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A Helping Hand for Flood Victims

After the recent devastating floods in the Houston area, the Houston Bar Association put out the call to the local legal community for volunteer assistance, and Houston partners Leah Stolar and Tara Grundemeier answered the call. Ms. Grundemeier says the request was for lawyers to answer calls from flood victims who needed legal guidance.

“The HBA runs a program called LegalLine, through which it provides free guidance to callers. This was a special flood-only LegalLine,” Grundemeier said.

“I had a call from one gentleman who was dealing with landlord problems. His apartment was flooded and he needed replacement housing for his family. His landlord put them in a raunchy place and told him that he couldn’t look for anything better because that would be breaking his lease. Of course, that wasn’t true. A landlord is required to provide a habitable dwelling.”

“Mainly, I did a lot of listening and empathizing,” said partner Leah Stolar. She added, however, that she was able to guide flood victims in need to the city’s Disaster Recovery Center and she helped one woman with a flooded car access a consumer insurance hotline.

Grundemeier says that while her home wasn’t flooded, this was somewhat personal. “I live in a part of town that flooded last May. Some of my friends and neighbors had just moved back into their homes and got hit again.”

She says she was happy to respond to the call from the bar association, “and if they call again, I’ll get right back at it.”