Robertson: Community Lawyering in Coal Country
In Community Lawyering in Coal Country: Empowering Those Who Power America, Gregory Robertson (West Virginia College of Law) examines how social institutions have failed coal miners by systematically discouraging attorneys and advocates from representing coal miners in Black Lung benefits claims, and how four attorneys have modeled success despite these challenges by drawing on the principles and strategies of community lawyering.
Coal worker’s pneumoconiosis (CWP), also known as Black Lung, is a chronic lung disease caused by inhaling coal mine dust. CWP is preventable but due to institutional disregard and misinformation surrounding its cause by the coal industry, thousands of people have been impacted. The Black Lung Movement emerged in the 1960s and sought to grant legal recourse and assistance to miners harmed by CWP. Robertson argues that community lawyering was an essential part of obtaining justice for impacted coal miners.
Robertson shares the lessons of community lawyering from this movement and their ongoing impact on justice and advocacy today through profiles of four attorneys engaged in CWP benefits litigation: John Cline, Bob Cohen, Grant Crandall, and Sam Petsonk. He notes that successful attorneys representing miners in litigating CWP cases became members of the mining community and built their practices through local networks. Establishing local networks of attorneys with the same goals allowed lawyers in CWP litigation to share information and mutual support. After establishing such robust local networks, the key to maintaining the movement was recruiting new attorneys to the cause. Local community networks supporting miners impacted by CWP enabled effective advocacy for miners and the Black Lung Movement as a whole.
Robertson argues that applying the community lawyering principles that were used in the Black Lung Movement is an essential part of meaningfully serving underserved communities and effectuating long-lasting social change. CWP is still an issue facing miners throughout Appalachia and the need for community lawyering continues to grow given recent changes to administrative law and coal mining regulations. By following in the footsteps of Cline, Cohen, Crandall, and Petsonk, and building on the successes of the Black Lung Movement, Robertson hopes future attorneys can impart meaningful social changes not only in Appalachia, but also in other underserved communities facing similar struggles.
