Date: Fri 15-May-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SUZANN

Quick Words:

Heidi-Winslow-pro-bono

Full Text:

Attorney Winslow Cited For Service To People And The Law

BY SUZANNA NYBERG

Attorney Heidi Winslow, a Newtown resident and longtime member of the Planning

& Zoning Commission, recently received the Danbury Bar Association's Pro Bono

Award for her volunteer work on behalf of Law Works For People, a referral

service sponsored by the Connecticut Bar Association.

Ms Winslow received the award for accepting referrals and doing legal work as

a tenants' rights advocate in landlord-tenant disputes. She also holds

seminars at the Danbury Women's Center on managing one's divorce without an

attorney.

The Pro Bono Award was a terrific honor, Ms Winslow said, "especially as the

committee granting the awards was composed of former honorees."

Ms Winslow describes landlord-tenant law as "a convoluted area of the law that

requires specialized knowledge." For her, no area of the law can be seen in

terms of black and white, and this holds especially true for landlord-tenant

law. Landlords can be the victims of irresponsible tenants just as tenants can

be abused by greedy and negligent landlords.

Yet it is the victimization of tenants that compels Ms Winslow to accept pro

bono cases. Many of her clients endure poor living conditions, situations

where landlords refuse to fix buildings or make even basic repairs. She

recalls one case of cockroach infestation so horrid that a cockroach got

lodged in a child's ear. Ms Winslow filed suit to force the landlord to make

improvements.

"People endure poor living conditions because they believe that it keeps the

rent low," she said. "They don't complain because they fear that if repairs

are made, they will have to pay more in rent."

Of special concern are the older buildings with lead paint in the downtown

Danbury area. Chipping paint, if it contains lead, poses a risk for children,

who have the tendency to put the chips in their mouths. Yet the costs of

renovating even one apartment with lead paint can be astronomical, upwards of

$20,000, which underscores the complexity of housing issues and why they are

often not easily resolvable.

Ms Winslow said that Danbury, where she practices, is relatively good about

inspecting apartments and forcing landlords to make improvements. Adjacent

towns, however, where there is less rental property, and hence less regulation

and less safety, do not have such inspection teams.

Because a lack of resources will force people into unsafe and unsanitary

living conditions, Ms Winslow believes that they will almost necessarily be

victimized. The lobbies of broken down buildings provide a convenient hideaway

for drug addicts to shoot up so that parents must clean the place of hazardous

needles before their children leave for school or play. "This is simply

reality for those in poverty," Ms Winslow said.

Ms Winslow is unsure as to whether housing is a right. "It's not in the

Constitution," she said. "But it is a quality of life issue. Certainly the

United States has the resources to guarantee that all have a roof over their

heads." Yet how a nation may translate its abundant resources into effective

social policy is, Ms Winslow feels, uncertain.

Ms Winslow also holds seminars at the Danbury Women's Center on doing one's

own divorce. She says that in marriages where complications are minimal -- the

partners have little real estate to divide and they have no children -- one

can undertake divorce procedures with only initial guidance. "If there is no

battle going on, this might be the right route," she said. Some parts of a

divorce, however, such as splitting retirement funds or maintaining adequate

health insurance, can be tricky. Sometimes separation, not divorce, may be the

solution.

Ms Winslow has done pro bono work throughout her legal career. After law

school graduation, she worked for a year as a Vista Volunteer, the domestic

equivalent of the Peace Corps, and then for eight years for legal services, an

organization that provides legal services to impoverished clients. In addition

to her work for Law Works For People, Ms Winslow also takes cases of a more

informal nature, often helping those whom she has aided in the past. "I still

feel as though I'm their lawyer," she said.

Ms Winslow sees the law as a service profession, akin to medicine or teaching

in the aid it gives to others and the rewards it offers to the lawyer herself.

For her, the law provides opportunities to try to make people's lives better.

"To provide a legal service is to serve people and to serve the law," she

said. "And the fabric of this country, what makes us unique, is the law."