Free CLE offered for pro bono volunteers

Bar associations and pro bono districts are working together to encourage attorneys to sign up to participate in the annual statewide Talk to a Lawyer Today event taking place Jan. 17, 2011. Free CLE, which is offered in December and January to lawyers who volunteer their time with TTALT but is not required to participate in the event, is a video replay of a CLE that originally took place in Indianapolis in October.

This year’s 6-hour CLE, including one hour of ethics, focuses on mental-health law, child support, Social Security disability law, and adoption law.

The CLE is available free of charge or at a reduced cost to participants who sign up for at least one two-hour shift during the Jan. 17 event. Lawyers will answer questions from callers or walk-ins, depending on location.

To receive free CLE, districts also encourage attorneys to agree to take on a pro bono case in addition to participating in TTALT. Attorneys who are not able to take on pro bono work because they are restricted by their jobs, such as city or state attorneys, or those who prefer not to take a pro bono case may be asked to pay a nominal fee to attend the CLE.

Participants in all CLE replays will also receive the book “Commonly Asked Questions about Indiana Law,” which they will be able to reference during their TTALT volunteer experience, and it will be theirs to keep after the Jan. 17 event. The Indianapolis Bar Association has partnered with event organizers for many years to provide this book at no cost to volunteers.

Interested attorneys should contact their local pro bono district plan administrators for more information or to sign up for upcoming CLEs and Talk to a Lawyer Today. Contact information is available on a sign up form  on the ISBA’s website. At least three of these CLE sessions are scheduled for Dec. 10, with others occurring in January.

The Allen County Bar Association will host the CLE replay for Pro Bono District 3, which is comprised of Adams, Allen, DeKalb, Huntington, LaGrange, Noble, Steuben, Whitley, and Wells counties, at their offices in Fort Wayne on Dec. 10 and Jan. 10.

District 4, which is comprised of Benton, Carroll, Clinton, Fountain, Montgomery, Tippecanoe, Warren, and White counties, hosted a CLE Dec. 3, and plans to host a second program Dec. 10 at the offices of Indiana Legal Services in Lafayette.

District 10, which is comprised of Greene, Lawrence, Monroe, and Owen counties, will host a CLE Dec. 10 at the Monroe County Public Library in Bloomington.

The CLE for District 1, which is comprised of Jasper, Lake, LaPorte, Newton, Porter, Pulaski, and Starke counties, will take place Jan. 14 at Valparaiso University.

The St. Joseph County Bar Association, which partnered with its pro bono district last year for the January 2010 TTALT event, has continued its Ask a Lawyer series at the St. Joseph County Public Library in downtown South Bend. The latest Ask a Lawyer took place Oct. 28. Volunteers helped more than 60 people, according to the bar association’s November 2010 newsletter.

The CLE replay in South Bend for Pro Bono District 2, which is comprised of Elkhart, Kosciusko, Marshall, and St. Joseph counties, took place Dec. 3.

More information is also available on the state bar’s website under Legal News.