Donate to Katrina Victims Legal Relief Fund Now!

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi Gulf Coast residents, organizations and small businesses have immediate and long term legal needs, including:

• A grandmother now caring for her grandchildren and needing legal guardianship
• Children who have special needs getting access to essential services in their new schools
• Insurance being denied because companies deem damages caused by flood not hurricane
• Families losing their homes because they can't access their bank accounts
• Veterans not getting their medical and other benefits
• Elderly homeowners being scammed by predatory lenders
• Families needing to file for bankruptcy protection
• Newly disabled individuals who need help getting SSI benefits
• Immigrant workers displaced from jobs at poultry plants and casino hotels

Lawyers are in a unique position to understand the depth and breadth of the legal services needed by the hurricane's victims -- whether they were pushed further into poverty or are newly poor and displaced.. We know you may have already given to organizations provided general disaster relief. But we still ask you to dig deeper to help the Mississippi justice community address the myriad legal problems these people are facing.

Mississippi's already limited legal delivery resources for the poor are now further strained by the magnitude of the destruction that Katrina left in her path.

But the devastation has also presented an opportunity to build a strong legal delivery system over the long term so that we are never in this position again. This includes coordinating direct advocacy in individual cases as well as broader legal strategies for systemic impact.

We understand this will be a continuing need?four years after 9/11, New York Legal Services continues to address the legal needs of the 9/11 families. We need your financial assistance NOW to build a lasting legal delivery and coordination system? Give as much as you can.
The reality has set in--we are preparing for a marathon, not a sprint!