Cleveland.com – Akron attorneys team with Community Legal Aid, Akron Children’s Hospital for Guardianship Project
January 22, 2018 • 2 min read
By Brittany Nader, special to cleveland.com,
[email protected]
AKRON, Ohio – Local attorneys have partnered with a non-profit law firm to provide pro-bono guardianship assistance to families of children with special needs.
Buckingham, Doolittle and Burroughs, LLC and Community Legal Aid will guide clients through the process of transitioning their children with disabilities to adulthood and becoming their legal guardians.
The Guardianship Project is part of Community Legal Aid’s Health Education Advocacy and Law (HEAL) project.
HEAL is a partnership between Akron Children’s Hospital health providers and attorneys at Community Legal Aid.
The non-profit has collaborated with Akron Children’s Hospital on the HEAL project for several years. The collaboration gave attorneys insight into the community’s need for assistance in filing for and processing guardianship requests.
Shelley Walker, director of social work at Akron Children’s Hospital, said guardianship ensures children with disabilities are receiving continuous care after they turn 18.
“It legally allows another adult, appointed by the court, to make decisions for the young adult’s medical, financial and other needs,” Walker said in a news release.
Once Akron Children’s Hospital determines a medical need for a guardian, Community Legal Aid’s team of intake specialists and paralegals screen clients and collect basic information.
The case is then sent to Buckingham, Doolittle and Burroughs, LLC attorneys and assigned to an associate.
Buckingham, Doolittle and Burroughs, LLC launched the project this month with a training session. Each participating attorney will take one to two cases per year to start.
The law firm worked with Community Legal Aid’s Volunteer Legal Services program in 2017 to find an opportunity to help the local community in a meaningful way.
The firms agreed providing pro-bono services to families through the Guardianship Project filled an important need.
“It’s a relatively straightforward process for an attorney, and the Probate Court works very hard to be accessible to families, but it can still feel overwhelming for some parents or guardians to navigate,” Marie Curry, Community Legal Aid’s managing attorney for HEAL, said in a news release.
Getting the legal backing they need as their loved ones grow out of the children’s system can be an emotional process for these families.
“It can be especially burdensome for those in lower-income brackets, who often are working more than one job, caring for their family outside the hospital, while also navigating the medical needs of a sick child,” Curry said in a news release.
