Legal Services
Whitman-Walker
Clinic offers free legal services to persons living with HIV/AIDS in the
greater
All
services are available to the Spanish-speaking community through bilingual
staff and volunteers. We also serve
many Amharic, French and Portuguese-speaking clients with the aid of skilled
interpreters.
Whitman-Walker
Clinic has developed a national reputation in several specialized practice
areas:
o
Planning
documents: Counseling, preparation of simple wills; general
powers of attorney; advanced medical directives and living wills; arrangements
for future care of minor children; and declarations of wishes for funerals,
memorial services and burial arrangements.
o
Insurance:
Counseling, advocacy and representation involving health,
life and disability insurance.
o
Discrimination:
Counseling, advocacy and representation in proceedings
involving employment, health care, education and housing discrimination.
o
Public
benefits: Counseling, advocacy and representation for
clients seeking access to Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and local benefit
programs.
o
Immigration:
Counseling, advocacy and representation on behalf of clients
whose seropositive status forms the basis for denial of immigration benefits or
relief; preparation of HIV-waiver applications and asylum applications.
o
Medical
privacy: Counseling and representation to safeguard the
right to confidentiality of medical information in the workplace, and to
vindicate the rights of individuals whose HIV status or other sensitive medical
information was unlawfully disclosed without their consent.
o
Debtors’
rights: Assistance to individuals with consumer or
medical debt, student loan debt or tax debt, including assessment of options,
advocacy with creditors, assistance in assessing bankruptcy options, and referral
to low-cost assistance in filing bankruptcy petitions.
Because
of Whitman-Walker Clinic’s longstanding mission to the lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender (LGBT) communities, the legal services program also provides
assistance to LGBT individuals in the following areas, depending on our
capacity: relief under the immigration laws for foreign nationals facing
persecution in their countries of origin because of sexual orientation or
gender identity or presentation; discrimination based on transgender status or
sexual orientation; and wills, powers of attorney, and advance health care
directives for lower-income LGBT individuals and couples.