HONORING HEROES
Pro bono attorneys work to aid struggling veterans.
The Hartford County Bar Association is recognizing a Connecticut law firm for its eight years of work on behalf of low-income veterans who struggle with mental illness and other issues linked to their military service.
About 30 lawyers with Halloran Sage assisted 49 vets last year, and the firm’s lawyers continue to aid vulnerable vets though the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center.
The Connecticut Veterans Legal Center and its team of lawyers work to aid veterans by connecting them with medical services they are entitled to through the Veterans Administration. The center also provides assistance with housing, jobs and upgrading discharge status. The VA, likewise, refers vets to the center for help with legal struggles.
The free legal aid provided to veterans ranges from help with student loans, credit, tax, Social Security and other public benefits to probate, child support and custody issues. The bulk of the legal work focuses on appealing VA benefit denials and landlord/ tenant issues. It’s the housing issues that Halloran Sage lawyers focused on.
Greg Gagne, a Halloran Sage lawyer, Air Force veteran and legal center board member, said his firm has focused on eviction cases because housing is a critical issue for veteransthat also requires a rapid response by attorneys, since the eviction process moves relatively quickly when compared to other civil court proceedings.
“With the evictions, it’s a straight-forward legal matter,” Gagne said. “From the veteran’s point of view, it’s not a onedimensional issue.” The issue may be paying the rent or paying to fix a car, which is necessary to get to a job, Gagne said. Losing a job could result in the veteran becoming homeless, he said.
Rachel Fain, a Halloran Sage lawyer, said of the 49 veterans the firm’s lawyers helped last year, 34 faced immediate homelessness.
“Everyone respects what they’ve done, the sacrifices they’ve made,” Fain said. “To be able to give something back to help them is extremely rewarding.”
Because Halloran Sage is a large law firm, it has the resources to immediately jump into a case, Fain and colleague Oscar Suarez said. And that’s what is often needed in eviction cases.
“Most of these cases have already been brought to court, have dates that require responsive pleadings or trials in less than a week,” Suarez said. “We’re a large group of litigators, and we’re used to taking things and running with
them … and being aggressive with cases.”
Halloran Sage does much of its pro bono work with the legal center because the firm understands the difficulties its clients face.
“Many of them do have a history of mental health issues,” Suarez said. “This is a particularly vulnerable class of people. This is a class of people that merits our help and support for what they and their families have done.”
Another way the legal center serves veterans is by working to upgrade their discharge statuses. Veterans who have other than honorable discharges can be denied VA benefits, said Liam Brennan, executive director of the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center. That prevents them from getting medical and mental health care some so critically need, he said.
And it’s one way to address the high rate of veteran suicide. About 20 veterans commit suicide each day, and the efforts to prevent veteran suicides have largely failed.
“More veterans die of suicide each year than there were military casualties in the war in Afghanistan,” Brennan said. And veterans who received less than honorable discharges, and who cannot get help from the VA, take their lives at an even higher rate, Brennan said.
“What we know is that veterans who have access to mental health care and medical care at the VA have a much lower rate of suicide,” Brennan said.
“Often misconduct that can lead to an other-thanhonorable discharge can be a manifestation of mental illness that is rooted in PTSD from combat experience or mental illness rooted in sexual assault,” he said. The conduct — drug use, unexplained absences, other behavior — can follow several enlistments where a service member served honorably, he said. And the Department of Defense has begun to recognize how mental illness led to such discharges, Brennan said.
The need is great, and there is more work than the organization’s lawyers can handle. Last year, the organization handled 600 cases. To help fill the gap, lawyers from several firms in Connecticut lend a hand.
The Connecticut Veterans Legal Center is based at the VA Connecticut’s Errera Community Care Center in West Haven and has staff at the Newington VA Clinic and the state Veteran’s Home and Hospital in Rocky Hill.
David Owens can be reached at dowens@courant.com.