Brenda came to Legal Aid for assistance obtaining a custody order for her three children. The children’s father, Wayne, was in prison at the time for robbery and domestic assault. Wayne had abused and harassed Brenda for almost a decade. He punched her in the face repeatedly, kicked her in the face and stomach, tried…
When Irene’s husband passed away, she did not have enough resources to pay for his funeral. As a last resort, she and her disabled son went to a “payday loan” company to borrow $150 each.
Monica and her husband, Art, had three children together. During their marriage, Art severely abused Monica by such acts as pulling her by her ankles off a couch, trying to push her out of a moving car while she was pregnant with their middle child, throwing a phone book at her face the night before…
Legal Aid’s immigration team began working with Abella in 2016. She wanted to apply for citizenship but couldn’t afford to pay the $680 application filing fee. Abella was separating from her husband. She applied for food stamps for her toddler daughter but was denied. Had she been approved, the food stamps award letter could have…
Marge paid $50 per month toward a previous tax balance for years, even though her only sources of income were SSI, food stamps, and housing assistance. She thought she had finally made the last payment when the IRS sent her a new bill, including penalties and interest, which brought the balance back to $700. Marge…
Jack, an elderly man with severe memory problems, first contacted our Joplin Legal Aid office for help with a housing issue. Jack had allowed an individual to live with him rent-free on the condition the tenant would manage Jack’s money and pay his bills. What Jack did not know was that the tenant was stealing…
Sara, a 24 year old woman, had been struggling with mental illness since her teens. Her struggle with mental illness had caused her to be brought in to police custody on criminal charges. While in custody a Legal Aid attorney met with Sara and believed she was displaying signs of mental illness. The attorney presented…
Beth came to Legal Aid because she was struggling to have her Housing Choice Voucher processed by the Housing Authority of Kansas City
Ted applied for Medicaid and his claim was denied after an administrative hearing. Legal Aid staff filed an appeal on his behalf, which was sustained, in part, because it was clear from the hearing decision that the hearing officer had simply failed to examine a good part of the over-600 pages of medical evidence in…
Maria contacted Legal Aid after she received an audit notice from the IRS regarding her 2013 tax return. She had never received a notice from the IRS before and only hoped she had not inadvertently done something wrong by claiming her grandchildren on her tax return. Maria was especially nervous because she did not have…
