What’s New

Legal Aid Elects Two New Directors to Board

Legal Aid of Napa Valley is pleased to announce the addition of Osvaldo Gómez Martínez and Julia Walk, Esq. to its Board of Directors. Mr. Gómez Martínez is a Ph.D. candidate in Social and Political Science at the University of Cambridge, and Ms. Walk is an attorney in the Napa office of Dickenson, Peatman & Fogarty where she specializes in estate planning and administration.

“We are excited and honored to have Osvaldo and Julia become Directors of Legal Aid,” said Naomi Dreskin-Anderson, President of Legal Aid’s Board. “They each bring a unique energy and intellect to the organization and will make great additions to our team.”

Mr. Gómez Martínez, who was one of the first Gates Millennium Scholarship recipients, served as an economic and policy analyst for the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Relations and the Mexican Delegation to the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). He has also consulted and worked for the Mexican Ministry of Social Development, the City of New York and other public and non-for-profit organizations on policy analysis, organizational re-structuring and program development and evaluation for a full range of social issues including education, legal advocacy, economic development, and poverty alleviation.

Ms. Walk has a long-standing passion for public interest service. Previously, she co-chaired Habitat for Humanity projects, provided research assistance for the Public International Law & Policy Group’s Kosovo Independence Project and assisted low-income taxpayers through Tax-Aid.

Legal Aid to Host Immigration Forum to Provide Free Bilingual Legal Advice to Individuals with Immigration-Related Questions

On Sunday, September 28, 2008, from 10:30am to 1:30pm, Legal Aid of Napa Valley will be hosting an immigration forum where individuals with immigration-related questions can receive free private consultations with one of seven immigration attorneys. Services will be provided to individuals regardless of immigration status and will be available in both English and Spanish. No advance reservations are necessary to attend this event.

The forum will be held at the St. Helena Catholic School, which is located at 1255 Oak Avenue, St. Helena, CA 94574. For more information please call Legal Aid of Napa Valley at (707) 259-0579. For English language flyers advertising this opportunity, click here. For Spanish language flyers advertising this opportunity, click here.

For the fourth consecutive year, this Forum has been made possible thanks to the generous support of Auction Napa Valley.

Click here to view Legal Aid's Media Advisory about the Forum.

Legal Aid Conducts Pro Bono Survey of Napa Legal Community as Part of ABA Award to Promote Legal Services for Seniors

Legal Aid of Napa Valley has received a prestigious grant from the American Bar Association to launch its “Pro Bono Initiative: Community Wide Lawyering for Seniors.” The new and innovative pilot project will combine the expertise of Legal Aid attorneys with that of private practitioners to work collaboratively to increase the number of Napa County seniors receiving essential legal representation and education free of charge.

As a part of its grant activities, Legal Aid is currently conducting a survey of the Napa County Bar to help inform it of the types of pro bono activities that active and emeritus attorneys in Napa County find most appealing. To view and complete this survey, click here.

Legal Aid’s key partners in this first-of-its-kind initiative include Napa County’s three largest law firms—Dickenson, Peatman & Fogarty, Gaw Van Male and Coombs & Dunlap, LLP—as well as the Napa County Bar Association and Napa County Women Lawyers.

The $10,000 grant was awarded by the ABA Commission on Law & Aging and the Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging under
their 2008-2009 Partnerships in Law and Aging Program. Legal Aid is one of six PACP grant recipients nationwide.

County Approves Funding for Legal Aid Program to Educate and Assist Seniors Interested in Creating Advance Health Care Directives

On July 22, 2008, the Napa County Board of Supervisors approved grant funding for Legal Aid's Take Charge of Your Life Campaign – Empowering Seniors to Prepare for Incapacity and End of Life (the “Campaign”). The purpose of the Campaign is to improve the general health and well-being of Napa County seniors by promoting seniors’ thoughtful and informed completion of advance health care directives (“directives”) by (1) creating and distributing a consumer guide to directives, (2) offering free presentations and legal clinics throughout Napa County on end-of-life decision-making and (3) assisting seniors in the completion and execution of directives.

To achieve these goals, the Campaign will recruit attorneys from Napa County’s private Bar to work in conjunction with Legal Aid attorneys to provide pro bono (free) legal services, individually and in clinical settings, to interested seniors. This approach will ensure that an increasing number of Napa County seniors will receive essential legal advice, education and assistance on end-of-life care options, the importance of discussing preferences with loved ones, and the practical aspects of putting one’s final health care wishes into a documented legal format.

Funding for the Initiative comes from the County's Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) funds, the purpose of which is to promote and support the provision of "health services" in the County.

Legal Aid of Napa Valley Receives $64,000 Cy Pres Award

Thanks to the recommendation of Niall McCarthy of the law firm of Cotchett Pitre & McCarthy, Legal Aid of Napa Valley recently received a $64,000 cy pres award from the settlement of the Northern Trust Bank of California class action litigation. These funds will assist Legal Aid in providing critical legal services to Napa County's most vulnerable populations—seniors, immigrants and low-income individuals.

In the $21 million settlement of the class action law suit, Northern Trust Bank of California has agreed to pay the beneficiaries of trust accounts about $15,000 each on average. The lawsuit alleged that Northern Trust charged excessive management fees to individuals, charities and others with trust accounts. The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, said that Northern Trust held and managed investments on behalf of beneficiaries, collecting fees based on a percentage of the assets. The trusts should have been charged annual fees of less than 1%, but were illegally ratcheted up to about 1.4% a year, the suit said. Co-lead counsel Niall P. McCarthy of CP&M said the overcharges began in 1981 and continued until 2003. The settlement was approved in Los Angeles Superior Court.

What is a cy pres award?

Class Action attorneys negotiating settlement or litigating the remedy in their actions must often address the probability that not all class members will be located, or that defendant's conduct has made full restitution to all injured victims impossible or infeasible. Under such circumstances, the courts may approve a charitable donation out of unclaimed residue of class action funds, or a direct grant in lieu of damages to any entity that will vindicate class member rights in the future. This approach avoids a windfall to the defendant and serves the deterrent goals of civil rights laws.