Notre Dame Law students created an online platform — Impowerus — designed to connect pro bono attorneys with people who need legal services. What sets this product apart from the other sites is its focus — a specific demographic, immigrant youth — and its aim to be self-sufficient, charging lawyers licensing fees rather than relying on donations.
Despite a continued need for legal representation, few Americans hire attorneys. Legal aid experts said there are two questions the legal community should consider: what’s keeping people, particularly those from low-income communities, from hiring legal help; and how can the profession reverse the trend?
The former employee of the University of Notre Dame who was charged with taking nearly $200,000 from the law school’s Clinical Law Center will plead guilty plea and faces up to five years in prison.
As part of the $400 billion budget deal passed by Congress early Friday morning, Legal Services Corp., which provides financial support to Indiana Legal Services, will continue to receive funding about equal to its fiscal year 2017 appropriation. The White House had once proposed completely defunding the agency.
An Elkhart lawyer who teaches schoolchildren the value of voting is among six attorneys recognized by the Indiana Bar Foundation for their volunteer efforts.
A new initiative launched at Indiana Legal Services is aimed at helping nonprofits with their legal needs. The Community Development Legal Project, which officially started in September, is designed to provide services to 501(c)(3) organizations that stretch their dollars to serve the indigent population and have little or no resources to spend on hiring attorneys to draft agreements, file for tax-exempt status, or handle other legal issues.
With the help of a nearly $1 million grant, Child Advocates, Inc., is partnering with Indianapolis Legal Aid Society in a pilot project designed to sweep youths from the child in need of services process and get them into stable homes.
Indiana Legal Services is partnering with a Valparaiso-based health care provider to launch a first-of-its-kind medical-legal partnership program in northwest Indiana.
A recent one-day clinic allowed volunteer attorneys, paralegals and administrative staff to prepare 130 legal documents for first responders.
A project in the federal courthouse in Indianapolis aims to take what the court calls the “worst of the worst” ex-offenders and offers them a hand to break the cycle of bad decisions, criminal behavior and reincarceration.
With the annual attorney registration set to begin Tuesday in Indiana, the Coalition for Court Access has issued additional guidance for reporting pro bono hours.
With the budget looming on the agenda of the U.S. Senate, Indiana’s two senators are both supportive of federal funding for legal aid, but neither are putting any dollar amount to their support.
In recent months, the Indiana resource transitioned from being a stand-alone website that the Indiana Bar Foundation operated to becoming a part of the American Bar Association’s online portal, ABAFreeLegalAnswers.org. Currently, the bar foundation is reintroducing the website — indiana.freelegalanswers.org — to attorneys around the state.
The first round of data collected from Indiana’s new pro bono reporting rule invoked opposing reactions among the members of the Coalition for Court Access who recently reviewed the numbers. Some thought the amount of time and money lawyers donated to legal aid was shameful, while others were thrilled with the level of giving.
Members of Indianapolis’ legal community are offering assistance today to help recently incarcerated people find the jobs and resources they’ll need to build their future.
Housing initiatives and expungement programs around the state will receive a boost of nearly $700,000 through the Indiana Bar Foundation’s Community Redevelopment and Justice grants.
The bill extending the $1 surcharge on civil legal filings is headed to the governor’s desk.
A bill which would extend the pro bono legal services fee on court filings has cleared a committee in the Indiana House of Representatives and is headed for a second reading Tuesday on the floor of the lower chamber.
After enacting a rule allowing judges to assign pro bono cases to attorneys who frequently practice in federal court, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana is celebrating a “banner year” for pro bono service.
A bill that would extend the $1 filing fee on civil cases submitted to Indiana state courts has breezed through the Senate and is now headed to the House of Representatives.