Problem: Thelma James was a prime candidate for a real estate ripoff: She is 68, has precious little money and can't read or write. "I won't lie to you. I was so-o-o excited," the widow and former duplex dweller said of the purchase of her first home, a sagging frame structure on Snowden. "I was glad to get me a house." When James realized she had been swindled she turned to Memphis Area Legal Services, which represented her in a lawsuit. Now, James's monthly house notes have dropped from $796 - more than twice her monthly income - to an affordable $247. Some of the people who took advantage of her through a questionable loan program were sent to jail. "I don't know what I would have done without Legal Services," said James. "They solved a lot of my problems." James is one of more than 3,000 clients served last year by MALS, which provides assistance for civil matters, such as domestic abuse and family-related problems, Social Security and Supplemental Security Income, veterans, housing and consumer fraud cases. Like James, most clients are elderly or female. Some are handicapped. Some need medical care or veteran's benefits. Some are trying to escape eviction or an abusive marriage. And 87 percent live at or below poverty level. Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton recently said Legal Services is important for those who, because of poverty or other struggles in life, think justice is an empty word. "They must be given reason to believe that the law is for them too," said Wharton, a former executive director of MALS. But MALS faces a funding crunch next year, brought on by a $200,000 shortfall from three revenue sources.

Question: "Does MALS serve clients who are handicapped?"

Answer: "Some"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes
Answer: yes

Problem: The Domestic Violence Legal Assistance Program fills the gap of legal resources for domestic violence survivors who can't afford an attorney. Domestic violence survivors in Jackson, Vicksburg, Hattiesburg, Oxford and Pascagoula can all get help. Julia Crockett, deputy director of Central Southwest Mississippi Legal Services Corp., said the program expects to help nearly 1,000 domestic violence victims. Crockett said legal help gives domestic abuse survivors a way to rebuild their lives. "They have been made to feel by the abuser that no one is going to help them do anything, so when they come to us they are desperate," she said. "Those who need legal help and don't get it feel totally lost. Because then they feel like they are forced to stay in that situation." Crockett said the program, funded by a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Justice Department, has no economic restrictions on who can get help. Legal services typically helps the poor. Gladys Bunzy, who said she was in an abusive relationship with a boyfriend for eight years, said such a program is long overdue and could be a lifeline for those escaping violent relationships. "When I finally made up my mind to leave, I had a restraining order put against him and that was $50 but that was $50 well spent to me," said Bunzy, 40. "For people who can't afford it, this will be a godsend ... If a woman knows she is going to get some help that will be a burden off her mind, if the law will help her keep that person away from her." Gwen Bouie-Haynes, project director of the Domestic Violence Services Center for Catholic Charities Inc., said often domestic violence survivors do not have the money to seek legal representation. "Legal assistance is a major issue for women fleeing a domestic violence situation," she said. "Often times women are in need of immediate legal assistance services for the protection of the mother and the child. To get a protective order you need to be represented by an attorney." Crockett said the pilot program was launched in 1998 at the Haven House Family Shelter Inc., a domestic violence shelter for women and children in Vicksburg. The program has helped victims in 90 court cases, and 150 legal counseling sessions have been held there.

Question: "How old was Bunzy when she entered the abusive relationship?"

Answer: "32"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes
Answer: yes

Problem: In her storage room-turned-office, Jennifer Baum works under an expanding leak that is causing the ceiling to turn brown and crumble. Mold grows in the buckets positioned to catch the water. She shrugs it off. Outside her office she has taped up a clear plastic suit, and a sign that reads, "All employees must don protective gear before coming in." Such is life in limbo. Nearly a year after Sept. 11, the Legal Aid Society-the lawyers for New York's poor and homeless-remains, well, homeless. The nonprofit has been barred from returning to its 90 Church St. headquarters, across from the World Trade Center site, because of environmental concerns. Legal Aid has uncomfortable company. More than 11,500 New Yorkers continue to work out of temporary space, according to analysis by Manhattan-based real estate brokerage TenantWise.com Inc. and Crain's New York Business. That's 8% of the 137,000 workers who lost their offices or access to them when the Twin Towers collapsed. Legal Aid's 450 displaced attorneys and staffers have spent the past 12 months spread among previously unused spaces-some unused for good reason-in the nonprofit's other offices. It could be another year and a half before they return to their old desks. They have contended with difficult working conditions as demand for Legal Aid's services is on the rise because of Sept. 11 and the deteriorating economy. The civil division is spread among a few boroughs. Their papers and documents, some 20,000 boxes worth, are stuck in a storage facility in Linden, N.J. "I am counting the days till we can have all the parts back in one place," says Steven Banks, Legal Aid's associate attorney in chief. In the memories of the exiled workers, the old office has achieved mythical proportions. They say the wood paneling and rugs had the ability to cool emotions and lift spirits. The Legal Aid office on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights, where 65 displaced workers have cobbled together space amid the faded and scratched walls, looks more like a bargain basement.

Question: "Where was the water caught in buckets coming from?"

Answer: "Expanding leak form the ceiling of her storage room-turned-office"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes
Answer:
yes