Causes: Crime & Law, Human Service Organizations, Human Services, Public Interest Law

Mission: The pro bono project's continuing mission is to provide free, quality civil legal services to the underserved members of our community by engaging volunteer attorneys, paralegals, law students, and private citizens to render pro bono services. The pro bono project serves clients in orleans, jefferson, plaquemines, st. Bernard, st. Tammany, and washington parishes who otherwise might not have access to the civil legal help they need. With funding from private donations, grants, and other sources, the pro bono project works in collaboration with other legal and social service providers to improve the quality of life for our clients and for the communities we serve.

Programs: The project recruits, trains and mentors pro bono attorneys on a variety of civil legal aid matters. The project offers pro bono representation to qualifying low income residents of the 6-parish greater new orleans area, who need free legal representation on the following matters: divorce, custody, child in need of care matters, low income housing issues, public benefits access, immigration relief, bankruptcy relief, consumer debt issues, successions, wills/estates, and health care directives/medical powers of attorney, etc. The project assigns cases to volunteer attorneys that come in via general intake and also trains volunteers to work at specialized clinics throughout the year as needed. The project also participates in a medical legal partnership with a local health care provider and another legal service organization, to host on site weekly clinics at a local medical facility to service both healthcare-legal needs and general legal needs for patients on site. Divorce clinics - the project provides legal representation to over 900 low income clients annually who are seeking an uncontested divorce. Many of our clients feel stalled in their lives if they cannot get a divorce; they are often not able to move on financially, emotionally or personally, and they lack the ability and understanding of the legal system to pursue a divorce on their own, pro se. The project strives to work with clients to prepare them for this life transition by screening and preparing their case, assigning it to a volunteer attorney on a clinic day, and then processing their divorce petition through the court. Child in need of care (cinc) - the project provides legal representation to 80-100 children a year who are in child in need of care proceedings. These are children who have often been removed from the family home due to abuse or neglect, and are placed in foster care. The cinc attorney essentially serves as the voice of the child, who may have their own wishes about how to resolve the living arrangement. Cinc proceedings are fraught with emotion, and the child has often come from a troubling home environment. He or she may have other pressing social service and legal needs as well, so our cinc attorneys try to provide holistic representation and serve as an advocate for the child in other arenas (i. E. With the da's office, at school counseling sessions, etc. ) self help desk in jefferson parish - the number of individuals who represent themselves (pro se litigants) in louisiana creates significant administrative challenges for local courts in trying to ensure that these individuals understand and can access the justice system. In an effort to address these issues, the pro bono project in cooperation with the 24th judicial district court operates a self help desk for individuals with domestic legal issues in jefferson parish. The desk provides an option for people with family law questions to come in and learn more about the court forms and filing process, so that they can better understand the legal system and represent themselves.