Great Barrington — Vera and her husband gave a contractor $4,000 for roofing materials before he was to start work. The contractor never got the materials, never began the work and was never heard from again. Now out $4,000, Vera and her husband — both elderly — were reluctant spend even more money to get their $4,000 back.
But Vera happened upon an article about the Free Legal Clinic in Great Barrington. Vera’s husband, who has since passed, called attorney Eve Schatz, the Clinic’s Founder and Executive Director.
The couple never had to go to court; a formal letter of demand from Schatz did the trick. A month later, the contractor wrote Vera and her husband their first check. The payments continue to arrive every month.
Vera said the Free Legal Clinic — now the Berkshire Center for Justice, Inc — “is a wonderful thing for the community because someone cannot always afford a lawyer.”
Before moving to the Berkshires in 1990, Schatz worked on patient’s rights in Florida. In Great Barrington, Schatz found herself dealing with an environmental issue while working as a transition program provider at Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village, Conn. “I brought a polluter into compliance with DEP regulations,” Schatz said, and it was around that time Schatz realized she should go to law school. “I just seemed to be frequently working with legal entities and institutions for patients rights and the environmental work, so it became really clear to me that since I’m doing this stuff anyway, it would be useful for me to be an attorney and understand how the system works.”
Schatz is now like a superhero, wielding law books and her pen to redress injustices inflicted on the disenfranchised, or anyone who doesn’t have the big bucks for a lawyer.
Vera told her story on Wednesday night (November 12) at the Center’s fundraiser at The Vault Gallery, a celebration of the organization’s name change but also to pay tribute to the Schatz and her courageous advocacy on behalf of those in need of legal assistance. Center for Justice Board President Marsha Savage, former CEO of Community Health Programs, explained that the change in name “might help people feel more ready to call us.”
Vault Gallery owner Alan Kalish hosted the party in the gallery. Guests were surrounded by artist Marilyn Kalish’s figures, sketches and canvases that served as unintentional reminders that this event was about human dignity, rights and justice. The fundraiser included nibbles by Castle Street Café owner and Chef Michael Ballon.
The Center is the only organization in the Berkshires offering free or sliding scale legal help. The main office is in downtown Great Barrington and the Center offers free consultation every Wednesday at the Guthrie Center during their free lunch program from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Schatz said she has seen it all — everything from consumer protection issues like Vera’s, to bankruptcy, all aspects of family law and landlord/tenant disputes. The Center sees disability issues and denial of coverage by insurance companies. “We really see everything,” Schatz said, ticking off a long list of the various entanglements that have come through her door. “When I say from A to Z, I’m not joking. We really get insight into what people are facing in the Berkshires.”
Like its clients, the Center itself needs more money and hopes to find more support.
The Center subsists on small grants, individual donations and fundraising events. “We’re now looking for seed money,” Schatz said. “We have a three-year strategy working with a grant writer to raise $175,000 to begin this new phase of the work.” This new phase is a staff increase — an expansion.
With the median Berkshire County income under $50,000 even with multiple jobs, Schatz said, “people will eventually need this assistance.” The Center’s sliding scale is based on income.
Board President Savage spoke at the event, and said her role has opened her eyes “to what life in the Berkshires is really like,” noting how many people “suffer to stay here…increasingly it is not the place it used to be,” in terms of “unequal opportunity and support.” In her remarks Savage said some of the situations the Center encounters are “fascinating and distressing. We learn a lot, we care a lot — we just feel terrible” — situations, Savage added, that “don’t always make the newspaper.” The Center’s clients “suffer deeply, with great pain until they find recourse with Eve.” And, Savage explained, “at $300 to $350 an hour there aren’t many of us who can be with a lawyer for very long. The issue of social justice should be at the top of our concerns.”
“This is the kind of organization that needs to take over what the government isn’t doing,” said Michael Wilcox of Berkshire Brigades, and chair of the Alford Town Democratic Committee. Wilcox is a well-known Alford-based political and disabilities activist, who said he came to the fundraiser to learn more about the Center.
“Things happen — intentional, unintentional — no question,” Schatz said. “But we need to continue living as a community together.” It follows that Schatz prefers to first use soft tactics to fix hard problems. “How can we work this out nicely without bringing the big guns in,” she said. “If we have to sue we will, but that’s not my first approach.”
Vera’s husband lived to see some of their money returned, and Vera has since been reimbursed more than half the $4,000, Schatz said at the event. “It is such a joy for me to be able to recover their money.”
Berkshire Center For Justice is located at 284 Main Street, No. 7. and at the Guthrie Center on Wednesdays from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Phone: 413-854-1955. By appointment only.
