Mobile law office helping vets get benefits

Low-income guidelines used by Project SALUTE

Project SALUTE qualifies low-income veterans by using 200 percent of the federal poverty level. For 2008, that translates to the following:

$20,800 Single individual

$28,000 Family of two

$35,200 Family of three

$42,400 Family of four

$49,600 Family of five

$56,800 Family of six

$64,000 Family of seven

$71,200 Family of eight

Source: Mark Gordon, UDM School of Law Dean

Mobile law office helping vets get benefits
By Rick Vasquez, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, April 3, 2008


WASHINGTON — The University of Detroit Mercy School of Law has launched a national tour of its Mobile Law Office to provide low-income veterans free assistance or representation on federal benefits issues, and is training local attorneys to continue assisting veterans on a local level.

Project SALUTE, which stands for Students And Lawyers (Assisting) U.S. Troops Everywhere, will make stops in cities across the country, and has just finished touring Florida. Tentative dates for Atlanta have been set and additional dates will be added as the tour continues. Updates are available at www.law.udmercy.edu.

“We have had tremendous success since we began our national tour in February,” said Mark Gordon, the school’s dean. “We have seen more than 500 veterans and have trained well over 100 attorneys to handle their cases pro bono.”

Project SALUTE first offers veterans an informational session on getting federal benefits. Interviews are then conducted, giving veterans a chance to state their case. Local attorneys are also offered the opportunity to obtain continuing legal education credits by attending a training session on handling federal benefit issues.

“Based on the training, we then refer some of the cases,” said Gordon. “We refer cases only to those attorneys who are going to do it pro bono.”

Project SALUTE only provides assistance on cases relating to federal benefit issues.

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