For the second straight year, chancery judges are holding a free legal clinic for those planning to represent themselves in court.
Attorneys and judges will be at the Lowndes County Courthouse from 2-5 p.m. Thursday to offer guidance to low-income individuals with issues like no-fault divorces without minor children or adult name changes.
“It’s a way to help low-income or indigent … clients in our district who are unable to afford legal representation, and so this allows them a chance to take care of their matters free of charge,” said 14th Chancery District Staff Attorney Patricia Rives.
Last year, she said, 10 to 15 attorneys helped up to 30 participants with their legal matters.
This year’s clinic is open to citizens from throughout the 14th Chancery District, which includes Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Clay, Noxubee, Chickasaw and Webster counties. They can fill out an application on the district’s website at http://www.14thchanceryms.com, though Chancery Judge Paula Drungole-Ellis emphasized those who don’t have the chance to access the website can still come.
The application lists the income requirements for attendees (an annual income of $24,280 or less for individuals, $32,920 for a family of two, $50,200 for a family of four) and requests them to check a box saying whether they’ve come in for no-fault divorce, adult name change, emancipation or uncontested general guardianship. However, Drungole-Ellis said litigants don’t have to have filled out the application to attend.
Drungole-Ellis, a first-term chancery judge who attended last year’s clinic as an attorney, said there are increasing numbers of litigants going before chancery judges pro se, meaning they are representing themselves, usually because they can’t afford to hire an attorney. In the nine months she’s been a chancery judge, she’s already seen an increase, with people now coming in twice a week. Last week she had two pro se litigants in one day, she said.
“A lot of times their forms are not done correctly,” she said. “I can’t file anything that’s not done, so my court administrator or my staff attorney has to call them and say, ‘Oh, you forgot to do this,’ or ‘You forgot that.’ … If they come Thursday, they will have someone who will be able to help them fill out the forms.”
In many of those cases, Rives said, those litigants’ cases can stay in the court system for months, bogging up the system and keeping those citizens’ legal matters from being solved. For example, she said, a grandparent already raising a grandchild for the child’s parent may be unable to register that child in school simply because they haven’t been able to legally get guardianship. Often litigants end up having to hire an attorney anyway.
“I cannot tell you the number of people who have attempted to get a divorce (pro se) who have ended up coming in and hiring me,” Columbus attorney Carrie Jourdan said. “… Or end up waiting several years, which is always dangerous, and then trying to get divorced.”
The clinic is an opportunity for people needing help with legal issues that are relatively simple for attorneys to deal with, but can still be confusing for lay people who don’t understand the ins and outs of legal forms and jargon, Jourdan said.
“There’s very specific requirements that few people have the knowledge to think, ‘I need to go and look at this statute and make sure all of that stuff is in,’ because they don’t think that way,” she said. “… You’ve got to allege that you’ve lived in Lowndes County, or whatever county you’re from, more than six months ‘next proceeding the filing of the complaint.’ Those are magic words that you have to use. … If you’re not a lawyer, or you’re not familiar with drafting what you need, then it’s almost impossible to get it approved by the court.
“The court is not there to tell you what to do,” Jourdan added. “They can give you guidance and say, ‘This doesn’t meet requirements. You’re missing important elements. You need to go get a lawyer or check the statute or get some help.’ But they’re not in a position where they can sit and direct every pro se client.”
Trying to hire a lawyer to help deal with some of those issues can cost up to $200 an hour or more, depending on the attorney, Jourdan said. This clinic saves them that money.
“They could get the benefit of those kind of simple things that often everyday people need,” she said.
The clinics are encouraged by the Mississippi Supreme Court, Drungole-Ellis said, and are a way to make sure everyone has access to justice. In the future, she added, she hopes to hold the clinics twice a year at different courthouses, so that those who can’t get to Lowndes County still have an opportunity to attend.
“It’s so important to give back to the community,” Drungole-Ellis said. “We know there are people in our community who cannot afford attorneys, so this is our way of giving them access to justice and allowing them to come that day for those hours that we’re set aside and use the expertise that we have and the attorneys who are volunteering, giving of their time, to come and assist them with the drafting of the documents and just giving them the basic information that they need.”
HOW TO GO
■ WHAT: Legal clinic for those planning to represent themselves in court
■ WHEN: Thursday from 2-5 p.m.
■ WHERE: Lowndes County Courthouse
■ HOW: Online application at http://www.14thchanceryms.com
■ HOW MUCH: Free
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