What We Do
In Virginia, legal aid attorneys train physicians, nurses, and social workers on how to screen their patients for legal issues impacting health, including access to food stamps, subsidized health insurance, housing law, and free and appropriate public education. Medical providers learn to do front-line advocacy in consultation with the MLP attorney, resulting in legal benefits to more families than legal aid has the capacity to represent on an individual basis. Doctors educate lawyers on systemic failures in the healthcare setting, allowing attorneys to push for systemic changes in laws, regulations, and policies. Most critically, MLP attorneys provide free legal representation to low-income families who would otherwise be unable to afford a lawyer to help enforce laws impacting their health, such as the state housing code’s responsibilities regarding moldy rental homes. The Network brings doctors, lawyers, and social workers from across Virginia together. We use our combined expertise and experience to create Virginia-specific training materials, share resources, improve intra-state referrals, and bring state-wide solutions to problems facing Virginians.