|
| |
|
 |
Support For Volunteer Attorneys
Volunteer Legal Services of Central Texas offers a wide array of services to support our attorney volunteers in helping our low-income clients, including:
- Consultants and Mentors: VLS has attorney consultants and mentors in a variety of practice
areas who are available to answer your questions.
Our Staff Attorney and Executive Director are
also able to answer most questions and if they
can’t, will find someone who can.
- Free Seminars and Manuals: All prior VLS seminar materials are available to our volunteers at no cost. All
seminars are also videotaped and available for loan
at the VLS office. Our seminars are nuts and bolts type trainings
designed to teach an attorney the basics of
handling a case in that practice area. For
a list of upcoming seminars, go to the Events
page and click on Seminars.
- Legal Forms: Forms are available for attorney volunteers
on our website in the Members Area. Volunteer
attorneys are also welcome to use document production
software available in our offices, such as ProDoc
for family law documents and Legal Pro for bankruptcy
cases. We also have various practice manuals
from the State Bar of Texas and other helpful
reference materials. The Staff Attorney and
Executive Director are here to assist volunteers
with their VLS cases and are happy to walk you
through drafting the forms.
- Free Lexis-Nexis: On-line research through Lexis-Nexis is available at no charge to volunteers for VLS
cases.
- Malpractice insurance: Our malpractice insurance covers any work done
on any VLS pro bono case.
- Waiver of Publication Costs: Service by publication at no charge is available for a limited number of VLS cases through the Austin
American-Statesman and the Austin Chronicle.
- Free Office Space: VLS offers office space for client meetings and
mediations.
- Other Help: Our Staff Attorney will help
- Obtain waiver/reduction of service fees
outside the Travis County area.
- Find a pro bono mediator for half day
mediations on VLS cases.
- Find a pro bono court reporter when your
usual court reporter is unable to assist
or unavailable.
- Locate your VLS client if the need arises.
- Manage difficult clients.
- Refer your client to social service agencies
in the Travis county area to address emergency
or other needs of the client (e.g., shelters,
social services, treatment centers, low-cost
family therapists).
|
|
|
