You Can Help Too
Nowadays, many organizations in different states together with their local government acknowledged the need to give fair justice to the rich and the poor. Orange County and Oregon, together with some other states are very inspiring for offering free, civil legal services to the low-income individuals in their community. Through this, they are able to send out the information to everyone that each one has an equal right to access our legal system. Let us see how they did it and how you can start the same advocacy in your state or country.
Access to Justice in Oregon
In 1991, the Campaign for Equal Justice was initialized in Oregon. It works to support almost a hundred legal aid attorney in all the communities throughout Oregon. These attorneys have different specializations, which covers most of the cases that needs legal representation for most of their probable clients. Their mission is to open the access to justice to all Oregonians, including the poorer members of the society. This was done by improving education and raising funds for legal aid in their state. They have launched several educational programs to communities to increase their awareness about legal services and the need to avail justice.
Currently, the Campaign for Equal Justice in Oregon is able to support an estimated 20% of all the legal needs of the low-income Oregonians. This is the limit of their current resources but they are already working on getting more financial support through grants, state and federal funding, foundation support and even direct fundraising done by the private attorneys who support this campaign. And the Oregon community, especially those from the legal industry have responded very generously to support this mission. They may not be able to serve all because of the limits of their fund, but they surely have helped out a lot of low-income individuals. Out of the 700, 000 low income Oregonians who are eligible for legal aid services, 20% of it or 140, 00 people are given legal assistance.
Fair Justice in Orange County
Orange County also provides legal aid services for the low-income members of their state. They represent people with high priority needs - food, shelter, income maintenance, medical care, and safety from harm. Most of the people they help are in family law who are victims of domestic violence who cannot afford to fight for their justice rights.
The Legal Aids in Orange County provides legal services through their popular three-tier system. The first one is the use of hotline. Hotline paralegals that are supervised by lawyers provide counseling, advice and referrals over the phone, only to eligible clients. The types of advices given through phone are limited to legal problems that are easy identifiable and have easily explainable solutions or actions. The second is the use of Legal Clinics and kiosks that they call "I-CAN!" Clinics offer assistance for landlord/tenant issues, dispute mediation and bankruptcy. They also have family law clinics that help in paternity actions, dissolutions and sole custody proceedings. On the other hand, the kiosk offers web-based legal services. Lastly and most importantly, they have offer in depth representation in legal proceedings except for criminal cases.
