From its beginnings in 1974, Bet Tzedek has helped Holocaust survivors in their struggle for justice. This year, our Holocaust Reparations Advocate, Mark Rothman, and the law firm of Latham & Watkins brought the fight to the German courts on behalf of a client named Stanley Orzech. The German government denied Orzech’s claim because more than 55 years ago, he neglected to check a box on an application form. Stanley Orzech survived World War II through his intelligence, strength of character, and luck. Living in the Krakow ghetto, he stayed alive because he moved supplies for the Nazis. Orzech also bribed local authorities to smuggle beans, flour and matzoh into the ghetto. He was 13 years old. When a 1997 German law created a reparations program called ZRBG for survivors of the ghettos, Orzech applied. To his shock, he was rejected. The German government cited a 1949 form in which Orzech neglected to check a box that asked if he had lived in a ghetto. Unfortunately, Orzech is not alone. The German government has rejected 143 of the 150 clients that Bet Tzedek helped apply for this program. Earlier this year, a German newspaper reported that the government approved just 4,000 of the 67,000 applicants worldwide. Applicants can appeal twice at the administrative level before they have to file a lawsuit in German social court. Most survivors live outside Germany, and a lawsuit in a foreign country, in a foreign language, is beyond the abilities of nearly all applicants. Without Bet Tzedek and the pro bono assistance of Latham & Watkins, Orzech would have had no recourse. For the last year, Mark Rothman, Bet Tzedek’s Holocaust Reparations Advocate, and volunteer attorneys from Latham & Watkins' office in Hamburg, Germany have pursued multiple claims in the German courts. Orzech’s case was the first one to go to trial. As the first trial of its kind, the case could establish a legal precedent that benefits the tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors eligible for this and other reparations programs. The lowest level of the German social courts rejected Orzech’s claim, relying once again upon the 1949 application as the basis for its decision. Bet Tzedek and Latham & Watkins remain undeterred, and have appealed to a higher court. For as long as necessary, Bet Tzedek will continue to pursue justice for Mr. Orzech and the thousands of other survivors who should be receiving a small, delayed measure of justice. Bet Tzedek thanks The Claims Conference, Mr. Albert Praw and the Ziering Foundation for their support of the Holocaust Reparations Project.
Our staff works tirelessly to ensure that our clients receive the best outcome possible. Our Family Caregiver Project benefits from the combined efforts of attorney Janet Morris and paralegal Kim Williams. In one case, they helped a blind, disabled woman obtain the care she needed to keep her husband in their home. Mr. J is 80 years old and suffers from dementia. He must be watched to make sure he doesn’t wander out of the house and get lost. His wife is also 80 and tries to care for him, but she is legally blind and uses oxygen. Their combined disabilities made it impossible for them to maintain their rent-controlled apartment. Their landlord gave them notice to clean up their apartment or be evicted. At the time they approached Bet Tzedek for help, the couple received four hours a day of home care assistance on weekdays from the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program. They did not have any help on the weekends and struggled to care for themselves on Saturday and Sunday. Their social worker suggested that they move into a nursing home. Mrs. J refused, because she worried that a nursing home would place her husband in a special unit for patients with dementia and thus end their life together. Bet Tzedek’s Family Caregiver Project sought more in-home care for Mr. and Mrs. J. In addition to the personal benefits for the couple, these types of arrangements save thousands of dollars in public money, as in-home care is dramatically less expensive than nursing home care. At the hearing, Janet and Kim presented compelling evidence that Mr. J needs constant supervision to keep him out of danger. Based on our advocacy, IHSS agreed to raise their hours of home help from 4 hours a day to 11 hours every day, including Saturday and Sundays. Mr. and Mrs. J are now able to remain together, living in a clean and safe apartment. Bet Tzedek thanks the Amgen Foundation for its support of the Family Caregiver Project.
In the days after Hurricane Katrina, more than 4,000 hurricane evacuees arrived in Los Angeles. They usually had little more than the clothes on their backs. In the weeks following the disaster, Bet Tzedek took a leading role in organizing a massive volunteer effort to help evacuees rebuild their lives. Bet Tzedek developed expertise in responding to community emergencies through our work following the 1992 civil unrest and 1994 Northridge earthquake. This time, Bet Tzedek joined with the Los Angeles Pro Bono Council, a partnership of public-interest legal organizations and pro bono volunteers from private law firms and law schools, to meet the needs of evacuees. Within a month of the hurricanes, The evacuees need help with housing, health care and the paperwork for insurance claims and government recovery programs. Bet Tzedek made a commitment to work with evacuees for as long as necessary. The dedication of our volunteer attorneys enables us to fulfill that promise. Click here to learn more about volunteering with Bet Tzedek.
Every year, top law school graduates work full-time as Bet Tzedek Fellows. In one case from the Employment Rights Project this year, Fellow Kevin Kish and volunteer counsel from Skadden Arps helped a low-wage worker collect the wages he had earned over three years of 90-hour workweeks. MR. V’s CASE Our client, Mr. V, worked for three years at a bar/restaurant in South Gate. For the first year he worked seven days a week, typically 14 hours a day, as a cook and cleaner. Mr. V was paid $725 twice a month, which averaged to about $3.25/hour. Per his employer's request that he remain on the premises to keep an eye on things at night, Mr. V slept in the office, cleaned up in the restroom and ate his meals either in the bar or from the nearby taco truck. Over the next two years, he worked 14 hours a day for six days a week. He continued to sleep in the office on the 6 days he worked; he slept in a friend's office on the 7th day. When Mr. V’s son in Central America developed a brain tumor, Mr. V asked his boss for the $7.25/hour they had agreed upon when he was hired. Mr. V wanted to use the money to pay for his son’s operation. Rather than give him the promised wages, Mr. V's boss fired him. Mr. V filed a complaint on his own with the Labor Commissioner. When the employer responded that Mr. V was not his employee, the Labor Commissioner dismissed the case. Mr. V then asked Bet Tzedek for help. ERP Fellow Kevin Kish and pro bono counsel from Skadden Arps, Ronda McKaig, pursued his appeal and sued the restaurant owners for additional damages. While acknowledging in court that Mr. V. did work for them for three years, the owners’ only defense was that, because Mr. V is an undocumented immigrant, they had no legal obligation to pay him. California law provides that all workers, including undocumented immigrants, have the right to the wages they earned. On the day of the scheduled trial, the defense made a settlement offer. Our client accepted the offer for $70,000! The settlement compensated Mr. V for his work and, more importantly, enabled him to pay for his son’s operation. Fortunately, Mr. V’s son is recovering nicely from the operation and is looking forward to a healthy New Year! Bet Tzedek thanks The S. Mark Taper Foundation for a two-year grant in support of the Employment Rights Project (ERP). The grant supports the community outreach and education efforts of ERP staff. The S. Mark Taper Foundation, founded in 1989, is a private family foundation dedicated to enhancing the quality of people's lives by supporting nonprofit organizations and their work in the community. Bet Tzedek thanks the Rene Barge Foundation for its support of the Employment Rights Project.
Bet Tzedek helps more than 3,000 clients each year with housing matters. These cases occur in the context of a skyrocketing housing market that brings increased pressures on our low-income clients. Staff attorneys, paralegals, summer law clerks and pro bono counsel all contributed to several key victories. Bet Tzedek worked with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and the law firm of Jones Day to file an amicus brief in the California Supreme Court for the case Action Apartments v. City of Santa Monica. The Court of Appeal had upheld the invalidation of an important provision of Santa Monica's Anti-Tenant Harassment Ordinance. The City of Santa Monica and the California League of Cities, among others, hailed the amicus as an immense contribution to briefings on the case, for it presents the full impact of the current housing crisis on low-income tenants. Rising housing prices result in increased pressure on tenants who pay affordable rents, as landlords seek to remove long-term tenants and raise rents. In one case, Housing Attorney Cesar Noriega helped Ms. C and her family as they faced eviction from their home of six years. Ms. C and her family had been living without heat in the middle of winter for several months, and suffered from health problems caused by the serious mold that grew in the walls of their apartment. The walls, normally white, actually looked black from the mold. Ms. C works as a health aide while raising three children, and she tried for several months to get the landlord to fix the problems. Finally, with no response from the landlord, Ms. C started to withhold rent. Almost immediately, the landlord moved to evict Ms. C, her husband and their three children. When Cesar met with Ms. C, he observed other serious health and safety violations, including cockroach infestation. Ms. C didn’t want a monetary settlement; she wanted her children to live in a clean, safe apartment. Noriega offered a settlement to the landlord that would have resulted in the needed repairs. The landlord refused. At trial, Noriega presented compelling evidence of the threats to the family’s health. The judge’s decision was a clear victory for Ms. C and her family—a 60% rent reduction and an order for the landlord to make all the necessary repairs. The court order also compelled the landlord to move the clients into a different apartment while the repairs were complete, to avoid respiratory problems from mold released into the air. After the repairs were finished, Ms. C and her family returned to the clean, safe apartment for which she had fought. Thanks to the Sydney M. Irmas Foundation for its support of the Sydney M. Irmas Housing Conditions Project.
Bet Tzedek has a well-deserved reputation for excellence in the area of elder law. This year, Executive Director Mitch Kamin and Director of Litigation Michelle Williams Court both advocated at the highest levels of government. Mitch Kamin at White House Conference on Aging Congressman Howard Berman appointed Bet Tzedek’s Executive Director Mitch Kamin as one of California’s delegates to the White House Conference on Aging. The Conference on Aging is held every 10 years, and the original Conference is credited with the creation of Medicare. Kamin’s appointment is a tribute to his expertise and to the three decades of contributions by Bet Tzedek to the lives of seniors in Los Angeles. The Conference was held December 11-14, 2005 in Washington, DC, and is expected to impact national policy for the next decade.
In November, The Los Angeles Times ran a series of articles on abuses in the conservatorship system. Conservators are court-appointed guardians for individuals incapable of managing their own legal and financial affairs. The L.A. Times series focused on abuses in both the appointment and oversight processes that left many elderly residents as virtual prisoners in their own homes. When the California State Senate convened hearings to identify solutions, Bet Tzedek’s Director of Litigation Michelle Williams Court was one of the first witnesses called. Wiliams Court’s knowledge and commitment to the issue made her an obvious choice, and her testimony this month brought much-needed insight into long-overdue reforms. Bet Tzedek attorneys and staff will continue to push for reform of the conservatorship industry in the coming years.
Jasmin started at Bet Tzedek because she wanted to do volunteer work in the legal field before going to law school. At the time she was applying for law school, she found Bet Tzedek through an Internet search. Our work with low-income clients appealed to her main inspiration for pursuing a legal career—a keen sense of the possibilities of the law to help those who are being mistreated. Jasmin started as a pre-screener, talking with clients on the phone and assessing whether Bet Tzedek could help them. Her sharp analytical skills and her warm personality soon won her a promotion to intake worker. Jasmin continued to perform client interviews and prepare case research until she began her law school studies at Boalt School of Law in the Fall of 2002. At Boalt, Jasmin’s commitment to justice pushed her to volunteer at the East Bay Workers’ Rights Clinic and as a Street Law Instructor who taught high school students about the law. In the summer after her 2L year, Jasmin returned to Bet Tzedek as a Law Clerk. She worked in the Valley office with the Employment Rights Project staff, helping them to represent low-wage workers. One highlight of her summer was the settlement of a wage case. In that case, a client had been making less than $3 an hour, simply because the employer thought he could exploit an undocumented immigrant. Jasmin prepared a compelling argument, and the opposing counsel moved for a settlement before the hearing. For Jasmin, the victory was satisfying because it meant the client could afford a new, safer apartment. Two stints with Bet Tzedek only made Jasmin eager to return. She loves the energy in both offices, and returned this Fall for more volunteer work. She still finds it thrilling to be able to do great work for people who otherwise would be denied access to justice. After passing the Bar this Fall, Jasmin attended the swearing-in ceremony on a Friday. That Monday, she was back in the Fairfax office, working on an unlawful detainer case. In Jasmin’s words, “I like to be somebody who’s really listening to the clients. If I can hear their problems, I’m not only helping them with their legal case. I’m making them feel that someone cares.”
Bet Tzedek’s mission is “equal justice for all.” Our attorneys serve any low-income resident in need, no matter their age, race, religious background or disability. Nursing Home Advocacy Project (NHAP) Director Jody Spiegel recently helped a disabled woman who was facing homelessness after an attempted eviction by the nursing home where she lived. Ms. C is a 40-year-old wheelchair-bound woman with muscular dystrophy. Living in a nursing home, Ms. C often meditated to help herself deal with the terminal disease that had changed her from an active yoga teacher to a person unable to perform activities of daily living without assistance. While meditating, Ms. C lit candles and incense in her room. The nursing home administrator reprimanded Ms. C for her conduct, then moved to evict her without warning. The administrator called Ms. C’s mother and told her that Ms. C and her belongings would be placed on the mother’s front lawn. The mother frantically looked for another nursing home, but could not find an appropriate placement due to Ms. C’s young age (relative to the general nursing home population). Two days before the eviction, the mother called Bet Tzedek. NHAP Director Jody Spiegel tried to reason with the administrator, and explained that California law bars such an eviction. The administrator hung up on Spiegel. She then filed an appeal of the eviction. It was a Friday afternoon. Hearings on nursing home evictions usually take a week to be scheduled. When Spiegel returned to the office on Monday morning, she had several voicemail messages from Ms. C and her mother. The hearing was scheduled for 11am that day! Without any time to prepare and no client documents, Jody rushed to Duarte for the hearing. Despite the lack of time to prepare, Jody successfully argued that it is the responsibility of the nursing home to assess and care for its residents, and to make appropriate discharge plans if they are unable to do so. The hearing officer agreed that simply dropping a resident on a relative’s front lawn is not a discharge plan. Ms. C was able to stay at her nursing home until her condition required hospitalization. Bet Tzedek thanks the Archstone Foundation for its support of the Nursing Home Advocacy Project.
Bet Tzedek proudly co-sponsors two upcoming Conferences. Both events are in Los Angeles, and both advance our efforts to help more low-income residents of the city access justice. USC Law School hosts National Jewish Law Student Conference
In addition to Bet Tzedek, conference sponsors include the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, ADL, USC Casden Institute, Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Pepperdine School of Law, Progressive Jewish Alliance, Republican Jewish Coalition, USC Hillel, and USC Law School. Bet Tzedek Legal Services is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider. Confronting Elder Financial Abuse: Legal Issues and Litigation Strategies - A CLE Conference. Thursday, March 16, 2006 This comprehensive, one-day CLE conference on elder financial abuse will feature former San Francisco City Attorney Louise Renne, prominent experts in the field of elder abuse and a keynote address by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. Ideal for elder law, trust and estate attorneys as well as civil litigators, the program will include four substantive segments:
Fee: (includes continental breakfast and lunch) Bet Tzedek Legal Services is a State Bar of California approved MCLE provider. In addition to Bet Tzedek, co-sponsors include:
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Bet Tzedek had helped to recruit and train more than 900 volunteer attorneys and law students. Every day throughout October and November, volunteers met with evacuees at local Red Cross shelters, churches and community centers.
Michelle Williams Court at State Senate Judiciary Hearing on Conservatorships
Bet Tzedek benefits from the caring and expertise of more than 500 volunteers every year. Collectively, volunteers contribute more than 33,000 hours of service valued at more than $5 million annually. Bet Tzedek’s entire cash budget is only $5 million, meaning that volunteers effectively double the size of the organization. One of those volunteers, Jasmin Daneshgar, recently began her third stint with Bet Tzedek. She volunteered in 2001 after graduating from college, in 2003 as a law student, and now in 2005 as a lawyer.
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