legal aid
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legal aid

ATTORNEY

How to Find Legal Help When You Can’t Afford a Lawyer

Whether you need help drawing up a will or a contract – or you’re facing some sort of legal jeopardy or dilemma – hiring an attorney can be expensive.

According to USLegal.com and related websites, most lawyers charge between $100 and $300 an hour. That can feel prohibitive if you need a lawyer to get you out of a legal jam or protect your assets, but you don’t feel like you have any money to spare. Here are some reasons you may need a lawyer:

  • Family law issues, like a contentious divorce.
  • Estate planning.
  • Personal injury.
  • Criminal charges.
  • A restraining order.
  • Your business needs to be restructured or dissolved.
  • You are facing bankruptcy.

In a criminal proceeding, if you can’t afford legal assistance, a court will appoint an attorney for you. In a civil case, generally described as a dispute between two private parties, to get legal representation, you have to get creative.

How to Find Free Legal Help

If you can’t afford an attorney, here are some strategies to try:

  • Contact the city courthouse.
  • Seek free lawyer consultations.
  • Look to legal aid societies.
  • Visit a law school.
  • Contact your county or state bar association.
  • Go to small claims court.

Depending on your situation, you can employ a variety of strategies to get free legal advice or cheap legal assistance. Read on for more information on each option.

Contact the City Courthouse

Andrea Vacca, a collaborative divorce attorney in New York City and the owner of Vacca Family Law Group, says at least with divorces, “some courts offer free assistance to parties who want to fill out their own uncontested divorce paperwork.”

Still, whether it’s a divorce or something else bringing you to court, if you don’t have a lawyer, a logical move is to call the courthouse and ask

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ATTORNEY

Legal Aid Family Law Staff Attorney

Community Legal Aid (CLA) is the non-profit legal services program providing free civil legal assistance to low-income residents of central and western Massachusetts. CLA has over 150 dedicated, talented staff working across multiple offices. Our core work includes effective client-centered advocacy and robust outreach to and partnerships with our client communities.

CLA seeks an attorney to join its Family Law Unit. The attorney will be based in CLA’s Northampton office and will assist clients with cases involving family law matters including divorce, child support, visitation, and custody. It is anticipated that most of the attorney‘s clients will be survivors of domestic violence. The attorney will have significant client contact and will assume an active caseload while continuing to accept new cases. The attorney will also engage in community outreach and education and will work closely with community partners including domestic violence service providers. Some grant-reporting activities are required.

QUALIFICATIONS: Law students currently in their third year of law school, recent law school graduates, and more experienced attorneys are eligible to apply. Prior family law experience, particularly with survivors of domestic violence, preferred. Excellent oral and written communication skills. A demonstrated dedication to social justice and commitment to working with low-income communities.

COMPENSATION: The starting salary for this position is $65,500, which is based on a union scale and adjusted upward depending on experience. CLA offers a very generous benefits package that includes 401(k) with employer-paid contribution; low-cost health insurance (medical, dental, and vision) for employees and their dependents; malpractice insurance; paid leave (4 weeks vacation, 3 personal days, 12 sick days, and 13 holidays); and relocation stipend.

APPLICATION PROCESS: Please apply online. Alternatively, you can submit your cover letter and resume to [email protected] or mail to Alicia Vaughan, Human Resources Director, Community Legal Aid, 370 Main Street, Worcester, MA

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ATTORNEY

Legal Aid Staff Attorney: Veterans Advocacy

Community Legal Aid (CLA) is the non-profit legal services program providing free civil legal assistance to low-income and elderly residents of central and western Massachusetts. CLA has over 150 dedicated, talented staff working across multiple offices. Our core work includes effective client-centered advocacy and partnerships with our client communities.

CLA seeks an attorney to assist veterans with a range of civil legal issues. The focus of the attorney’s work will be on housing, including representing tenants in eviction cases and assisting tenants facing denials or terminations from public and subsidized housing programs. The attorney may also assist clients with family law issues, income support, and discharge status upgrades. In addition to representing individual clients, the attorney will engage in extensive community outreach and education and will work closely with community partners. The attorney will be based in CLA’s Springfield office.

QUALIFICATIONS: Law students currently in their third year of law school, recent law school graduates, and more experienced attorneys are eligible to apply. Top candidates will have prior experience working with veterans, providing legal representation to tenants, and conducting community outreach. Excellent organizational, communication, and writing skills required.

COMPENSATION: The starting salary for this position is $65,500, which is based on a union scale and adjusted upward depending on experience. CLA offers a very generous benefits package that includes 401(k) with employer-paid contribution; low-cost health insurance (medical, dental, and vision) for employees and their dependents; malpractice insurance; paid leave (4 weeks vacation, 3 personal days, 12 sick days, and 13 holidays); and relocation stipend.

APPLICATION PROCESS: Please apply online on our website. Alternatively, please submit your cover letter and resume to [email protected] or mail to Alicia Vaughan, Human Resources Director, Community Legal Aid, 370 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01608.

CLA is an Equal Opportunity Employer and strives to

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LEGAL

Legal Services Division

Who We Are

The mission of the American Bar Association Legal Services Division is to actively promote access to justice by ensuring the quality and accessibility of necessary legal services for those in need through the work of its entities’ programs, initiatives, and policy-making. The Division also achieves its mission by supporting civil legal aid, public defense, and military attorneys in their practices and professional development, along with the institutions and organizations that work to ensure access to justice for all.
The Legal Services Division houses the Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defense (SCLAID), which works on matters relating to legal aid and defender services, and supports state-based Access to Justice Commissions through its Resource Center for ATJ Initiatives. The Division is also the home of the ABA Military and Veterans Legal Center, where the Standing Committee on Legal Assistance for Military Personnel (LAMP), Standing Committee on Armed Forces Law (SCAFL), and the Coordinating Committee on Veterans Benefits and Services are staffed and managed, along with these entities’ pro bono legal service programs serving military families and veterans.

Learn More – About Us


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LEGAL

Katten Celebrates 10 Years of Providing Free Services at Legal Clinic in a Chicago Public School

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

Katten Celebrates 10 Years of Providing Free Services at Legal Clinic in a Chicago Public School

Apr 20, 2023 (PRNewswire via COMTEX) —
PR Newswire

CHICAGO, April 20, 2023

CHICAGO, April 20, 2023     /PRNewswire/ — Katten announced today that the firm commemorated a decade of service with the Katten Legal Clinic at Chicago Public Schools’ Jose de Diego Community Academy in collaboration with Legal Aid Chicago, the Midwest’s largest provider of free civil legal services.

“Our Katten de Diego Legal Clinic is the crown jewel of our pro bono program.” – Jonathan Baum, Katten’s senior counsel

“Our Katten de Diego Legal Clinic is the crown jewel of our pro bono program. It exemplifies our commitment to provide high-quality legal services to those who desperately need them but can’t afford to pay for them,” said Jonathan K. Baum, Katten’s Director of Pro Bono Services. “I salute the talented attorneys and paralegals who have helped our clients navigate tough situations in tough times. And we are so grateful to our partners at Legal Aid Chicago, without whom this work would not be possible.”

The Katten clinic is one of the nation’s first legal aid clinics in an urban public school, an initiative that was recognized in 2016 with an American Bar Association (ABA) Pro Bono Publico Award.

“Legal Aid Chicago is proud to partner with Katten and the Jose de Diego Community Academy to deliver critical legal services to the Humboldt Park community. The Katten de Diego Legal Clinic provides an opportunity for people to receive help and have their stories heard within their own neighborhood, making legal aid accessible to those who need it the most,” said Melissa A. Bartolomei, supervisory attorney of Pro Bono and Community

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LAW

Counting the costs | Feature

PI clin neg RT

At the table (left, clockwise)

Eduardo Reyes, The Law Society Gazette (chair)

Sharon Allison, Ashtons, SCIL

John McQuater, Switalskis, APIL

David Haynes, ARAG plc

Nicola Critchley, DWF, FOIL

Richard Miller, The Law Society

Ben Collins KC, Old Square Chambers

Beth Heath, Lanyon Bowdler

John Hyde, The Law Society Gazette

Gillian Gadsby, Gadsby Wicks

Catherine Bennett, Capsticks

Anne Kavanagh, Irwin Mitchell

Krishna Kotecha, Moosa Duke

Vinod Kathuria, TULA Medical Experts

Paul Rumley, RWK Goodman, SCIL

Richard Geraghty, Irwin Mitchell

Emily Formby KC, 39 Essex Chambers, PIBA

Malcolm Johnson, Lime Solicitors

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act has a significant birthday this year. It is 10 years since the 2012 legislation came into force, with huge consequences for civil justice. Personal injury and clinical negligence cases were among those that lost most public funding, which was cut through part 1 of the act. Those cuts went hand in hand with reforms of civil justice based on a review and report by Sir Rupert Jackson.

The Jackson reforms ended the recoverability of the ‘success fee’ that attached to conditional fee agreements, meaning it was no longer among the costs that could be recouped from a losing defendant. The reforms also enhanced the importance of case management and costs budgeting by placing discussions and agreements relating to both elements close to the start of a case’s conduct. Meanwhile, the principle of ‘qualified one-way costs shifting’ (QOCS) provided some protection for claimants against an adverse result. That principle has since been eroded.

Access to justice

The loss of legal aid for most personal injury and clinical negligence cases is lamented by claimant lawyers and campaign groups, but law firms have adapted and continued to

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LEGAL

Pro Bono: Winnie Eilert: Give those in legal need a fighting chance

Aaron Irving, Jacksonville Area Legal Aid director of pro bono

Winnie Eilert is no stranger to Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.

Her first introduction was in 2016 when she was invited to speak at one of JALA’s family law informational clinics.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Eilert was actively involved with JALA-Clay County where she worked on a statewide initiative to provide free legal services to victims of intimate partner violence.

While working on the state-wide initiative, Eilert was able to learn more about the variety of services JALA offers to the underserved in our community, including JALA’s Family Law at Reduced Expense program.

FLARE is a legal aid program designed to serve clientele that are unable to qualify for volunteer representation, but cannot afford standard attorney rates. Think “low bono.”

In 2020, Eilert opened Eilert Law PLLC, where she practices family and criminal law as well as security clearance defense.

Since opening her own practice, she has remained actively involved in JALA’s FLARE program, assisting more than 70 low-income clients with their family law-related matters. Eilert is a champion for the FLARE program and illustrates the importance of this program at JALA.

“I believe that everyone should have an opportunity to have legal representation. Unfortunately, not everyone has the same financial resources to be able to receive legal guidance and representation. With the emergence of the FLARE program, even more individuals have access to legal representation without the hurdle of incurring crippling legal fees,” Eilert said.

Pro bono work through JALA gives Eilert the opportunity to serve those in need and give them a fighting chance that they may not have otherwise had.

Eilert said that some of the most interesting cases he handled were pro bono, as the underserved community faces its own set of unique challenges.

“I

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LEGAL

‘Raise legal aid’: Wales’s message to Westminster | News

The Welsh government will tell Westminster to increase civil legal aid funding, the general counsel has revealed, following a visit to the only law center in Wales.

Mick Antoniw, general counsel and minister for the constitution, and Jane Hutt, minister for social justice, visited the Speakeasy Law Center in Cardiff this week.

In an announcement today, Antoniw said: ‘The Speakeasy Law Center is providing a valuable service. I welcome the chance to hear how it is helping people. High-quality legal advice can prevent issues from spiraling and becoming more serious, and I encourage people across Wales to take advantage of the support available to them if they need it.’

speakeasy

Today’s announcement states that despite many areas of justice not being devolved, the Welsh Government’s single advice fund, introduced in January 2020, supports advice services across Wales with around £11m a year, helping to support services like Speakeasy Law Centre.

So far, the fund has supported 144,000 people to deal with more than 660,000 social welfare problems, helped people to claim £83m of additional income, and write off debts worth more than £23m, the announcement states.

Antoniw said: ‘Information and advice services are even more important because of the sweeping real-terms cuts to legal aid over the last decade, which is putting access to advice out of reach for more and more people and increasing the burden on volunteers. We will be stressing the importance of information and specialist advice services, and the need to increase levels of funding, in the upcoming UK government review of civil legal aid.’

Speakeasy Law Center was set up in 1992 and is currently the only law center in Wales. However, work is well underway to set up a law center in Llandudno Junction, North Wales.

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LEGAL

Less Than 8% Undertrials in Maharashtra Had Access to Legal Aid Services From 2016-19: Study

Mumbai: To ensure that the Indian legal system promotes justice and ensures no citizen is denied a chance to justice over financial or other disabilities, the Indian parliament, through the 42nd amendment, had introduced Article 39A as a directive principle in 1976.

Subsequently, with the establishment of the National Legal Services Authority in 1995, it became the state’s constitutional obligation to ensure free legal aid to its citizens.

But close to three decades later, the condition of legal aid in the country leaves much to be desired. A detailed study on the conditions and availability of legal aid in the state of Maharashtra shows that less than 8% of total undertrials lodged in Maharashtra jails were able to access legal aid services between 2016 and 2019. The joint report by Prayas, a field action project of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and the Fair Trial Fellowship Program of National Law University, has made several concerning revelations.

Prayas, a 30-year-old organization has been working in many central and district jails of Maharashtra. The Fair Trial project has also made a significant intervention in the state in a short period. The report, named ‘Legal Representation for Undertrials in Maharashtra 2018-2021’, has identified a lack of confidence and poor quality of legal aid services as some of the primary reasons for poor utilization of the legal aid service by pretrial detainees.

The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) shows that the large majority of those incarcerated are unlettered, and belong to marginalized castes and religious identities. Their social status has a direct impact on their capacity to negotiate with the criminal justice system.

“They”, the report finds, “end up spending more time than they should be in prison”.

For this study, spanning over four years, Prayas and the FTF fellows analyzed data based

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LEGAL

Legal aid organizes clinic for Kitchener encampment residents facing eviction

Legal representation is being offered for encampment residents as the Region of Waterloo turns to the courts to evict people living at the Victoria and Weber Streets property.

The first court date is set for July 20.

The Waterloo Region Community Legal is offering its services pro bono.

The team visited the encampment on Thursday to meet and greet with encampment residents and begin the legal clinic process.

The Region of Waterloo is relying on the courts to determine for the next steps in the eviction process after the eviction deadline set for June 30 passed without action.

“There are people here who don’t trust people in positions of authority, so one of the jobs we have to do is to talk to people and to build some trust with them to make them understand that we are here to make their voices heard ,” said Shannon Down, a lawyer with Waterloo Region Community Legal Services.

Residents at the camp say the legal aid clinic is a relief for those pondering their next steps.

Down said this is a big job with some major barriers for their small clinic.

“We can’t just pick up the phone to call our clients or email them, the people here for the most part don’t have access to technology or communications equipment,” said Down.

“The efforts of the legal aid crew is appreciated, and I don’t think any of us would know where to start an injunction or a hearing or get before a judge,” said Michael Wosik, who lives at the site, a resident of the encampment.

“The region filed an application with the courts Tuesday, seeking a judge’s approval to remove residents and their belongings from the site.

As part of the judge’s orders, legal aid was notified and has taken up

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