The over-60 population of California, at 4.5 million, is the highest in the nation. The Administration on Aging has recognized this population behemoth of 31 million people as only one of two states incapable of being served by just a single statewide Hotline. (New York is the other). The Northern California service area has over 2 million eligible residents within the Central and Sacramento Valleys and North Bay areas. In 1994, Legal Services of Northern California, in Sacramento, was awarded a grant under Title III of the Older Americans Act to operate a legal Hotline serving part of the state. The Northern California Hotline handled over 7300 cases in 1996.

Legal Services of Northern California has operated a county wide senior Hotline for several years using its Title III funds. It was so successful that LSNC was interested in expanding the concept to all of the northern part of the state. The Hotline delivery model was implemented by Victor Geminiani who was Executive Director at Legal Services at that time and who now serves in that position at Legal Aid Society of Hawaii where he has instituted a statewide senior Hotline as well.

The Northern California Senior Legal Hotline got approximately ½ of its funding under the AoA grant which ended in February, 1997. The other half of the Hotline funding comes from cy-pres funds which are collected in the state from class and consumer actions and awarded to organizations, usually for educational type legal services projects. The Wellness Foundation and other community and private foundations provide funding for some special projects run by the Legal Hotline, such as the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Guardianship Project. Area Agencies on Aging also provide funding for special projects such as consumer education, contractors and insurance education projects, and flood victims help projects.

The Senior Legal Hotline has responded to the end of its AoA funding by narrowing its service area from 39 counties to 24 counties. In addition the Hotline raises about $160 per month from the Grandparents Guardianship Project by charging each client $20.00 per petition at the clinic.

The Senior Legal Hotline is a project of Legal Services of Northern California. Its Executive Director is Roberta Randstrom. David Mandel, formerly a Legal Hotline staff attorney, has recently become Project Manager. The Senior Legal Hotline is housed in one of two renovated warehouse buildings owned by Legal Services of Northern California. The offices are in downtown Sacramento near the state capitol building. The clients do not have access to the Legal Hotline offices without passing through the legal services waiting area and security.

The Hotline corridor has offices for the manager, staff attorney and two full-time paralegals and social workers. The paralegals’ offices contain desks for volunteers and students. The Hotline room itself has three desks with three phones and two computers. There are no modular compartments separating the desks. A reception area houses intake clerical staff, office machines and a law library.

The Hotline Staff consists of the manager and one full-time staff attorney, two senior aides, and two full time paralegals. Student interns and attorney volunteers add an extra 1.5 full time equivalents to Hotline coverage for a total of approximately 3.5 full-time equivalency in call handling. The Program Manager, David Mandel, is responsible for the project administration, grant-writing, coordination of volunteers, outreach and arranging workshops for staff development and community education. Under the leadership of the previous Project Manager who had a M.S.W., this Hotline has an innovative social work component where students from the local university’s social work school assist clients who have non-legal type problems or who are mentally ill. After Susan XXXX left the program it will no longer have the required M.S.W. supervision so the future of the social work component of the legal hotline is uncertain. The full-time Legal Services Staff Attorney, reads all the case notes and supervises all the legal work performed by the Hotline. He writes and updates materials, and does community legal education lectures and workshops. He spends about ½ of his time handling client calls. Nancy Harrington and Tom Williams, full-time paralegals, handle calls, work on foreclosures, which is an ancillary hotline project, and work at the grandparent guardianship clinics.

Two senior aides answer the phones, do intake and appointment setting for the telephone call backs and some clerical work and conference registration.

The Hotline has had a problem with phone coverage when the senior aides are out. Sometimes students answer the phones or the clients may leave a message on voice mail. The Legal Hotline also presently has 16 volunteer attorneys who serve between 3-20 hours per month.

The Senior Legal Hotline instituted a new volume control system about in 1996. As is to be expected in an area this densely populated, call back slips would stack up in unmanageable piles. The new system, which the staff loves, involves making appointments for call backs. The call handlers take calls as they come in from 9:00 A.M- 1:00 P.M. Monday through Thursdays. When all the call handlers are occupied, a Senior Aide answers the call and takes the client’s name and basic intake information. She then makes an appointment for the client to be called back by a case handler. Appointments are usually made for the next day but no more than two days in advance. If all the appointment slots have been filled for the next two days the client is asked to call after that to make an appointment. Appointments are scheduled for half-hour slots. There are usually 8-10 appointments made daily. Each call handler has particular appointment days scheduled. This system has effectively eliminated the back-log. Emergencies are still handled immediately. The Hotline receives about 50 calls per day.

The Northern California Senior Legal Hotline does not have a low-fee referral service mainly because an extensive low fee referral network already exists in that state and another service would be duplicative. LSNC’s Voluntary Legal Services Program has 600 attorneys for pro bono assistance in the Sacramento area. An organization called California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR) has low fee lawyers to whom the Hotline can refer clients. Fees for the CANHR attorneys vary from county to county. Their assistance is not limited to nursing home matters. The Hotline can also refer eligible clients to legal services organizations and local pro bono and referral attorneys through the Bar. The Hotline also refers clients needing non-legal type assistance to social service agencies and specific organizations for the particular problem.

The Northern California Senior Legal Hotline does not have a low-fee referral service mainly because an extensive low fee referral network already exists in that state and another service would be duplicative. LSNC’s Voluntary Legal Services Program has 600 attorneys for pro bono assistance in the Sacramento area. An organization called California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR) has low fee lawyers to whom the Hotline can refer clients. Fees for the CANHR attorneys vary from county to county. Their assistance is not limited to nursing home matters. The Hotline can also refer eligible clients to legal services organizations and local pro bono and referral attorneys through the Bar. The Hotline also refers clients needing non-legal type assistance to social service agencies and specific organizations for the particular problem.

The Senior Legal Hotline has a 12 line NEC phone system dedicated to the Hotline. There are local and 800 number for callers. The phones and numbers are completely independent from the Legal Services system. The phone system has one voice mailbox only. The phone system was upgraded and integrated into the LSNC network by June, 1997.

The Hotline software is called TurboCases. Its benefits are that it is easy to use and teach and it doesn’t break down. Unfortunately, the software is not adaptable to changes, cannot do reporting easily or run reports when people are putting data into the system.

Quality control is the responsibility of the staff attorney (??) or David Mandel, who reads case notes and gives the call handlers feedback on a daily basis. The paralegals also consult with him regularly on calls. David also holds weekly, formal case review.

The Senior Legal Hotline call handlers have a Frequently Asked Questions book contains sample answers to 75 common senior hotline questions. The Legal Hotline also has a two-volume California Elder Law treatise published by the Bar as well as Nolo Press handbooks and basic practice manuals and other specialty books. The Legal Services office in the building houses a full law library which the Legal Hotline can use whenever needed. CD-ROMS research material and Westlaw is also available.

The Northern California Senior Legal Hotline conducts several projects which it undertakes with a variety of small ancillary grants. Presently, the Legal Hotline offers mortgage foreclosure assistance as well as guardianship workshops. Clients with mortgage difficulties may come in or send in their mortgage documents for review. The Project will try to assist them in negotiating a plan with lenders. The Project also has a community education component where staff presents workshops on how to avoid consumer scams.

The Hotline also runs a popular Grandparent Guardianship Project. The Hotline coordinates two clinics per month in different counties. Grandparents come to the clinics and receive help in filling out and filing Guardianship Petitions for their grandchildren. They pay $20 per petition. The Hotline recruits private attorneys to present the workshops and help the clients fill out the Petitions. The attorneys doing this work are mostly new attorneys just starting their practices. Funding for the Guardianship Project is slated to continue for ‘97.

The California Hotline has robust volunteer attorney participation in call handling. The Hotline has about 16 attorneys who steadily volunteer to staff the hotline. This group is mostly composed of retired attorneys. The volunteer attorneys are required to come in at least 6 hours per month. They are recruited through the attraction of free CLE credits and trainings on specific topics the Hotline holds for them. The volunteers undergo a 4 hour overview on elder law and may borrow videos and the Frequently Asked Questions books.

The volunteers are limited to returning only those calls for which they have received training or have prior experience. The hotline stays open two evenings per month and provides dinner to the volunteers who come to staff the phones.

Brief Services Units: A Preliminary Report, with Appendices

Recommendations and Thoughts from the Managers of the Hotline Outcomes Assessment Study Project, by Robert Echols and Julia Gordon
Reprinted with permission from MIE-Journal, Spring 2003

The Future of Legal Services by Wayne Moore