Week 3 - Farmworker camp, Public Interest Attorneys, Deposition

This week’s topic correlates perfectly with the service that I did. I went on outreach with one of the attorneys and one of the paralegals in Labelle which is a city located about 45 minutes from where I do my volunteer hours. We went to a farmworker camp and asked the farmworkers if they were treated properly during their time here. At first, they said that they were but the paralegal began making jokes with them and building their trust. He told them that he understood that they might not want to admit that they were mistreated because they still had two weeks left before they went to Mexico. He went on to explain that it is important that the law firm knows about what is going on in the farm so that other workers will not get mistreated next season. They finally admitted that they were underpaid. It was an unforgettable experience because I got to see the type of houses that the farmworkers live in during their time in the United States. It was a one bedroom, one bathroom house and about 8-10 workers lived in each house. There were no fans or air condition. It started raining while the attorney and I were walking to each house but that did not stop us from doing our job. On the way to the farmworker camp, the attorney was telling me the advantages and disadvantages of working as a public interest attorney. One of the main advantages is that you are able to help people. One of the main disadvantages is that the salary is not as high as people expect it be. I also got to participate in a deposition involving Haitian farmworkers. I helped work on the case last summer by calculating the loss of wages and on Friday, the clients came in and a settlement of $1,500 was reached. All in all, it was a great week.