Indiana Legal Services’ pilot project offers on-the-spot help to small claims defendants

Both staff attorneys at Indiana Legal Services Inc., helped that day as part of the legal aid organization’s summer pilot program.

News Story (Indiana)

Marilyn Odendahl
Indiana Lawyer
June 28, 2017
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Tags: Housing: Eviction

Organizations mentioned/involved: Indiana Legal Services (ILS), Indianapolis Legal Aid Society (ILAS)


DETAILS

Every Thursday from June 1 through Aug. 10, the pair of lawyers, along with their intern Paul Muriello and paralegal Justin Young, run the Tenant Assistance Project at the small claims court.

On the second Thursday of the project, they arrived by 8:30 a.m. and started creating a walk-in clinic in a large room down the hall from the court. The team arranged long tables and metal folding chairs, inserted intake forms onto clipboards, plugged in the laptop, posted the sign advertising their services and made sure they had plenty of pens and notepads.

Then the attorneys pulled on their suit coats — Bickle eventually knotted a tie — and waited to see who would come.