The Fundamentals of UAW Legal Services
UAW Legal Services provide legal counsel to members in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, and Kentucky. These services cover a range of civil issues, including but not limited to issues relating to work-related accidents, catastrophic injuries, consumer rights and obligations, bankruptcy, creditor/debtor relations, workplace or civil rights issues, criminal law, selected family law matters and probate matters .
More specifically, the UAW Legal Services offers pre-trial activities, discovery, motions, and expert testimony in cases; provides legal assistance and representation at government agency proceedings, civil proceedings, mediations and arbitrations involving contractual grievances; and assists with drafting and reviewing documents, such as wills and powers of attorney, living trusts, deeds, divorce complaints, consumer contracts, insurance contracts, and lease agreements.
Types of Legal Matters Covered
The United Auto Workers (UAW) Legal Services Program provides assistance with a broad array of legal issues that provide value to members and their families. Drawing from a large network of skilled attorneys, the program can help plan important documents for the family and safeguard your family’s goals.
These are some of the more common areas for which UAW Legal Services can assist:
•Wills and Estate Planning
UAW Legal Services can help members create or update certain estate planning documents, including a Will, a Durable Power of Attorney, and Health Care Advance Directives.
•Real Estate Matters
These services include: legal advice regarding residential real estate transactions, drafting deeds, and handling residential real estate closings, with some restrictions.
•Domestic Relations
These services include: preparation of certain domestic relations documents, including complaints and complaints for divorce, custody, visitation, and property division; visitation modification action, and divorce modification actions; contempt actions and debt collection for spousal or child support; paternity, adoption, and guardianship; and name changes. These services are available for members without charge, once per household per year, with certain restrictions.
What Is Excluded?
UAW Legal Services is designed to provide legal assistance and representation to members for only the broad range of routine legal services. As such, it is not possible for your Local Union attorney to assist you in every legal matter that you may encounter. Consequently, there are a number of matters that would be excluded from coverage. Not included in UAW Legal Services are the following:
- Litigation involving non-motor vehicle accidents that are over $5,000 in value
- Matters that are not located in the U.S.
- Litigation for a single service if the total fee being sought is less than $500
- Class actions which do not involve a personal hearing
- Traffic cases (other than UAW member owned vehicles) in which a license suspension is involved
- Traffic matters arising out of the "commercial" component of the Uniform Commercial Code
- Claims against the UAW
- Matters occurring while you were on strike
- Matters involving criminal law
- Trusts or estates, business, real estate, bankruptcy, patents, securities, tax, immigration or environmental law
- Matters where the expected fee or value of the case exceeds $20,000, or, for amounts less than $5,000.00 where the member does not agree to a UAW Legal Services attorney’s assessment of the case
In any matter outside of the broad range of routine legal services, your Local Union attorney can write a referral letter on your behalf to other attorneys or advocacy groups. These matters may also incur an hourly fee.
How to Access UAW Legal Services
It is important for a union member to contact the UAW Legal Services Office before making an initial appointment with a participating attorney. This can be done by calling UAW Legal Services & Benefits at 800-482-7700 or the toll-free number for your Region or International Union for legal services. Once the call is received, a screening will take place and the appropriate Legal Services office will contact the member and set up an appointment.
Documents that should be brought to an initial appointment are all documents received by the member regarding the case. For example if the case involves a divorce, the member should bring in the Complaint for Divorce, the Judgment of Divorce and all pleadings that have been filed in the case. If the case involves an accident , there should be a Claimant Statement and/or Accident Report. Other documents that should be brought to a new appointment include financial documents and the Articles of Incorporation and By Laws of a corporation. The more documents that are produced, the better the initial appointment will be for the member.
Timing for UAW Legal Services varies by office. Hours of operation are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Members should try to call in the morning for an appointment. An immediate appointment is given to members in cases where the statute of limitations expire within a few days. Most appointments can be made within two weeks. Appointments from an hour to one and one half hours are scheduled for new cases.
UAW Legal Services – Success Stories
Receiving assistance through the UAW Legal Services Plan is a vital resource for many members, and many will offer their experiences as testimony to the benefit of these services. For example, Illinois UAW member Charles McCoy was supported and represented by UAW Legal Services in an auto accident case where he sustained neck and back injuries. As with all accident cases, the insurance company offered $15,000, the policy limit. However, UAW Legal Services negotiated with the insurance company and settled the case for $56,500. "I had no idea the UAW negotiated this amount for me and I am very pleased," says McCoy.
Another satisfied member is UAW Local 891 member, a hospital worker. She says she was extremely satisfied with the service provided by the UAW Legal Services Plan representative. The rep called her frequently to update her. "The representative allowed me to have input on all decisions made in my case," says the member. "Everyone I was in contact with treated me with respect and courtesy."
UAW Local 613 member Parker Crump consulted with Michigan UAW Legal Services after his home was severely damaged by a fire. Within 24 hours the member was visited at his home by Michael Sweeney who was able to talk to him about the loss of his son in a fire in 1979, and this helped the member feel less pressure about the stress he would experience. Parker filed a claim against his insurance company for structural damage to his home and his other losses. Mr. Sweeney negotiated a settlement of $202,000, and helped arrange for rebuilding of his home.
UAW Legal Services In the Future
The future of UAW Legal Services appears to be very bright. We can expect new states being added, including many in the Midwest and in the West. The use of more technology should translate into better services for our members. As technology improves, the expansions of service will become even more accessible to our members. There are new legislative changes that are already benefiting lower income individuals in legal matters. For example, there is now a rule that allows for the admissibility of documents from a cell phone without the need for expert testimony. There is a 10% reduction in the filing fee for wage and hour cases in state court. The expansion of areas of law covered by the UAW will expand members access to attorneys. New additions to civil matters , including expansion to Family law, real estate law and criminal matters are on the horizon for UAW Legal Services. UAW members will continue to be able to find the help they need in their home states. Beverly Traver, the current head of UAW Legal Services is committed to the goal of adding additional staff attorneys. The UAW has also hired support staff to help with the heavy workload of some of the UAW Legal Services offices. With these improvements, we can expect more focus on these new areas of law, more attorneys to address the gaps and continued support for the regions of the country that are already well served by the UAW.