Courtroom Lawyer for the Day in Suffolk Probate & Family Court
Senior Partners for Justice has been running a pro bono Courtroom Lawyer for the Day project at Suffolk County Probate and Family Court since April 2007. This project grew out of the Limited Assistance Representation (LAR) Pilot Project developed by the Supreme Judicial Court Steering Committee on Self-Represented Litigants. On May 1, 2009, LAR available in all Divisions of the Probate and Family Court.
How It Works
We have two tables set up outside courtroom 2 on the 4th floor of the Brooke Courthouse every Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. We have a mobile office at the courthouse including forms, blank client files, reference materials, pens, paper, calculators, and other items a Lawyer for the Day might need. Because this is a Limited Assistance Representation project, we only represent the client in the matter they have on the day we are at court. We are usually done for the day by 1:00 p.m.
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In order to take Limited Representation cases, it is necessary to have completed a do-it-yourself training consisting of written materials and an audio CD. The training materials are available online.
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Each Friday, we usually have two or three volunteer attorneys staff the project. We also have law student volunteers to help the attorneys as needed and to screen potential clients for eligibility to ensure that we only help low-income clients. Most of the clients who come to the Courtroom Lawyer for the Day are referred by the Judges or the Register of Probate's office.
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Volunteer attorneys provide a range of services to clients in family law and guardianship matters, everything from simple advice to help with pro se pleadings, to representation in a contested court hearing. Experienced attorneys are available for on-the-spot mentoring and guidance.
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Along with the Courtroom Lawyer for the Day project, we now also assist pro se clients to fill out and file petitions for guardianship, primarily of minors. The Courtroom Lawyer for the Day work is well suited to attorneys who have some experience in family law, but new attorneys are welcome as well. Law students, law school graduates waiting for bar results, and newer attorneys are ideal volunteers for the guardianship petition work. We recommend that those interested in helping with guardianship petitions attend one of VLP's bi-monthly Introduction to Guardianship of Minors trainings. See www.vlpnet.org to find the date of the next training.
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In addition to being a valuable service to the court and the low-income litigants assisted, the Courtroom Lawyer for the Day project offers a unique, interesting, and enjoyable learning opportunity for newer attorneys. Often, less experienced attorneys pair up with or shadow more experienced attorneys for a few weeks until they are ready to handle a case on their own. The collegial environment and teamwork approach of the Courtroom Lawyer for the Day project has made it very popular with Senior Partners volunteers.
For more information, please contact Senior Partners for Justice Project Manager Barbara Siegel at 617-423-0648 x123 or bsiegel@vlpnet.org.
