Student caseworkers provide vital legal services to local seniors

Clinic receives $67,000 in grants to support 2011-12 operations

Photo by Aimee Burtch

Elder Law Clinic student caseworkers Chantel Levy, Caitlyn Waring, Warren WhiteKnight, and Nicole Truman of Law '13

The Elder Law Clinic, now in its second year, is already filling a gap and providing essential and much-needed legal services to older adults in the Kingston area. Under the supervision of the Director, Professor David Freedman, student caseworkers are gaining practical experience by working with clients directly, dealing with capacity and consent issues as well as addressing problems of abuse. In partnership with community organizations, they are also conducting legal research and educational workshops.

“The Clinic certainly provides us with a service we didn’t have before,” says Dave Swerdfeger, President of the Frontenac-Kingston Council on Aging. “The Kingston Community free law clinic won’t take on powers-of-attorney documents, wills, or anything like that. They refuse to do that, which means there’s nowhere else for lower-income individuals to turn for these things.”

The Law Foundation of Ontario recently presented the Clinic with a $48,000 grant, and Legal Aid Ontario made a $19,000 grant to help fund this year’s operations.

“We’re lucky and very grateful that these grants became available,” Freedman says. “It’s difficult to find external sources of funding for a university-affiliated clinic that’s ground-breaking in so many ways.” One early discovery was that many in the Clinic’s client base have complex needs that complicate their legal needs with “communication issues, mobility issues or cognitive challenges.” In these situations, student caseworkers must travel to the homes of clients who are unable to come into the Clinic.

Swerdfeger says the Elder Law Clinic needs to do “more of what it’s doing,” though he can see that if there was greater awareness in the community about the services it offers, more clients would be directed to the Clinic than it can currently handle. Freedman admits the Elder Law Clinic does, in fact, have a very small capacity at present, but says, “Notwithstanding that, we’re able to act on matters where realistically there isn’t any other access to legal services.”

Likening the Clinic’s infrastructure and operating expenses to those of a “small law firm,” he allows that to do more costs more – and “more is what the team would certainly like to do.” If enough funding were to become available, Freedman would not only increase the Clinic’s client capacity, but the Clinic could remain open year-round with the help of summer students. The benefits would go both ways, for the Elder Law Clinic provides students with a clinical opportunity that is not available at any other law school in Canada.

Warren WhiteKnight, Law ’13, says he enjoys the practical experience that allows him to help a marginalized portion of society -- “people who might not otherwise receive help.” He says he is learning client-management and other valuable legal skills that go beyond what can be taught in a classroom setting.

“Drafting wills or powers-of-attorney is not something students normally do in law school,” Warren says, “but with Professor Freedman supervising the Elder Law Clinic, I’m getting to do that.”

If you would like to help support the Elder Law Clinic and/or any of the Faculty’s other clinical programs, you can make a contribution to the Hands-on-Learning Fund at http://law.queensu.ca/alumni/DeansfundraisingPriorities.html