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Local attorneys and Mel Trotter serve those down on their luck

Local attorneys and Mel Trotter serve those down on their luck

Mel Trotter Ministries has been servicing people who are down on their luck, particularly those with substance abuse problems, since long before the recent increases.

And the legal assistance clinic through the ministry has been going strong for almost ten years.

Lawyers, who donate their time, are available every Wednesday from 2-4 p.m. and 5-7 p.m. at the Mel Trotter Ministries location on Commerce in downtown Grand Rapids.

Though the group of lawyers who originated the program came out of the Grand Rapids chapter of the Christian Legal Society, Mel Trotter has supported it all along, through supplying a physical location and administrative and scheduling assistance, and through publicizing it to identify those who are in need of legal services.

Silvestre Roman, the Mel Trotter employee who does the screening and scheduling, says that most cases are family and domestic, criminal related (for example, expungement of a record), or about housing or medical issues. Roman tries to determine the nature of the individual’s case and asks the appropriate attorneys to be there that day.

However, Ron Foster of Ronald L. Foster, Attorney and Counselor at Law in Jenison, who serves as chair of the group, says that often the clinic attorneys offer referral services and information, and in particular refer clients to the official Legal Assistance Center at the courthouse. It is much less frequent, though it happens, that any attorney will represent the individual through the court system.

Roman says that the participants come from around the community, not just from Mel Trotter. The attorneys have reached out to churches, pantries, and ministries in the area to spread the word. Roman says that it is possible, but not necessary, to come in to the 225 Commerce location. He can also be reached by phone at 616-454-3435 extension 292, or by visiting www.meltrotter.org and clicking on “Contact Us.” He says the primary way people hear about the completely free service is word of mouth.

There is also an annual open session with Mel Trotter residents, one each for the men and the women. (Those who reside at the ministry are there for rehabilitation.) Representatives from the Friend of the Court also give information at these sessions. Residents often just need advice rather than representation, and that format suffices to meet their needs.

In fact, Matt Zimmerman of Varnum, an environmental attorney, says that when the group first started, the Mel Trotter residents were the only recipients of services.

As Zimmerman tells the story, the national Christian Legal Society decided it wanted to open legal clinics across the nation to help the less fortunate, so a champion for that cause developed one in Albuquerque. That attorney knew Rev. Tom Lehman, Executive Director of Mel Trotter Ministries at the time, a visionary who had been instrumental in expanding Trotter’s basic rehab and meal provision to include dental, medical and eye care clinics. Lehman thought a legal clinic would round out the package of services the organization could offer, and the Albuquerque attorney visited to help locals set up the program.

Word spread and the attorneys saw the need for a more formal clinic held at the same time each week.

Ron Foster says that Rev. Chico Daniels, the current Mel Trotter Executive Director, is also very supportive of the clinic, and met last fall with the group, which is an incorporated tax-exempt non-profit.

The attorneys currently involved are Paul Greenwald, Eric Brandt, Matt Zimmerman, Renee Stamper, Steve Skahn, Skip Pylman, Nelson Miller and Anne Bachle Fifer.

In recent years, Miller, who is Associate Dean at the Grand Rapids campus of Thomas M. Cooley Law School, personally became involved. Although it is on an unofficial basis, Miller sometimes brings students with him to learn and assist. Foster hopes that the clinic will be officially recognized for students’ off-site experience credit. Bachle Fifer says she is very excited about this opportunity, with its potential to “bring along the next generation of attorneys.”

This small number of volunteers, who put in their time regularly, is joined by another larger group of attorneys who are willing to serve as references if the primary attorneys have questions in other areas of legal expertise.

They are always looking for more volunteers. Even for those willing to take a shift on Wednesdays, the commitment can be as little as two hours a month. Interested attorneys should contact Ron Foster at 616-667-2728.

Their clients come primarily from Kent County, but they also see people from Muskegon, Allegan, and Montcalm, including some referred from a ministry in Greenville, which has had so much economic difficulty.

And what do the successful cases look like?

Anne Bachle Fifer, attorney mediator, says the most common case she has worked with concerns child support and/or custody. The one she has been most excited about is helping straighten out an error where a man who had had his parental rights terminated — and the child adopted — was nonetheless held responsible for child support. The arrearages had piled up over the years and he had been thrown in jail at times, but he had never contacted an attorney because he could not afford one. Bachle Fifer had to see the case all the way through an appeal before the courts acknowledged that it had just been an error. She said the man was very grateful, and Miller gives her a lot of credit for “untangling the mess.”

Zimmerman too related a success story involving a child support issue. A man whose wife was pregnant and did not want the baby asked her to bring their son to term and said he would take full responsibility for him. He had physical custody, but when the couple was divorced, she managed to have the judgment read that she had legal custody and he would have to pay her child support. When the ex-wife was put in prison, the state demanded that he pay in full, by now entailing tens of thousands of dollars.

Zimmerman was finally able to demonstrate that he had been caring for the child all along, and therefore did not owe child support. After many months the Friend of the Court officially agreed to stop pursuing the payments.

In another instance, Zimmerman worked with a woman who was being evicted from her apartment the week before Thanksgiving. The woman had been in and out of rehab clinics, and this was to be her first Thanksgiving with family where she was able to show her progress in combating her addictions — sort of a “re-entry” for her.

Investigation showed that the reason for the eviction was the landlord had been charging the woman for the bulk of the charges to heat the whole apartment building, while other renters paid nothing for utilities. The woman was too inexperienced to realize that the bill was much higher than she should have been paying, and she fell behind.

Zimmerman helped her avoid eviction. She was able to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas in that apartment, which, he says, Mel Trotter Ministries staff was delighted about since it is a Christian organization.

Zimmerman continued by saying that not all the problems of the people they help are due to an outside cause; they often result from bad choices made by the individuals themselves. Sometimes the lawyers just have to counsel them on how to accept the consequences and avoid repeating the behaviors.

Zimmerman credits his faith with making the successes possible.