Håfa Adai!
The Public Defender Service Corporation (PDSC) will soon open its doors to assisting Guam’s elderly through a grant with Department of Public Health & Social Services (DPHSS). As a part of the MOU between PDSC and DPHSS, we know that there may be instances where there may be a conflict between our office and the Manåmko’ we are to serve through this MOU. Consequently, we are inquiring if you are interested in taking any of the cases we may conflict out of. The services we are expected to provide are as follows:
8 A. Legal Services
(2) PDSC shall give priority to legal assistance, based on urgency of need related to income, health care, adult day care admission, long-term care, nutrition, housing including landlord-tenant issues primarily in defense against evictions, utilities, protective services, defense of guardianship, abuse, neglect, age discrimination regarding employment, consumer issues in cases that reflect a pattern of fraud against the elderly as a group, and public benefits. Services shall include Advance Directives including powers of attorney, restraining orders, guardianships of the person and wills. Legal services are inclusive of referrals to agencies for supportive services.
(3) PDSC will not provide legal assistance in matters excluded from the Elder Justice Center (EJC) by their Board of Trustees, such as: adversarial litigation, fee-generating cases, real estate transaction matters, including Special Power of Attorney cases involving real property, deeds, and other real property conveyances. PDSC will not compete with the private bar for clients who would otherwise be able to afford an attorney at their own expense. PDSC will only accept clients for legal services who are aged 60 and older and financially qualify using the same eligibility criteria for all PDSC cases.
(4) Requests for legal advice that fall outside of subsection 8 (A)(3), or for which PDSC has a conflict of interest in representing, shall be referred by the EJC to the Guam Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service and/or other service providers, e.g. Guam Legal Services Corporation-Disability Law Center (GLSC-DLC) and Micronesian Legal Services Corporation if within their program priorities.
Consequently, we would like to know if you are interested in working with our office in taking any of the cases we are unable to provide due to conflict. Based on the program budget, we will be able to provide an hourly rate to your office at $90/hour. We will also need to draw up a MOU between your office and PDSC. Included in the MOU will be assurances that your office has a Case Management System (CMS) that tracks the number of Manåmko’ your office assists, and the associated time you spent assisting such individuals.
If your office is interested in joining us in this partnership, please provide us with a response on or before Friday, April 23, 2021. If you have any questions regarding this partnership or the services we wish to provide DPHSS, please feel free to contact our Program Manager, Cathleen Moylan (300-7856 or email, cmoylan@guampdsc.org) or me (cgogue@guampdsc.org) at your convenience.
Warmest regards,
Cathy Gogue
Administrative Director
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