Regardless of one’s religious belief (or non-belief), most people recognize the need to help the poor and needy. There are many wonderful organizations that strive to do this in different ways. In the legal profession that takes the form of pro bono assistance. How many different groups in our area can you identify that assist with pro bono work?
Bonus Question: Of the groups you identified, in what specific areas do they provide pro bono assistance?
(Scroll down for the answer)
Answer:
Legal Aid of Western Missouri
- Legal Aid provides free legal representation to low-income citizens residing in a 40-county service area.
- Legal Aid only accepts civil (non-criminal) matters and they do not have the resources to handle every eligible case. They take the following types of cases:
- Housing Law – Landlord/tenant issues, foreclosure and other housing problems
- Domestic Violence Protection – help survivors of domestic violence achieve safety and stability
- Healthcare/Public Benefits – Assist with state-run programs such as MO HealthNet (Medicaid), food stamps, Temporary Assistance and Blind Pension
- Federal Rights – Help with federal benefit claims such as Social Security, SSI, and Medicare
- Veterans – Help veterans and their family members in a variety of legal matters
- Immigration Law – Help immigrants with residency and citizenship
- Mental Healthcare – Help adults with mental illness in a variety of legal matters
- Consumer Law – Help individuals with creditor/debtor problems & victims of predatory lending
- Low Income Taxpayer Clinic – Help with IRS disputes
- Migrant Farmworkers Project – Provide legal services to migrant and seasonal farmworkers
- Economic Development – Represent nonprofit community organizations in neighborhood improvement activities
- Guardianships for minors and incapacitated adults
- Municipal Court Defense – represent on OPEN cases in KC Municipal Court in which the city is seeking jail time.
- See Legal Aid’s brochures for more details.
Kansas Legal Services
- Legal Services provides free legal representation to low-income citizens residing in Kansas.
- Legal Services only accepts civil (non-criminal) matters and they do not have the resources to handle every eligible case. They take the following types of cases:
- Consumer/Finance
- Housing
- Education
- Juvenile
- Employment
- Elder Law
- Income Maintenance
- Family
- Health
- Individual Rights
- See KLS’s brochure for more details.
American Bar Association’s Free Legal Answers
- Users can ask a volunteer attorney a specific question about a civil legal issue and attorneys can answer at their convenience 24/7/365 online.
Kansas Bar Association - Call A Lawyer Night
- The Kansas Bar Association and the Topeka Bar Association are hosting "Call-a-Lawyer” night the second Thursday of each month. Anyone in need of legal advice is encouraged to call.
- Callers may speak to volunteer lawyers who are donating their time to answer questions and providing legal advice and information.
Midwest Innocence Project
- MIP is dedicated to the investigation, litigation and exoneration of wrongfully convicted people in the five-state region of Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska.
- MIP does NOT accept cases with claims of self-defense, intoxication, insanity, or consensual sex.
- MIP only accepts cases in which the applicant:
- Is claiming actual innocence
- Was convicted in Missouri, Kansas Iowa, Nebraska, or Arkansas
- Is currently incarcerated and has more than 10 years left to serve on their sentence
- Has exhausted their appeals and is not currently represented by.
- See MIP’s brochure for more details.
Miracle of Innocence
- MOI assists innocent prisoners with referrals for legal representation and supports the re-entry of innocent prisoners through referrals and placement for:
- housing
- credentials & identification
- communication
- job opportunities
- education & training
- life skills & mentorship
- physical & mental health
- transportation
MacArthur Justice Center
- MacArthur Justice Center has fought cases to right individual wrongs, confront racial and social inequality and demand real reform.
- See website for more details.
UMKC Entrepreneurial Legal Services Clinic and Intellectual Property Clinic
- Clinic delivers legal advice and facilitates the delivery of professional business planning and intellectual property services to owners of small businesses who cannot afford the market rates for such services.
- Application is found online.
University of Missouri School of Law Veterans Clinic
- This clinic serves veterans needing assistance with securing disability benefits or discharge upgrades.
- In order to become a client of the Veterans Clinic, there is a robust intake process with necessary paperwork that must be completed prior to official representation. To contact the clinic, call or email our intake specialist Eugene O’Loughlin at eugeneoloughlin@missouri.edu and (573) 882-2025.
KCMBA – Military Matters
- Military Matters is a program that fills the gap in legal services available to service members and veterans.
- See Military Matters Brochure.
Kansas Appleseed
- Kansas Appleseed is a statewide advocacy organization dedicated to the belief that Kansans, working together, can build a more thriving, inclusive, and just Kansas.
- See website for more details.
Center for Conflict Resolution
- CCR provides mediation for neighbors, coworkers, families, landlords and tenants, and organizations.
- CCR also manages victim/offender dialogue for courts and neighborhoods.
- Training is provided to schools, churches, agencies, businesses, city departments, family & small claims courts, probation officers, police officers, prisons, and re-entry programs.
The HelpKC
- The HelpKC is a nonprofit re-entry organization in Missouri to HELP formerly incarcerated/convicted women start a productive & healthy life after incarceration through meaningful Health, Employment and Empowerment opportunities.
Catholic Charities NEKS - La Luz Center
- La Luz Center for Immigration Legal Assistance is a nonprofit immigration program that addresses deficient local community capacity in the provision of low-cost legal representation to refugee and immigrant populations in the state of Kansas.
- They can offer assistance with filing forms, representation before the immigration court and much more.
- Also provides outreach in jails to detainees facing removal through "Know Your Rights" presentations.
Still Looking for Help?
Checkout KC Common Good’s Community Connector, a portal that consolidates information about critical community services to:
- Help citizens connect to area services
- Convene organizations, funders and community leaders to effectively coordinate efforts, expand initiatives and explore strategies for addressing disparity
The foregoing non-exclusive list was gathered by Margaret Richards, Director of Pro Bono Services at Husch Blackwell LLP. If you know of additional pro bono services that should be added or if you are searching for a particular type of pro bono service not included on the list you may contact Ms. Richards via email at Margaret.Richards@huschblackwell.com or by phone at 816-983-8781.
Disclaimer: The Religion Law Quizzes are provided as a service to you. They are intended only for educational purposes. Nothing in the Quizzes is intended to be legal advice and they should not be relied upon as conclusive on any issue discussed therein.
HERE IS AN AI GENERATED SUMMARY OF TODAY’S PODCAST
Welcome to another insightful episode of our Religion Law Podcast. In our latest Religion Law Quiz, we bring your attention to the good in the world and discuss Pro Bono work in detail. Focused primarily towards lawyers and legal professionals, we encourage our listeners to consider offering free legal services, underscoring how this noble endeavour resonates with everyone, religious or not, with the basic human urge to help the needy.
In this episode, we inspire you to identify the different groups in your area that assist with pro bono legal work. For those in the Kansas City area, we provide an extensive list of organisations involved in pro bono practices. While discussing these groups, we emphasize their specializations in different areas of law, which helps in referring people in need to the right resources.
By inspiring you to conduct your own searches for such organizations, we aim to surprise you with the overwhelming number of groups participating in this noble cause. We discuss specific groups, their specialization areas and how they cater to the different legal needs of the poor, putting it all into our show notes for reference.
The key takeaway from this episode is a recognition of the need to help the poor and the necessity of pro bono work in society. We encourage everyone, not only legal professionals, to consider the services they can render to ease others’ burdens.
Join us in this enlightening conversation about the intersection of faith, law and service to humanity. If the episode resonates with you, kindly share it and leave a review. Until we meet again, keep spreading positivity and influence for good.
