Bass: Lawyers step up to help disaster survivors

Hurricane Harvey made landfall and devastated Houston and other areas in Texas and Louisiana almost two months ago. The 60 inches of rain that caused massive flooding and damage is gone, and the nation's attention has moved on to other issues and new problems.

But as the interest in the story wanes, legal needs for the people affected by these storms are just beginning to surface. Disaster survivors' legal problems can be lengthy and complicated. That is where lawyers can help.

Landlord/tenant issues often crop up after a big storm. For example, do tenants of a damaged or unlivable home still have a legal obligation to pay rent? And what legal rights do tenants living in intact homes have if their landlord tries to evict them to re-rent their undamaged apartments at a higher price when livable rental properties are scarce?

Legal problems can extend into the workplace: People can lose jobs because they cannot get to work when their cars have been washed away or because their workplace closed due to storm damage.

Important legal documents, such as wills and property titles, can get destroyed in a hurricane, and lawyers can assist residents in replacing them. Lawyers provide legal counseling when lenders attempt to foreclose on properties owned by storm survivors who fall behind on payments. And they represent homeowners dealing with crooked home repair contractors. They also can help people who need assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or making life, medical and property insurance claims. The American Bar Association's Young Lawyers Division has responded to disasters since the 1970s. Since contracting with FEMA in 2007, the ABA's Young Lawyers Division has helped in more than 160 declared disasters in 43 states and two U.S. territories.

In Texas, the ABA Disaster Legal Services hotline is handling hundreds of calls per week. Lawyers are volunteering to assist with the ABA's efforts or to work alongside the lawyers who provide legal aid to low-income individuals and families in Texas on a full-time basis. The State Bar of Texas, Lone Star Legal Aid, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Legal Aid of North West Texas and Houston Volunteer Lawyers are assisting people on the phone and through informational town hall meetings, as well as going directly to shelters and tent cities to help.

These lawyers are already assisting in hundreds of cases as well as dispensing valuable information to people to help them through their difficulties. They stand ready to help more people as other issues arise.

People need to know that there is legal help available if they feel cheated or lost. Disaster survivors should not be victimized twice. These needs and problems do not go away when the media attention dies down. They remain for months and even years.

In Texas, free legal assistance is available to storm survivors through the disaster relief hotline in English, Spanish and Vietnamese at 800-504-7030. This assistance is available to through a partnership among the State Bar of Texas and their Young Lawyers Section, the ABA Young Lawyers Division and FEMA.

Information to assist disaster survivors with general legal issues can also be found by contacting Lone Star Legal Aid (www.lonestarlegal.org), Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid (www.trla.org) or Legal Aid of North West Texas (internet.lanwt.org/en-us). The Texas Legal Services Center's intake application is available at http://www.tlsc.org/assets/tlscvolunteerapplication.pdf or by calling 800-622-2520.

The assistance that lawyers and legal aid offer after a natural disaster is just one of the compelling reasons why Congress needs to fully fund the Legal Services Corporation. LSC helps fund the local organizations that are assisting low-income individuals and families with the many legal issues that arise in the wake of a disaster. People with low incomes and few assets are at the greatest risk of losing everything.

No hurricane survivor should be forced to confront injustice on their own. The ABA and lawyers in Texas, Louisiana and across the country are pitching in to provide justice. These people deserve it in their time of need-however long it lasts.

Bass is president of the American Bar Association.