Legal Aid lands new leadership

LIHUE — New leadership for a nonprofit legal assistance center that works to represent the disadvantaged has been named.

Linda Vass, a staff attorney with the Kauai office of the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii, was appointed managing attorney Wednesday by the board of directors at the lead office in Honolulu. With an interest in public interest litigation, Vass said she enjoys providing legal services to people who cannot afford an attorney.

“A lot of that comes from my own background, growing up in a family that couldn’t afford an attorney if they needed it,” Vass said. “I’ve always had an interest in just helping people who generally would not be able to afford an attorney, or do not have an understanding of their rights and what they can do — and what they cannot do.”

Vass has been with Legal Aid since 2006. The Bakersfield, Calif. native earned her law degree from Seattle University and worked there as a domestic violence attorney for over a year before coming to Kauai, where she gained experience in family law and district court.

The outgoing managing attorney, Emiko Meyers, has been with Legal Aid since 2003 and led the office since 2006. She is now opening a private practice.

Meyers also attended Seattle University and met her spouse and previous managing attorney Gregory Meyers on Kauai. He graduated from George Washington Law School in Washington, D.C. She was going to be a public defender and saw Legal Aid as another opportunity to make a difference.

“It is about justice and wanting people to have equal access to the law,” Meyers said. “It is not a level playing field when one side is represented and the other is not, and I wanted to do my part to help level that playing field.”

Legal Aid is prohibited by federal law from working in criminal law, and cannot assist people in suits against the government or for seeking monetary damages or for personal injury.

The agency works in family law, consumer law, landlord and tenant law and assisting with public benefits. This includes priorities of assisting elderly over age 60, domestic violence victims, the homeless and helping people to keep their homes.

A special unit in Oahu handles foreclosure cases and provides assistance throughout the state by phone in coordination with the Kauai office.

“We do try to do a lot of education outreach and in-service,” Meyers said. “We spend a lot of time on landlord-tenant education for potential tenants on their rights and responsibilities, to protect themselves but also to avoid being evicted by their own wrong-doing.”

The work always touches on issues related to legal matters but is not something that Legal Aid can handle directly. They do outreach education to social service agencies about referrals to help their clients. Not as many social service providers are on the Neighbor islands and people turn to Legal Aid when they find obstacles with accessing resources, Vass said. Legal Aid refers cases out, in addition to meeting the legal needs of clients. Legal Aid also participates in community task forces and is in court with more than 700 cases a year.

Legal Aid is not the first line of support but it can assist with accessing or renewing public benefits when eligible, she said. When someone can regain their source of income, or custody, or other benefits then it may help to prevent homelessness and provide stability in other parts of their lives.

“People come in after getting bounced around from agency to agency, trying to find the right one that can help them with their issue,” Meyers said.

Legal Aid tries to remove the legal barriers within its limitations as a nonprofit firm that acts as a social service agency for people who can’t afford an attorney. There is no income limitation for victims of domestic violence, youth ages 16 and over.

Changes the law school that Gregory Meyers attended to George Washington Law School in Washington, D.C.