When Veterans Have Nowhere Else To Turn, Law School Aims To Help

Students at a local law school are working to give back to those who fought so bravely for our country.

The Widener University Veterans Law Clinic has become a last hope for some local veterans who have struggled to get the benefits they deserve.

Lloyd Waters, a Navy veteran, and his wife Beverly turned to the clinic for help.

Waters, who is a paraplegic, says a botched surgery left him confined to a wheelchair. He says he hadn't received compensation until just a few months ago and only after he and his wife turned to Widener University.

"It shouldn't take a lawyer six years to navigate a client through this system in order to get them the benefits that we as a county have promised them," Professor Justin Holbrook of the Widener Veterans Law Clinic told FOX 29's Claudia Gomez.

The clinic doesn't charge veterans a penny for its services, nor does it take a cut when the VA finally pays up, as student volunteers do much of the work.

"Veterans need help. The system is very complex. There's a lot of rules, a lot of regulations that are not so transparent, not easy to find," veteran and Widener law student Judd Smith said.

Because of the law clinic, the Waters now have a new van to accommodate the wheelchair. The couple also says they no longer have to live near poverty as they have since the surgery a decade ago.

The problem, however, is for every successful case, there's at least 10 other veterans who need help.

There's no way the law clinic can accommodate everyone. Professor Holbrook says the problem may persist for another 50 years unless the problems with the system are fixed.