CLEVELAND — If you're looking to make a difference for people in Northeast Ohio, you'd do well to start your search at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.
This non-profit law firm provides free civil legal services to tens of thousands of clients with low incomes each year, helping ensure fairness for all in the justice system.
This kind of service is only made possible with its 3,000-some volunteers, a group of both attorneys and people who aren't licensed to practice law that we're celebrating as part of a special feature on National Volunteer Week from April 16 to 22 on What's New.
Legal Aid's managing attorney for the Volunteer Lawyers Program Lauren Gilbride shared with 3News how crucial these selfless individuals are when it comes to putting on the group's Brief Advice Clinics, which are free, drop-in advice sessions held multiples times a month in different places across Northeast Ohio.
"Without them, we would not be able to do these," Gilbride said, praising her team of volunteers. "We serve five counties in Northeast Ohio. In addition to Cuyahoga County, we're also doing Brief Advice Clinics in Lorain, Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties. We simply don't have enough staff to be able to go out and do all of these clinics, so volunteers are really necessary and so important to us at these."
At a Brief Advice Clinic, non-attorney volunteers are the first people to speak with clients, taking down all of their contact information and letting them share what they're looking for help with on that particular day.
From there, these volunteers share that information with the clinics' group of attorney volunteers. Those lawyers then decide who can best help the client with their particular issue, and sit down with them to work through their problem and provide resources for next steps.
The clinics last a few hours at a time, with a recent clinic held at the Memorial-Nottingham Cleveland Public Library where dozens of people were counseled on how to navigate their civil legal problems.
As crucial as these clinics are for helping Northeast Ohioans, they're only a small part of the work the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland does.
Whether you're an attorney or not, your help is greatly needed. If you're interested in volunteering your time with Legal Aid, you can check out more about those opportunities here.