Medical-Legal Partnership - Programs - Eskenazi Health
317.880.0000

Medical-Legal Partnership integrates legal aid into health care, allowing Eskenazi Health physicians, nurses and social workers can incorporate legal services into a patient’s overall treatment plan. By addressing the underlying social factors and health-harming legal needs that many patients face, Eskenazi Health Medical-Legal Partnership contributes to improved health outcomes. After receiving a referral to the Medical-Legal Partnership, patients can talk with an attorney, certified legal intern or paralegal to receive appropriate advice or representation.

Medical-Legal Partnership began in 2008 and has processed thousands of referrals for legal services. Partner organizations that provide free legal services include Indiana Legal Services, Faegre Drinker, Eli Lilly, Joseph Maley Foundation, Taft Stettinius & Hollister and others.

Patients interested in civil Medical-Legal Partnership services are asked to talk with their nurse, physician or social worker at an Eskenazi Health Center or Sandra Eskenazi Mental Health Center location.

Medical-Legal Partnership offers assistance with:

  • Housing

  • Consumer rights

  • Legal Status

  • Family and stability

  • Benefits

  • Education law

  • Decision-making

  • Name change

  • Expungement (setting aside a criminal conviction)


Legal Help Kiosk  

As an additional legal aid access point, the Medical-Legal Partnership has added an Indiana Legal Help kiosk that offers housing resources and civil legal information. Financial Counseling is available on the downtown campus and at Eskenazi Health Center Thomas & Arlene Grande Campus. 

Indiana Legal Help kiosks provide easy access to IndianaLegalHelp.org, an Indiana Bar Foundation program connecting Hoosiers to legal resources and services. Through the kiosk, users have free access to legal information, including housing or utility assistance, eviction information, forms, instructional videos, referrals to free and low-cost legal services, and a statewide calendar of free legal advice clinics. The ADA-accessible kiosk includes a printer. Self-service legal forms and instructions can be printed to take home.

The Indiana Legal Help kiosk is made possible through a partnership between the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority and the Indiana Bar Foundation.

The program also assists with services such as:

  • Guardianship of incapacitated adults seen at the Center for Youth & Adults with Conditions of Childhood (CYACC) when a family member or friend is available to become the guardian
  • Advanced care and end-of-life planning services for patients in Eskenazi Health Oncology and preparation of advance planning documents at an annual wills clinic held each summer for all Eskenazi Health patients

Medical-Legal Partnership does not assist with, bankruptcy, criminal defense or personal injury matters.

Eskenazi Health patients are invited to call the Housing Rights & Eviction Helpline at 317.536.1387 with questions and concerns related to the apartment, townhouse or home they rent. The service is a partnership with Indiana Legal Services. The helpline is open for calls on Tuesdays from 9 – 11 a.m., Wednesdays from 2 – 4 p.m. and Fridays from 9 – 11 a.m.

Patients can call the hotline and discuss any of the following areas of concern:

EVICTIONS

  • Non-payment of rent – Eligibility for rental assistance or for protection under federal or state laws which prohibit evictions
  • Lease violation – Initiation of communications with landlord to establish a payment plan or determine what actions are needed to correct the lease violation(s)
  • Federal-subsidized housing – Education on additional steps a landlord must take prior to eviction to ensure certain rights of the tenant are preserved

CONDITIONS IN THE HOME AFFECTING HEALTH

  • Assistance obtaining action from the court and local board of health regarding mold, no heat or air conditioning, lock-outs, etc. to force the landlord to make necessary and immediate repairs
  • If conditions require immediate move out, assistance with facilitating that process with the landlord

TERMINATION OF SECTION 8 BENEFITS OR HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER

  • Investigation of what defenses may be available to prevent termination on a case-by-case basis

RIGHTS FOR VICTIMS OF CRIME

  • Special protections such as having locks changed and/or terminating a lease early without penalty, applicable for some victims of crime, such as domestic violence

DAMAGES HEARINGS AND SECURITY DEPOSIT RETURNS

  • Advisement on recovery of security deposits if it is illegally withheld by a landlord

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