Bar Association wants more lawyers to donate

Everyone accused of a crime has the right to an attorney, but that’s not a right for parties in civil cases. If you are getting a divorce, or someone sues you, you have to pay for legal counsel or go it alone.

News Story (Alaska)

KUAC-FM (Fairbanks, AK)
December 4, 2019
READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Tags: Domestic Violence, Housing: Landlord-Tenant, Pro Bono

Organizations mentioned/involved: Alaska Legal Services Corporation


DETAILS

There is a small non-profit organization of lawyers who handle nothing but poverty law cases; they are Alaska Legal Services Corporation, or ALSC. Not only do they have a long waiting list, they had their state grant cut this year. That means the “justice gap” between those who can afford an attorney and those who can’t is even larger.

Krista Scully is the Alaska Bar Association’s Pro Bono coordinator.

“What we do in Alaska, is just get creative. The Landlord-Tenant Clinic happens twice a week every month of the year, and we launched an on-line legal clinic and we’ve been at that for about three years now.”

That online program is called Alaska Free Legal Answers. That and the call-in Landlord-Tenant clinic are staffed by volunteer attorneys, who donate their time to answer short questions instead of making face-to-face appointments with clients.