Our September 2018 Advocate of the Month is Rachele Reis. After graduating from Washington and Lee University School of Law, Rachele joined LSA’s Mobile Regional Office in August of 2016. Rachele is active in most of LSA’s core service areas including: family, consumer, housing, and public benefits law. Since starting at LSA, Rachele has proved herself to be one of the hardest working young attorneys with the program. In September, Rachele proved this once again, by helping a large number of people with a wide variety of problems.

Among the people Rachele helped this month, was a disabled individual facing eviction from public housing when they were unable to pay their rent. With Rachele’s help, the client was able to convince the court that they should be able to stay. With Rachele’s help, the client was able to avoid becoming homeless.

In another case, Rachele went to court to help an elderly woman who had a judgment entered against her without her knowledge. With Rachele’s help, the client was able to petition the court to set aside the erroneous judgment. Because of Rachele’s intervention, the client, whose sole income is Social Security, does not have to worry about an unethical debt collector coming to take her home or her car.

In September, Rachele helped four separate people file Chapter 7 bankruptcies so they could start their lives again. With Rachele’s help, these four clients bankrupted over $115,000 in debt. These bankruptcies helped the clients ensure they had access to transportation, freed up income to pay their mortgages, and allowed the clients to plan and prepare for a better financial future.

Finally, Rachele also helped a client protect her wages by asserting Alabama’s constitutional personal property exemption, ensuring the client could continue to meet her monthly expenses.

This month and every month, we here at LSA are very proud of the work done by Rachele and the Mobile Office. Thanks again, Rachele!

By Michael Forton, Director of Advocacy