PLEASANT GROVE, Alabama - A bus with more than a half-dozen lawyers will stop Thursday at the Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church in Pleasant Grove to offer free legal advice to anyone who can't otherwise can't afford it.
No appointment necessary for the Justice Bus.
The Justice Bus, a new initiative of the Alabama State Bar's Volunteer Lawyers Program is part of a series of clinics set up at sites around the state between Oct. 19 and Oct. 25. The bus will be at the Pleasant Grove church site from and 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. Thursday. More than a half dozen lawyers will be at the site.
"The Justice Bus is a chance for attorneys to join together and do something to help people," said Jeanne Dowdle Rasco, a Talladega County attorney who is chairman of the state bar's Pro Bono Task Force.
The Justice Bus initiative has been well received by those who have taken advantage of it already in the past week at three other sites around the state in the past week, Rasco said.
During each stop lawyers answer questions about a wide variety of subjects, including child custody and domestic abuse, home foreclosures, and questions about employment or government benefit issues, Rasco said. Lawyers will be expecting to focus civil issues but will be prepared to answer questions and give legal guidance for all types of problems, she said.
The Justice Bus is being held in conjunction with the Pro Bono Celebration Week being held this week, Rasco said. In addition to the bus stops, volunteer lawyers along with law students will be holding clinics at senior centers and other places around the state, she said.
For example, other Jefferson County clinics will be held in Gardendale and Homewood and Bessemer during the week.
More than 4,500 lawyers are enrolled in the Volunteer Lawyers programs operated by the Birmingham Bar Association, Madison County Bar Association, South Alabama Bar Association and the State Bar, according to the state bar.
"The number of people living below the poverty level is large and continuing to grow - more than 800,000 persons in Alabama," State Bar President Phillip W. McCallum, of Birmingham, stated in prepared comments. "These include military veterans and their families, those with a disability, the unemployed, children, senior citizens and survivors of natural disasters. ... For the promise of the rule of law to be real to our most vulnerable citizens, lawyers render service through pro bono."
A schedule of clinics is available at the state bar's website. Or you can call the Alabama State Bar Volunteer Lawyers Program at 1-888-857-8571.
Source: http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/10/the_justice_bus_lawyers_with_f.html
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