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Legal Aid opens virtual office for low-income Wayne County residents
TRACEY BLAIR
Legal News Reporter
Published: November 14, 2018
Some are grandparents raising grandchildren due to the opioid epidemic.
Others have been evicted from their homes with nowhere to turn, or feeling powerless to get out of a domestic violence scenario.
What they have in common is that they need legal help, but are unable to afford it.
But thanks to a new partnership between Community Legal Aid and Community Action of Wayne and Medina Counties, Wayne County residents are just a video call away from free legal advice.
In a unique pilot program, Legal Aid last July set up a virtual office onsite at Community Action’s Wooster location. The office allows low-income resident the opportunity to “meet” with an attorney or prepare legal documents with a court advocate while sitting in the community building.
The meetings take place through technology. Clients using the program are able to see and hear the Legal Aid staff member through a video device to get help with issues including housing, family matters, record sealing and expungements, public benefits, federal taxes, bankruptcy and domestic violence.
The virtual office was created to meet Wayne County’s needs even as the non-profit law firm has been spread thin.
Currently, Legal Aid also serves clients in Summit, Mahoning, Portage, Columbiana, Medina, Stark and Trumbull counties, but only has staffed offices in Akron, Canton, Warren and Youngstown.
“We know that face-to-face interaction is the best way to build trust with our clients,” said John Petit, managing attorney for Legal Aid’s housing and consumer program, who is also overseeing the virtual office pilot. “That’s hard to do when you’re 40 miles away. This program seeks to lessen that barrier and helps our clients get to know us, and vice versa, so they see a real person who cares about their problems and is helping them.”
So far, 45 residents have benefited from the virtual office program, said Melissa Pearce, president and CEO of Community Action.
“People have been delighted to have it available so readily with the convenience of Wooster,” Pearce said. “The conversations with the attorneys are in a secure room and are private. Many times, people find themselves in difficult financial situations due to not having enough resources. The program helps people make informed decisions, improve their situation and decrease stress. We’re happy with the way things are going and are happy Legal Aid came to us with this opportunity.”
Legal Aid Executive Director Steven McGarrity called the pilot a creative way to address low-income residents’ needs.
“When our offices merged several years ago, it really left this void in Wayne County,” McGarrity said . “We still have an outreach center in downtown Wooster where we can meet clients, but a lot of people don’t even know that’s there. And really, it’s just not the same as having full-time attorneys working here year-round.”
Dawn Spriggs, Legal Aid’s intake supervisor, said the technology is as simple as sitting down and saying a few words to a computer screen.
“We have instructions hanging up in the office that explain to people what to say,” she said. “Then, you’re connected immediately with an intake worker in our office in Akron, and we walk you through the process from there.”
Todd Jasin, executive director of United Way of Wayne and Holmes County, said he was proud to work with Legal Aid to help provide clients with video-based legal services.
“Because affordable housing is in short supply, many low-income families simply do not have the resources to make ends meet,” Jasin said.
Even at the peak of funding for legal aid groups, there was not enough money to cover the legal help needed for low-income people in the law office’s communities, Petit added.
“Our goal is to make ourselves more accessible to our clients,” Petit said. “The benefit of the virtual office is that it lets us `be present’ with our clients, even if it is not practical to physically be there.”
The virtual office is located at 905 Pittsburgh Ave. in Wooster and is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.