as a result of digging through individual files and finding dates that did not line up. In a wonk-like fashion, we both discussed the importance of well-maintained data entry systems to catch errors such as the one they found. I was excited to hear that other law students were wading through files in a manner similar to those of us in the Succession Workgroup and that their work had paid off. I was glad to be a part of this group of law students who had come down to help push the city’s recovery along. It was apparent from those empty downtown streets that if we had not been there doing this work, not many people were around to do it.

I continued making my way over to NOLAC. I called Rachel to make sure she knew where to be in order for the van to pick her up to head the airport. Then, after calling into Vicki to let her know that I would be back to Phelps Dunbar later that afternoon and to discuss some last little details about wrapping up my file, I arrived at NOLAC’s offices. The intake room is literally no bigger than a closet, with a metal desk and two office chairs. Sheila and Yvette showed me the appointment calendar for the afternoon and where I could make copies. I settled in, reviewed the notes from my conversation with Ellen, and settled into wait for my first client.

The purpose of the intakes was to meet with low-income individuals needing to go through the probate process. The clients had already been provided with a checklist of the documents they needed and the clients had gathered the documents. The intake process consisted of coping of the documents they had, talking with them about who passed away, finding out what property was at issue, explaining to them that the Pro Bono Project will be helping find a private attorney to take on their case for free.

I am not sure if I can fully portray the emotions elicited by what happened in that client intake room that afternoon, but the stories of the clients provide a unique glimpse into the difficulties of the probate process as a result of the storm, the importance of successful successions in order to aid recovery from the storm, and how low-income families are effected differently than others. Since the property owned in the destroyed areas is pretty much the only asset they have, without the ability to gain access or title, I feel that these families literally are beginning at ground zero. (Thus, new meaning is given to Ed Chaney’s description of New Orleans as ground zero for racial and economic justice.) Here are a few of their stories.

One client needed to go through the probate process because she needed to make repairs on her family home which had been badly destroyed by the storm. Her youngest brother passed away, and she and her two siblings, wanted to go through the probate process to divide his share among them. She first wanted to see if it was possible to be reimbursed for the money she spent on repairing the home and paying insurance policies over the last ten years from her siblings’ interest in the home. I told her I could not answer that, but hopefully someone from the Pro Bono Project would be in touch with her within two months regarding the status of the case.

Another client’s husband passed way. He owned three pieces of property in Orleans Parrish. His medical bills were still outstanding, and she hoped to sell the property to pay off his debt. We spent an hour going through and making copies of the documents she had gathered – death certificates, social security number insurance policies, property assessments, etc. She had everything. She even managed to find her way to the Notarial Archives where deeds of sale were recorded in its temporary home at the Convention Center. Again, all I could tell her was that hopefully someone from the Pro Bono Project would be in touch with her within two months regarding the status of the case.

One of the clients was the rightful heir to his uncle’s estate. He had a waterlogged, unsigned copy of the will. When asked if could locate another copy, he responded that he couldn’t.