Legal Aid of West Virginia Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Kinship Connector Tool Aims To Help Kinship Families Navigate The System

The purpose of the tool is to help kinship caregivers understand what course of action is available to them to obtain official custody of the child in their care by guiding them through the process, based on their circumstances.

A free online tool from Legal Aid of West Virginia is available to help kinship caregivers compare options to formalize custody of the children in their care.

Kinship caregivers are typically biological family members with unofficial custody of a child.

The new Kinship Connector Tool is available online for free, open to the public and does not have any income requirements.

“DHHR provides care for, and assistance for, the children who are officially placed through foster care,” said Dane Henry, the advocacy training and technology attorney for Legal Aid of West Virginia. “But oftentimes, there are a number of children who are unofficially placed, and it might just be a grandparent who’s caring for their grandchild, there’s often a lack of assistance that comes with that care.”

Beginning with a questionnaire, the tool provides three options for families with guides to fill out the required paperwork: a temporary care agreement, guardianship, or adoption.

“Each one has its pros and cons, and each one is going to be different based on the needs of the particular situation,” Henry said. “So, we try to guide them through that to give them the options and let them understand what exactly they’re getting into. And then once they’ve chosen a particular document that they want to pursue, we get into asking all the actual biographical questions of names and addresses and things like that that are necessary.”

Henry said this is just the first version of the tool and hopes to improve upon its offerings in new updates.

“The supreme court forms for guardianship are not super clear, and so one of the big drivers for the tool was to make it human readable and human understandable and actually just break these questions down to what is absolutely needed and get that filled out for them in a nice typed-up, clear petition that can just be printed out.”

The tool is open to the public; however, it is not meant to help when children are involved in an abuse and neglect case in court.

Combating Elder Financial Exploitation Remains A Constant Battle

Crimes of elder financial exploitation damage more than a senior citizen's bank account.

Crimes of elder financial exploitation damage more than a senior citizen’s bank account.

James Lindsay is a financial exploitation attorney for Legal Aid of West Virginia and a leader in a multi-agency state task force fighting elder financial abuse.

Lindsay addressed the West Virginia Legislature’s interim meeting of the Children and Families Committee Tuesday. He said about half of the state’s 16,000 elder abuse and neglect cases involve financial exploitation.

“Financial exploitation is what we call the biggest ‘silent crime’ in the United States,” Lindsay said. “One study from the Government Accountability Office found about $5.5 million in assets from about 158 incapacitated victims, most of whom were seniors. The estimated cost of financial exploitation in the United States is approximately $3 billion.”

Lindsay listed the usual suspects in elder financial exploitation, including computer hackers, identity thieves, IRS scams, government impostors and impostor businesses. However, he focused his remarks on nearly half of all state and national scam artists, calling them the ‘“unusual suspects.”

“These people come from diverse professional backgrounds. We’ve had engineers, bankers — these are trusted agents, consumers, friends, family, people who the elderly trust with their finances,” Lindsay said. “A lot of family members, spouses, caregivers, needy children, grandchildren, best friends and neighbors, guardians and conservators.”

He said several recently passed West Virginia laws have greatly aided in investigation, prosecution and returning millions in lost assets.

“Judges can award double or treble damages under the statutes. There is a fee shifting statute to the preponderance of the evidence standard,” Lindsay said. “We have a two year statute of limitations in West Virginia. Judges also have the power to freeze assets, provide injunctive relief, appoint receivers, void contracts or require security be posted.”

Lindsay told lawmakers that creating a state consumer protection penalty and restitution fund would bolster the criminal battle and aid victims in recovery.

“The fund would provide consumer enforcement actions and distribute compensation to eligible consumers and victims,” Lindsay said. “This is something that could be administered by a state agency.”

National studies show elder financial crime victims are twice as likely to die at an earlier age.

Justices Won't Hear Dispute Over Access to Health Records

The Supreme Court won’t hear a dispute between West Virginia health officials and a patient advocacy group over access to medical records.

The justices on Tuesday let stand a state court ruling that said federal laws protecting health record privacy don’t prevent Legal Aid of West Virginia from reviewing patient files at the state’s two psychiatric hospitals.

For more than two decades the legal aid group has helped psychiatric patients file grievances over alleged abuse and neglect. State law allows access to patient files without written consent.

But state officials began restricting the group’s access to patient files in 2014, saying it violates federal privacy laws.

A state circuit court sided with the patient advocates. The state supreme court agreed.

State officials argued that federal law trumps state law.

Free Legal Help Available After West Virginia Flooding

West Virginians who are running into issues related to last month’s deadly floods might be eligible for free legal services.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Wednesday that Disaster Legal Services will provide legal help to low-income people who can’t pay for lawyers because of a major disaster. The lawyers have volunteered to provide limited assistance.

The partnership among FEMA, the West Virginia State Bar, and Legal Aid of West Virginia provides 24/7 access to a legal hotline. Callers will be matched with a local lawyer.

FEMA said some examples include issues with repair contracts, working with contractors, replacing wills and other legal documents.

The June 23 floods killed 23 people and ravaged homes, businesses and infrastructure.