The Legal Center: Colorado's Protection and Advocacy System

• Jurisdiction: Colorado,United States
• Citation: Vol. 32 No. 4 Pg. 39
• Pages: 39
• Publication year: 2003

32 Colo.Law. 39 Colorado Lawyer 2003.

2003, May, Pg. 39. The Legal Center: Colorado's Protection and Advocacy System

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Vol. 32, No. 4, Pg. 39

The Colorado Lawyer
May 2003
Vol. 32, No. 5 [Page 39]

Departments
Access to Justice
The Legal Center: Colorado's Protection and Advocacy System
by Randy Chapman

The Legal Center for People with Disabilities and Older People ("The Legal Center") is a private nonprofit agency whose mission is to protect and promote the rights of people with disabilities and older people through direct legal representation, advocacy, education, and legislative analysis.1 The Legal Center fulfills that mission by applying the staff's knowledge of disability and elder law to its knowledge of the disability and senior services delivery systems. It this way, it attempts to ensure that people with disabilities and seniors have equal access to services and that they are protected from abuse and neglect. This article intends to provide some background and general information about the services of The Legal Center

Background of The Legal
Center and Its Programs

Initially established through the support of the Association for Retarded Citizens in Colorado2 and Colorado Developmental Disabilities Planning Council, The Legal Center has always tried to serve individuals with all types of disabilities.3 The founders also wanted an entity that could pursue right-to-treatment litigation on behalf of persons with developmental disabilities who lived in Colorado's State Home and Training Schools.4 In 1976, The Legal Center was established because its founders believed services available in the generic legal community were not adequate to meet the unique legal problems facing people with disabilities

To be sure, people with disabilities are faced with the same legal issues encountered by people without disabilities However, people with disabilities frequently also must deal with complicated service delivery bureaucracies; depend on residential and other services provided by others; and lack equal access to education, employment, and other public services and accommodations. Thus, The Legal Center was not established to meet all the legal needs of people with disabilities, but rather to help meet these unique legal needs.5

In 1977, pursuant to the federal Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 1975 ("1975 Act"), Governor Richard Lamm designated The Legal Center as the Protection and Advocacy ("P&A") System for Persons with Developmental Disabilities in Colorado.6 The 1975 Act established P&A Systems for persons with developmental disabilities in every state and territory. Over time, Congress also enacted legislation establishing P&A Systems for Individuals with Mental Illness ("PAIMI"),7 Individual Rights ("PAIR"),8 Traumatic Brian Injury ("PATBI"),9 Beneficiaries of Social Security ("PABSS"),10 accessing assistive technology ("PAAT"),11 and a program to assist clients of the vocational rehabilitation system ("Client Assistance Program" or "CAP").12 Additionally, through the Older Americans Act,13 Congress has required that states have a state Long-Term Care Ombudsman14 to monitor the care of seniors in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, as well as a Legal Services Developer15 to coordinate and support local providers of legal services to seniors.

Each of these programs serves unique populations of...