Queens Legal Services Corporation (QLSC) created the Know Your Rights Advisory Clinics to expand service delivery in the areas of housing and child support. The project offers training sessions to educate people about QLSC's clinical program. The clinic trains clients in a group setting separately from the clinical program. In the training sessions, clients are advised of basic rights and issues that arise in the context of court proceedings, and then encouraged to go through the project's intake procedure.
The intake procedure establishes whether the client and/or the case is suitable for the clinic, which provides for clients to represent themselves in the court proceeding. The clinic is a series of one-on-one encounters in which the client and case handler develop a litigation strategy and learn how papers will be filed and what to expect in court. Throughout the proceeding, the Pro Se litigant has a contact within the project should the proceeding become complicated and need additional legal assistance. By encouraging certain clients to go to court Pro Se, QLSC is able to allocate more resource towards more complex cases and more vulnerable individuals.
Contact Information:
Lisa Isaacs Queens Legal Services Corporation 89-00 Sutphin Boulevard Jamaica, New York 11435 Phone: (718) 657-8611 Ext. 21 Fax: (718) 651-0185 Email
LSC:
America's Partner for Equal Justice 