Telling Tales Out Of School

By Drew Lindsay

Toccoa, Ga.

At first, Chip Angell couldn't make head or tail of the woman's story. She phoned late last spring, a time of year when the warm daytime sun here gives way to an evening cool that makes for a pleasant stroll around the town square. A lawyer, Angell works out of a storefront office just off the square. For five years, he has run legal interference for many $6- and $7-an-hour workers who are headed for bankruptcy, tangled in insurance red tape, or just plain down and out.

These clients all tell hard-luck stories, but this woman was so distraught that tears jumbled her words and thoughts. "I can't believe they've done this,"...