The Practising Law Institute is offering a free webcast of a live presentation from San Francisco entitled Representing the Pro Bono Client: Advocacy Skills for Administrative Hearings 2016 on September 22, 2016 at 12:00 pm Eastern.

The need for pro bono assistance with administrative hearings has never been higher.  Clients who have been denied or are at risk of losing vital public benefits, employment benefits, and/or housing subsidies, have a right to an administrative hearing, but are often unrepresented in what can be a confusing and adversarial process. 

Significant changes to key benefits programs, including Social Security, General Assistance, CalWORKs, CalFresh, Medi-Cal and In-Home Support Services have occurred in recent years imposing new complex rules.  On the unemployment insurance front, while the number of applications has overall declined, we have yet to see a reverse of the recession-based trend of employers challenging many unemployment insurance benefit applications.  Housing Authorities frequently seek to deny and revoke housing subsidies often due to tenuous allegations of criminal activity.  Meanwhile, low-wage workers are experiencing wage theft at unprecedented rates and relying on the Labor Commissioner more than ever before to recover their unpaid wages.

Legal aid services have also suffered funding problems and staffing cuts with reduced ability to meet the demand to represent clients in these cases.  Unfortunately, many individuals who are entitled to desperately-needed benefits but have had their benefits improperly denied, lowered, or terminated, who are at risk of losing a housing subsidy, or who are not paid according to basic wage and hour laws cannot make it through the administrative hearing process on their own.  As a result, low-income families face the very real possibility of hunger, homelessness, and instability.

This training is designed to help mitigate the crisis faced by low-income families everywhere by providing attorneys with a basic understanding of common issues and strategies in providing pro bono assistance with administrative hearings.  The program will focus on California law, but will also cover many topics such as due process and other rights that apply nationwide; therefore, advocates from other forums would benefit from the information and attending the program.

What You Will Learn

• An overview of administrative hearings low-income clients most frequently need involving:
• State public benefits, including General Assistance, CalWORKs, CalFresh, Medi-Cal and Unemployment Insurance claims;
• Federal public benefits, including Supplemental Security Income;
• Federally assisted housing programs, including public housing and Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP or "Section 8"); and
• Unpaid wages, and other wage and hour-related rights.
• Best practices and common advocacy strategies, preparation, and procedures for administrative hearings, including:
• Obtaining evidence: informal and formal discovery
• Drafting position statements/hearing briefs
• Presenting your case at hearing
• Alternatives: Informal resolution
• Rehearings and further appeals
• California law and practice specifics

Who Should Attend

All attorneys interested in or currently assisting pro bono clients with administrative matters through representation or in clinical settings; law firm pro bono coordinators, managers and partners; law clinic students and faculty; and public interest and non-profit legal services attorneys and staff would benefit from attending this program.

More Information and Registration