As part of a new project, the Legal Services/Private Bar Partnership on Residents Rights/Elder Abuse Litigation, CANHR is offering a limited number of scholarships to full-time legal services staff members to attend its 14th Annual Elder Law Conference. The scholarships of $250 per person are to help cover travel and hotel costs while registration for the conference will be free.

The Elder Law Conference will be held on November 19 and 20 in the beautiful Portola Plaza in Monterey, California. This year, the conference will feature a special one-half day session that is exclusive for legal services providers. The special session will take place on November 19 from 9 AM to 12 PM. The training agenda will include:

o Medi-Cal fair hearings,
o elder financial abuse,
o nursing home resident rights and
o managing litigation cases and attorney fees.

For more information about the Elder Law Conference, please go to http://canhr.org/trainings/ELC14.html

If you are selected as a scholarship winner, CANHR will handle your registration for the conference. The Portola Plaza is out of rooms for Thursday night but we are making arrangements for a block of rooms in a nearby hotel. If you are going to stay in Monterey on Thursday and need a hotel room, please contact Robert Martien at robert@cahr.org.

About the Legal Services/Private Bar Partnership Project

CANHR's Lawyer Referral Service elder abuse panel includes some of California's foremost experts in elder financial abuse, nursing home abuse and resident rights. In collaboration with CANHR's Lawyer Referral Service, the project will "partner" specific private bar panel members with participating legal services staff nearest to their geographical location. Through the provision of mentoring, training, essential pleadings, technical assistance and litigation support, the project will provide legal services staff, particularly those in rural and underserved areas, with the support necessary to successfully pursue resident rights and elder abuse actions on behalf of clients; obtain injunctive relief to prevent the violation from recurring; and, for programs not restricted by Legal Services Corporation Rules, to collect attorney's fees. Partnering legal services attorneys with private bar attorney mentors will alleviate their paucity of resources by giving legal services staff experienced partners to guide their litigation development, minimize their costs, and maximize their attorney's fees.

The primary purpose of this project and the specialized legal services training is to encourage programs to become more active in administrative hearings and litigation. For that reason, we are asking scholarship applicants to agree to take at least one new administrative hearing or litigation case dealing with long-term care in 2011. This minimal commitment will ensure that scholarship recipients are dedicated to increasing their litigation presence.

Email Tony Chicotel tony@canhr.org for a scholarship application.