History of the Legal Aid
Society of Hawai`i (cont.)

In July 1950, Judge Betty Vitousek wrote to the Bar Association of Hawai'i (now Hawaii State Bar Association [HSBA]) proposing the establishment of a Legal Aid society to provide legal services to those persons with a legitimate claim but without funds. The Executive Committee of the Bar gave its approval to the sponsorship of a Legal Aid bureau and lawyers' reference service. The President of the Bar Association (HSBA) appointed a committee consisting both of attorneys and of other business, civic and social service leaders to incorporate a charitable firm known as the Legal Aid Society of Hawai'i.

The Legal Aid Society of Hawai'i (“Legal Aid”) was incorporated on December 1, 1950; the charter was issued by the Treasurer of The Territory of Hawai'i empowering C. Nils Tavares as President, Thomas Waddoups as Vice President, Betty Vitousek as Secretary, and Ronald Jamieson as Treasurer. The doors opened to the first Legal Aid office on March 12, 1951 on the premises of the Better Business Bureau on Alakea Street. Our staff consisted of General Counsel Vincent Yano and Secretary Florence Kaneko. Funding was provided by a grant from the McInerny Foundation through the Community Chest (now Aloha United Way [AUW]) and a contribution from the Bar Association. Our first month of operation ended with 101 open cases.

By 1956, Legal Aid had become a participating member of the Community Chest (AUW). We had our first Supreme Court case: Hollinrake v. Hollinrake, 40 Hawaii 397, and completed our first membership drive with an estimated 75% of attorneys becoming contributing members.
During the 1960s, our services expanded from only civil cases to both civil and criminal matters. We received federal funding in June 1966 through the Hawai'i Office of Economic Opportunity, which funded our expansion to 11 neighborhood centers on O'ahu and part-time coverage of neighbor islands via traveling attorneys. By December 1966, our Kaua'i office opened full-time in the Circuit Court building of Lihue and was staffed with a part-time attorney and secretary. Our Hilo office opened in June 1967 with a full-time attorney. The Legal Aid Board amended priorities to include both law reform and economic development as program goals in April of 1968. Toward the end of 1968, Legal Aid was providing clinical services for the State's Concentrated Employment Program (CEP), which provided training for the unemployed on O'ahu. Legal Aid also signed a contract in 1968 with the State to provide public defender services for indigents charged with misdemeanors until a permanent Public Defender (PD) system could be established. Two full-time attorneys, James Jung and Donald Tsukiyama were assigned to the project.

The 1970s were a period of change. The federally funded Model Cities Program (which encouraged small business development) was implemented with offices in Kalihi-Palama and Wai'anae. Consumer Credit Counseling Service merged with Legal Aid, providing consumer legal counseling for anyone and court services for indigents. The Public Defender Office was taken over by the State as a state agency. Legal Aid attorneys Stan Levin and Peter Lee challenged the right of U.S. Department of Health Education & Welfare to cut social security payments without a prior hearing as a violation of due process. The Board of the Hawai'i State Bar Association voted to take over the Lawyer Referral Service which had been administered by Legal Aid. Attorneys Paul Alston and Stan Levin represented parents and the Hawaii Association for Retarded Children in a class action against the state charging inadequate education opportunities for disabled children. In February 1975, the federal Legal Services Firm (LSC) was established which allowed Legal Aid to receive federal funding directly rather than through state agencies.

In July 1976, state funding cuts imperiled Legal Aid activities. Our Kaua'i and Moloka'i offices stopped accepting new clients. It was expected that by August 1st, Kona, Moloka'i, Wai'anae, and Kahaluu offices would be discontinued, and personnel cuts would be made in all offices. A timely increase in federal funding helped Legal Aid avoid serious cutbacks.

In April 1977, Legal Aid negotiated with the state Department of Education for an expansion of the federally funded breakfast program, allowing over 12,000 low-income students to receive free or low-cost breakfasts in 113 public schools around the state. In August 1977, Legal Aid challenged state regulations that denied public welfare payments to families with interest in property (even those kept in trusts and that could not be accessed for years). In September 1977, Legal Aid won a suit against the State Department of Social Services and Housing by claiming the State had failed to adequately reimburse recipients for work-related expenses (e.g., meals, work clothing, transportation costs, union dues, etc.). In 1979, Legal Aid sued the State Department of Taxation claiming low-income residents were entitled to excise tax credit refund denied them by the State. Over 23,000 claims were filed within ten months of decision.

Beginning in 1980, Legal Aid underwent a major change with the potential expiration of the LSC Act, which provided federal funding for legal assistance to the poor. An effort was led by the Reagan Administration to discontinue funding for legal services. Although not successful, the President's effort did result in a funding reduction of 25%. The Native Hawaiian Legal Firm (NHLC) and Legal Aid established the joint "Native Hawaiian Legal Project," funded by LSC, to assist Native Hawaiians with status legal problems. The Legal Aid Hilo office successfully challenged the denial to Native Hawaiians of access to ancient Hawaiian trails in Ka'u. The trails were reopened. In March 1981, Legal Aid, HSBA, and the Young Lawyers Section of HSBA came to an agreement to create a pro bono program called "Hawai'i Lawyers Care." Hawai`i Lawyers Care accepted Legal Aid’s overflow of cases and referred them out to a panel of volunteer pro bono attorneys. In May 1981, Legal Aid won a suit against the state DSSH, requiring them to pay almost $2 million in retroactive welfare benefits to pregnant women, pursuant to former DSSH regulation. In August 1981, Legal Aid Hilo attorney Ben Gaddis sued DSSH, claiming that children should be allowed welfare benefits, even if their parents had been disqualified by failure to meet work requirements.

State and federal budget cuts in 1983 forced staff retrenchment from 70 positions to just 58 and shortened office hours. In Kaiama v. Aguilar, Legal Aid successfully represented clients in the Hawal'i Supreme Court, which affirmed the right of tenants to sue for and receive statutory damages from landlords for lockouts. In 1986, Mark L. v. DOE, Legal Aid established the right to “compensatory education” for exceptional children who were provided with an inadequate public education when they were age-qualified. In Doe v. Clark, Legal Aid sued on behalf of clients to secure psychiatric emergency treatment and assessment for mental patients at Kona Hospital and to stop the practice of transporting patients 120 miles to Hilo by police shuttle. In 1987, Legal Aid successfully petitioned DHS to change the rule that denied childcare assistance to families receiving Medicaid. In August 1987, Legal Aid challenged termination and reduction of welfare benefits under the Omnibus Reconciliation Act (OBRA). A publication appeared in all newspapers announcing recipients' rights to claim refunds.

Pro se divorce clinics were first offered in 1988 on Kaua'i and on the Big Island. After a success in Wilder & Lasalle v. Hall, the Department of Corrections revised policies to discontinue body cavity visual inspection strip searches after inmates visited the law library and participated in religious services. In addition, the Department of Corrections was required to provide pen and paper to inmates free of charge and immediately upon request, rather than billing inmates and delaying provision of materials for several days. In Linoz v. Bowen, Legal Aid successfully challenged the denial of Medicare reimbursement for air ambulance transportation to hospitals for specialized treatment not available at local hospitals. In response, Medicare established a nationwide hotline for seniors wrongfully denied reimbursement, and over 18,000 claim forms were mailed out.

Legal Aid represented an HIV positive client in 1988 with ARC (AIDS Related Complex) who was denied social security disability benefits. Advocates helped him supplement his medical records and educate the Office of Hearings and Appeals on the new social security regulations regarding persons with AIDS. In 1989, Aki v. Beamer, Legal Aid represented a class of Native Hawaiians concerned about the transference of beach parklands in Anahola, Kaua'i from Hawaiian Homes Commission to the County of Kaua'i for public use by a Governor's executive order. The suit resulted in the Governor voluntarily canceling all executive orders transferring Hawaiian Home Lands to State or County agencies, and improvement of water storage facilities for the benefit of Anahola residents. In F V. Sunn v. Bowen, Legal Aid challenged DHS's classification of Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) payments as "unearned income" which counted against AFDC benefits and succeeded in establishing TDI as comparable to sick pay, an "earned income deduction." In Akau v. Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, Legal Aid negotiated with private landowners of shoreline on the west side of the Big Island, who had blocked public access along an ancient shoreline pedestrian train. Negotiations resulted in greater public access to this area. During the 1980s, Legal Aid also drafted and received legislative support for a comprehensive dependent adult protective services law, meant to address the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of the elderly and disabled.

The 1990s began with the Legislature increasing Legal Aid funding, thus allowing the program to reinstate all 1988 staff positions and to reopen the Kahaluu office.

In Delima v. Rubin v. Sullivan, Legal Aid successfully challenged a welfare policy which deemed personal loans as income. As guardian ad litem for a comatose person on life support, Legal Aid attorney Jim Pietsch successfully petitioned the family court for removal of the life support equipment, establishing the legal precedent in Hawai'i that people have a fundamental right to be free of unwanted medical treatment - even life-sustaining treatment.

In Avilla v. Rubin v. Sullivan, Legal Aid successfully challenged the State's practice of not prorating the first month of General Assistance (GA) loans and therefore reimbursing itself with more money from clients' SSI benefits than it was owed. Legal Aid also successfully challenged a case in which DHS counted a University of Hawai`i scholarship as income in determining a GA recipient's benefit level, even though the money was only to be used for educational expenses. As a result, any items earmarked for attending school can be excluded in determining benefit levels, and any remaining sum can be considered miscellaneous personal expenses, and therefore excluded as an allowable cost.

In 1991, Legal Aid began developing educational brochures on common legal issues facing the poverty community including AFDC, bankruptcy, divorce, fair hearings, food stamps, living wills, Medicaid, etc. In addition, Legal Aid joined California organizations in a class action against Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Agriculture, claiming the agencies did not provide timely or sufficient support for victims of LA riots and Hurricane Iniki. Legal Aid worked with Hawaiian Homestead lessees and other community agencies in 1993 to establish farming cooperatives for Moloka'i lessees, which promoted economic self-sufficiency.

As 1995 began, Legal Aid established a statewide legal hotline, which offers free and immediate legal advice and/or referrals to income-eligible callers. In Does v. Chandler, Legal Aid stopped DHS from cutting off 8,000 general assistance (GA) recipients and from establishing a six-month time limit for GA benefits.

In 1996, Legal Aid convinced the Department of Human Services to create the GA to SSI program, which advocates for disabled clients to renew Federal SSI benefits. Legal Aid stopped DHS from pushing through legislation to establish a six-month limit on GA. Legal Aid and others convinced the legislature to extend the durational limit to 24 months and establish a General Assistance Advisory Council to meet with the DHS Executive Director on an ongoing basis. Also in 1996, Legal Aid created the Affordable Lawyers Program to provide low-fee legal assistance to moderate-income individuals and families who do not qualify for free legal assistance. Funding from Maui County enabled Legal Aid to develop an innovative Domestic Violence Legal Services Project, which coordinates with other service providers and state agencies in offering holistic assistance to victims of domestic violence.

In 1997, Legal Aid was the lead plaintiff with five other legal service organizations across the nation in suing the LSC, the primary federal funding source for legal assistance to the poor. The lawsuit challenged LSC’s right to impose its restrictions on the use of all of a program's funds, including revenues from private sources, rather than just LSC monies. Judge Alan Kay issued a preliminary injunction which required LSC to change its regulation affecting Legal Aid’s rights to advocate for systemic change. Legal Aid with others convinced the legislature to completely eliminate the durational limit on GA benefits. On O'ahu, Legal Aid successfully challenged private land developers' request to waive their affordable housing obligations which resulted in charging an estimated fee of over $2 million to be used to build affordable housing. With funding from the Keauhou Rehabilitation and Health Care Advocacy Council, Legal Aid initiated an innovative Medicare Advocacy Project, which assisted the elderly and disabled in appealing denials of Medicare benefits, particularly for homebound patients.

In February of 1999, Legal Aid purchased the Friend Building in downtown Honolulu to serve as a permanent home for the program. Legal Aid moved into this new home in late October 1999. The new building houses the Center for Equal Justice (CEJ), a comprehensive self-help center. The CEJ educates and empowers individuals without legal representation to handle their legal issues on their own. The CEJ is a beautiful, professional, and permanent setting where clients receive personal assistance with their legal issues. The CEJ also offers computers, typewriters, research materials, and a copy machine for public use.

The program reached 50 years old in the year 2000. A celebration dinner held at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel's Monarch Room on the evening of Friday, May 26th commemorated and honored the program's longstanding commitment to serving the community.

In recognition of Legal Aid’s national leadership in creating successful self-help advocacy delivery systems, Legal Aid was awarded an LSC grant of $460,000 for its Technology for Equal Justice Project (link to Technology for Equal Justice Project). Through this grant, Legal Aid is in the process of (1) bridging geographic divides through video conferencing capability, (2) developing a sophisticated web based ability for clients to research legal issues and prepare necessary letters and forms, and (3) partnering with a variety of social service agencies to more holistically address client problems.