FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact Shelby Jean, Director of Communications
817.339.5384 or
jeans@lanwt.org
FORT WORTH, Texas��As rescue and evacuation efforts continue in East Texas and Louisiana following the destruction dealt by Hurricane Harvey, Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas (LANWT) attorneys and paralegals have been providing telephone assistance to eligible evacuees since last week, and began meeting one-on-one with evacuees on Labor Day when the emergency shelter/recovery center opened at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas. The LANWT employees are members of the firm�s Disaster Response Team.
In addition to being onsite at the recovery center, the team members continued to field calls being made to LANWT�s disaster hotline from survivors and evacuees over the Labor Day weekend. LANWT joins other area agencies at the recovery center, including Disability Rights Texas, 211 Texas, Texas Workforce Commission, and the Department of Public Safety, who are attempting to provide immediate assistance to evacuees.
Among the legal issues people are seeking help with are property damage, identity theft, emergency benefits, and landlord/tenant issues, including paying rent on homes and apartments that are not currently livable or accessible. In the coming weeks, LANWT expects to see an increase in questions about recovery of important documents, insurance claims and appeals, and dealing with home contractors.
�The Disaster Response Team has done an outstanding job of immediately and enthusiastically responding to help those in need,� says Tom Stutz, Director of Litigation. �Not only are we anticipating additional assistance from our attorneys and paralegals firmwide, but we are also expecting to see an increase in assistance from the private bar, including attorneys who volunteers with the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program.�
Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas is a nonprofit organization that strives to meet the legal needs of more than 1.5 million eligible clients in its 114-county service area. The fifth-largest Legal Aid program in the United States, LANWT provides a wide variety of broad-based legal services to low-income and disadvantaged clients including family law, wills and estates, landlord/tenant cases, public benefits, tax issues, real property matters, and community revitalization efforts.
