Devastation and Despair, Your Help is Desperately Needed

A Message from Julie Kilborn
NACDL Hurricane Disaster Relief Liaison

November 15, 2005
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

As criminal defense attorneys, we are all accustomed to lending a helping hand to the troubled and downtrodden. When our clients are arrested, we are there for them. When a colleague is facing contempt charges, we rise to assist. With the devastation and despair left behind by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, criminal defense attorneys in the Gulf Coast region are in dire need of your help. This message is a plea to every member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers to step up to the plate and offer a helping hand to those in desperate need. The bottom line is that every attorney affected by the hurricanes needs money. They need a place to live, food to feed their families, and some way to clothe themselves and their children. None of this happens without money.

For seven weeks now, I have been the liaison for NACDL in assisting lawyers displaced and affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We have disbursed almost $190,000 thus far in individual grants to 150 criminal defense attorneys. There are still, however, dozens of pending requests for individual grants and that number rises every day. Daily, more affected lawyers seek help by applying for an NACDL grant. They represent more than $40,000 in grant requests.

The average individual grant size is a little over $1,300. Not much, it may seem to some. Yet each time I tell displaced attorneys that their grants have been approved, the relief in their voices is almost overwhelming. Grown men have cried when I told them their NACDL grant has been approved. Others have told me that “NACDL is faster and better than the federal government,” and “NACDL was there from day one, and I’m so proud to be a member of such an awesome organization.” Every grant recipient thanks NACDL profusely during our phone call and their appreciation is immense.

In administering these grants, I have been told several stories of destruction and despair. Many of the victims of Katrina and Rita have truly lost everything. In Mississippi, homes were reduced to mere slabs. In south Louisiana, what the wind and water did not destroy was ruined by mold. And in Texas, hurricane-force winds and water ripped buildings into pieces. Private lawyers have lost contact with their paying clients and public defenders are being laid off because there is no revenue to continue paying them. Courts systems are closed down, in some places indefinitely. Where court is open, lawyers have no business clothes to wear.

Everywhere lawyers need money for books, computers, clothes, paper, pens, paperclips, and file folders. It is as simple as that; there is simply nothing needed more than money. Without your donation, we will have to tell our colleagues that we cannot help them. With your donation, we can continue to overcome the devastation and despair brought about by these natural disasters of biblical proportions.

Make a donation of any size today, and help make a difference. Just click here to donate online. Your tax deductible gift is desperately needed.

Sincerely,

Julie Kilborn
NACDL Hurricane Disaster Relief Liaison

p.s. A provision in the tax relief package to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina is meant to encourage donations to fund-raising efforts like our Hurricane Disaster Relief Fund. It allows donors who make cash gifts to almost any charity by the end of2005 to deduct an amount equal to virtually 100 percent of their adjusted gross incomes, double the normal limit of 50 percent of income. Check with your tax advisor for more information.

p.p.s. Below are excerpts from some of the more recent grant applications we have received.

I was trapped in the New Orleans Criminal District Court building during the hurricane for 5 days. After I got out I bounced around from state to state . . . I applied too late [to FEMA] to receive the $2,000 grant for expedited assistance and made the mistake of applying for temporary housing grant when I returned home to New Orleans, so I did not get the $2,300 check for housing assistance. I have received nothing from the government to help me survive. . . . I lost my car during the storm. My house did not get much damage, but it is infested with mold.

The funds are needed to purchase clothing (suits), a computer, a printer, filing cabinets, and other office supplies.

My home had two feet of salt water which surged from the Gulf of Mexico from Hurricane Rita on September 24, 2005. The inside walls of my home have been torn off or cut. I am currently living with friends. I am a single mother . . . I am a sole practitioner. . . . Please help me.

Lost reporters and other law books as well as 19 years of research files and 15 years of documents on the hard drive of my computer. Also lost hard copies of 20 years of briefs. Both home and office were rendered unusable by Katrina. . . .

Click here to read more excerpts from grant applications.