by Staff
The Jacksonville Bar Association has been selected to receive the Voluntary Bar Association Pro Bono Award from Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles T. Wells, who will present the award today during a ceremony in Tallahassee to JBA president Tom Beverly.
This is the 12th time the award and recognition has been given to a local bar association for its significant contribution in the delivery of free legal services to the poor.
“On behalf of the Jacksonville Bar Association, I am quite pleased to accept the honor, but all the credit goes to the people on the committee who worked so hard to put together the Sulzbacher legal clinic,” said Beverly.
The JBA has served not only the legal community, but also the greater Jacksonville area, since 1897. Numerous programs and services have been provided by members of the Bar, including the Special Olympics, Teen Court, the Mentor Program and Law School for the Public. In keeping with its tradition of assistance and support, the JBA, in conjunction with Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, established a legal in-take clinic at the I.M. Sulzbacher Center for the Homeless in 2001.
The Sulzbacher Center averages 278 homeless people on a daily basis and a great number have legal problems requiring an attorney’s attention. Because the homeless do not have access to the legal community in a convenient forum, the legal community has gone to the homeless.
“I think many lawyers in the Jacksonville Bar Association feel a real responsibility to give back to the community,” said Beverly. “When we learned that there was a need for legal services among the homeless, we felt that it would be more efficient for us to meet with them at the shelter than for them to try to seek us out in our offices. That is because many of the people who find themselves in that situation do not have access to telephones and e-mail and other similar means of communication.”
The legal clinic is held each third Thursday of the month at the Center. A minimum of four attorneys attend each session. Those individuals who meet with an attorney are interviewed and their case is either accepted or referred to Legal Aid staff or pro bono attorneys.
However, numerous times during the in-take session, the attorney’s advice resolves many of the problems. Since its inaugural debut in February 2001, over 50 private attorneys have participated, with issues ranging from child support to record sealings. Attorneys have donated almost 300 hours to the program, interviewing guests, administrating the project and handling the cases.
One example of the impact the program has had is the transformation of a person who was wrongfully denied unemployment compensation benefits that she needed to support her family until she found future employment. By utilizing the program, the women was justly awarded the benefits that had been denied her, thereby moving her one step closer to achieving her goal of self-reliance.