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| SCU law student Elizabeth Pianca counsels Antonio Bowen at the Law Center. |
The people she welcomes are mainly poor immigrants. Of the 1,058 clients served last year, half were born in another country. Sixty percent to 70 percent were monolingual in a language other than English. Sixty-six percent were Hispanic and 10 percent Asian or Pacific Islander. Some cannot read and write in their native language. With few exceptions, all had incomes of no more than 125 percent of poverty threshold, meaning $11,638 for a single person and $27,538 for a family of five.
Many "come from countries where they had no access to justice and where having rights is a foreign concept," says Ruben Castillo, a paralegal who has been with the Center for eight years, and whom Maurer describes as "the heart and soul of the Center."
Immigration help
Juan Muñoz lived for 20 years in Watsonville, working as a roofer. He and his wife had six children, five of whom were born in the U.S. Muñoz was troubled by his immigration status and responded to an advertisement promising a solution. The "immigration consultant" filed an ill-advised asylum request, sparking deportation proceedings against Muñoz, his wife, and their six young children.
Immediately after the Center set up shop, Rubén Pizarro noticed that nearly all of the day worker clients also had immigration problems. Immigration law became the next area of practice at the Center.
Now overseen by Supervising Attorney Lynette Parker, immigration is the Center’s second busiest areas of practice. More than 305 people sought help last year with immigration issues, and 230 received counsel and advice. Over the past 18 months, students at the Center have successfully assisted 14 victims of crimes obtain legal status and possible permanent residency in the U.S. through a new law benefiting victims of crime who cooperate with law enforcement.
Getting their fair share
For 10 months, the client worked for 10 to 13 hours a day in a restaurant preparing food and washing dishes so he could send money to his wife and four children in Mexico. He was paid less than minimum wage and received no breaks or overtime pay. He was afraid to complain for fear of losing his job.
In the Bible, stealing a person’s wages is one of the worst sins, Hammer says. For undocumented workers, this happens all the time. Employment law, the Center’s original raison d’etre, accounted for more than half of the Center’s requests for help last year.
In 1996, the Center expanded into the highly specialized area of workers’ compensation law, now supervised by Susan Levin ’76. It is the "only program in the state, perhaps the country, representing clients who can’t get attorneys to represent them," says Mertens. A typical case is a worker who has an emergency room bill and whose employer is illegally uninsured, says Levin. "The client has healed so there is no significant injury to make it economically desirable for a lawyer to take the case."
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| Josh Gordon, left, works with a Law Center client in 1996. |
A single mother with a baby was receiving welfare. She found out about the Small Business Development program at a workshop the Center presented in Spanish for a local agency. She requested assistance with her child care business. She obtained her childcare license and is providing valuable services to the community.
As a student, Grace Hum J.D. ’97, helped so many clients with employment problems that the thought occurred to her, "Why not help them set up their own businesses?" Under Supervising Attorney Cynthia Thorp, students now assist clients with the legal requirements of starting a business. Since 1997, students have helped clients set up home day care centers, beauty salons, and a photography studio. Last year, 220 people attended workshops that first-year students gave on small business development.
A monolingual Spanish-speaking client was charged $38,000 for a used pickup truck that was worth maybe half that. He was unable to get a bank loan, so the seller offered to finance the truck, having the buyer sign a blank contract. The contract would have required the buyer to pay $70,000 for the used truck.
Third-year law student Sheryl Ainsworth, who works under supervising attorney Scott Maurer, calls such auto fraud cases "a common story." Often, she says, "it’s an elderly or disabled person in over their head." Auto fraud is so common among South Bay immigrants that the Center presented more than 10 anti-auto fraud workshops in the community last year, reaching more than 250 people. This year, the Center anticipates offering 20 to 25 workshops.
Students also advise clients with home equity scams, unlawful and abusive business and debt collection practices, unfair credit reporting, mandatory arbitration, and abusive practices by financial and credit card institutions.
In 2003, Maurer (who, in the words of former student Dori Rose Inda ’00, "has produced an army of consumer advocates") was named Clinical/Legal Services Attorney of the Year by the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA).
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