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During April 2021, Legal Aid of North Carolina initiated a new statewide project, the Medicaid Appeals Technical Team (MATT), that is tasked with serving the legal needs of the 1.7 million Medicaid beneficiaries in North Carolina who have been enrolled into Prepaid Health Plans (PHPs) during the State’s transition from a fee-for-service model of healthcare delivery to a capitated managed care model.   

MATT’s inaugural work during 2021-2022 was funded by grants from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust.  MATT works collaboratively with our legal and community partners in North Carolina and nationally to achieve our goals of enforcing Medicaid beneficiaries’ rights, monitoring systemic issues through our appeals work to insure that the interests of beneficiaries are centered in the State’s transition to managed care, educating community partners about beneficiary rights to insure that beneficiaries are connected to resources to address issues in a timely fashion, and bringing a health justice and equity lens to our legal advocacy work to address inequities in our healthcare system, particularly systemic barriers created by structural racism and other forms of oppression.     

Our Services

Advice and Consultation:

  • Medicaid eligibility issues;
  • Access to Medicaid services;
  • Beneficiary billing issues.

Representation in State Fair Hearings:

  • Denials of Medicaid eligibility and terminations of coverage;
  • Denials or reductions of medically necessary care and services;
  • Denials of requests to disenroll or change plans.

Archives: Projects

Coming soon!

Archives: Projects

← Back to Housing

About

​The Fair Housing Project of Legal Aid of North Carolina works to eliminate housing discrimination and to ensure equal housing opportunity for all people in North Carolina through education, outreach, public policy initiatives, advocacy and enforcement.​

Visit the FairHousingNC.org website to learn more.


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← Back to Healthcare Access

Legal Aid of North Carolina is the leader of the NC Navigator Consortium, a group of health care, social service and legal aid organizations​ that provides free, in-person help to North Carolina consumers seeking to enroll in affordable health insurance plans on HealthCare.gov, the Health Insurance Marketplace​ established by the Affordable Care Act.

Navigators are trained to help consumers understand the details of plans available on the Health Insurance Marketplace, determine which plan will best meet their needs, determine eligibility and apply for financial assistance, and complete the enrollment process.

Navigators meet with consumers in free, in-person, one-on-one, confidential sessions at convenient locations throughout the state. Strict security and privacy standards are in place to ensure that consumers’ personally identifiable information is protected.​

Thanks in large part to the efforts of the consortium, North Carolina has the third-highest number of enrollments out of the nearly 40 states that use the Health Insurance Marketplace. Only Florida and Texas, states with more than double the population of North Carolina, have more enrollments.

​The NC Navigator Consortium is funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.​​

Members of the consortium are Access EastCharlotte Center for Legal AdvocacyCouncil on Aging of Buncombe CountyCumberland HealthNetHealthNet Gaston, and Legal Aid of North Carolina, which leads the consortium.

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← Back to For Veterans

The Veterans Law Project is a special, statewide unit of Legal Aid of North Carolina that helps low-income veterans overcome service-related legal barriers that prevent them from living self-sufficiently and seeking economic opportunity.

Our services

  • Disability compensation: We appeal denials of service-connected benefits for injuries related to mental health or Military Sexual Trauma (MST) when the denial is due to character of service. A veteran may be entitled to monthly, tax-free compensation benefits and health care if he or she has an illness or disability that started during their service, was caused by their military service or was aggravated by a service injury.
  • Discharge upgrades: We seek to improve veterans’ military records, primarily when there is evidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI) or Military Sexual Trauma (MST) prior to separation of service. The nature and character of a discharge can be upgraded if it is less than honorable. A less-than-honorable discharge will generally affect your benefits. If it has been less than 15 years since your date of discharge, apply to your service branch’s Discharge Review Board. If it has been 15 or more years, apply to the Board of Correction for Military Records.
  • Pension benefits: We appeal denials and discontinuations of pension benefits. A veteran may qualify for tax-free benefits if he or she is:
    • Low income
    • Over 65, or under 65 and permanently disabled
    • In a nursing home receiving skilled care
    • And you served at least 90 days active duty and at least one day during a wartime period before 1980, or you served at least 24 months after Sept. 7, 1980.

Eligibility

You must be at or below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines to be eligible for help. We prioritize clients who are homeless or facing homelessness. Facing homelessness can mean: couch surfing, being behind on rent and threatened with eviction, being behind on mortgage payments and facing foreclosure, and more. We do not handle criminal cases, traffic issues or personal-injury cases.

Get help

Legal Aid NC Helpline

Toll-Free: 1 (866) 219-LANC (5262)

8:30 AM – 12:30 PM, Monday – Friday
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM, Monday & Thursday

Apply for free help with civil (non-criminal) legal issues. Those 60 and older should call the Senior Helpline.

Contact

For more information or to request copies of the Veterans Law Project brochure, contact Toni Pinkston.

Archives: Projects

← Back to Education

The Right to Education Project (REP) is the statewide education justice project of Legal Aid of North Carolina that fights for students in the public education system to get access to the quality education they have a right to, and to end the school to prison pipeline.

REP works through three main pathways to achieve greater education justice for students in North Carolina public schools.

Direct Advocacy

One-on-one advice, support, and/or legal representation for students and parents

Community Education

Presentations, trainings, and publications on students’ and parents’ rights related to education and public school

Community Lawyering

Advocacy in support of and in partnership with community groups & youth justice advocates to build parent and student power

REP works to protect North Carolina public school students, including those in charter schools, who are experiencing the following forms of school push out:

Enrollment & Access

Denials of educational access, including situations where students are denied enrollment, and/or timely, appropriate access to a sound basic education. This can include a school environment that prevents a student from being able to learn.

Suspension, Expulsion, & Alternative School Placements

Direct school push-out by exclusionary discipline, including situations where students face unlawful and/or excessive out-of-school suspension, expulsion, or punitive placement in an alternative school or program.

Special Education & Disability-related Needs

Indirect school push-out as a result of a school’s failure to address a student’s disability-related needs, including situations where a student with a disability isn’t being given needed services and/or is excluded from the school environment or their non-disabled peers.

Discrimination & Harassment

Indirect school push-out as a result of a school’s maintenance of a hostile environment, including situations where a school creates and/or fails to take steps to address a discriminatory hostile environment.

Managing Attorney

Jen Story

Staff Social Worker

Katie Haberman

Staff Attorneys

Cari Carson

Crystal Ingram

Carlton Powell

Hetali Lodaya (EJW Fellow)

Law Associate

Rebecca Cathcart

Education Resource Specialist

Stephany Taylor

If you are seeking DIRECT LEGAL ADVOCACY, contact the Legal Aid NC Helpline:

Legal Aid NC Helpline

Toll-Free: 1 (866) 219-LANC (5262)

8:30 AM – 12:30 PM, Monday – Friday
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM, Monday & Thursday

Apply for free help with civil (non-criminal) legal issues. Those 60 and older should call the Senior Helpline.

Resources

Archives: Projects

← Back to Housing

The Durham Eviction Diversion Program is a partnership of our Durham office, Duke Law’s Civil Justice Clinic and the Durham Department of Social Services. The program uses tenant education, legal advocacy and rental assistance to prevent evictions and increase housing security for low-income renters in Durham County.

Visit the Durham Eviction Diversion Program website to learn more.

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← Back to Disaster Relief

​Visit the Disaster Relief section of our website for help and free legal education.

About the Project

Legal Aid of North Carolina’s Disaster Relief Project provides legal assistance and education to survivors of natural disasters in North Carolina and supports community economic development and equitable long-term recovery and resiliency in disaster-impacted communities.  

The Disaster Relief Project’s services include: 

  • Providing disaster survivors with information about their rights following a natural disaster
  • Advocating for clients when they are applying for recovery fund assistance and appealing decisions, when needed 
  • Standing up for disaster survivors who were victimized by fraudulent contractors or bad-actor landlords 
  • Connecting clients to community resources 
  • Clarifying title and property ownership, including providing wills and advanced directives for those who have been affected by a natural disaster 
  • Supporting local long-term disaster recovery organizations by writing bylaws, providing document templates, and helping groups incorporate as 501(c)(3) nonprofit 
  • Hosting disaster recovery education sessions and legal clinics 

The Disaster Relief Project is funded by a grant from the Legal Services Corporation and the Wells Fargo Foundation.  

Legal Aid NC Helpline

Toll-Free: 1 (866) 219-LANC (5262)

8:30 AM – 12:30 PM, Monday – Friday
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM, Monday & Thursday

Apply for free help with civil (non-criminal) legal issues. Those 60 and older should call the Senior Helpline.

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Archives: Projects

← Back to Family Law

About

The Child’s Advocate is a project of Legal Aid of North Carolina that provides attorneys for children in highly contested private custody cases. We are appointed by judges in family court in Wake and Durham counties to represent children in cases with the following: domestic violence, child abuse or mistreatment, substance abuse or mental instability of a parent, relocation of a parent, or a child with special needs.

By working with the parents and their attorneys, we settle most of our cases without the need for a trial. But when a trial is necessary, we present evidence and call witnesses so that the Court learns about the child’s experience, concerns and preferences. 

Our role is different from that of a guardian ad litem (GAL). Instead of deciding what is best for our clients, we investigate and advocate for what our clients believe is best for them. To do this, we collaborate with mental health providers so we can better understand our clients’ perspectives and preferences. Throughout our representation of our clients, we maintain a confidential attorney-client relationship.

The Child’s Advocate recruits and trains pro bono attorneys from the private family law bar to ensure that we have the resources to represent every child appointed an attorney.

Our hope is to gradually expand our services to additional counties in North Carolina. 

Learn more about The Child’s Advocate.

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