by Kent Jennings Brockwell
Staff Writer
Filing for divorce is never an easy time for either party but, for battered women, the process is much more difficult.
That is why a small group of local attorneys and paralegals has teamed up with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office to create the Missing Link Legal Assistance and Mentor program, a volunteer program that provides free legal assistance for victims of abuse who are trying to get out of their abusive situation.
The first training session for volunteer paralegals and attorneys was last week.
More than a year ago, JSO victim services counselor Kathy Pannell, Rogers Towers attorney Marla Buchanan and Carol Ann Benjamin, a paralegal member of the Northeast Florida Paralegal Association (NEFPA) assembled to create the monthly program, which will hold its first workshop for abuse victims in July.
About a dozen volunteers attended the training session where they received program information as well as stacks of forms to be filled out by victims once the workshops begin.
Buchanan said the training sessions are important for all involved due to the complexity of the victim’s cases. She said each workshop attendee will have to fill out between 30 and 40 pages of information as part of the dissolution of marriage process so it is important for everyone to be up to date on the forms.
“It is pretty overwhelming even to someone with a legal background,” said Buchanan.
Besides getting the abuse victims out of their bad situations, Buchanan told the group of volunteers that one of the most important aspects of the program is making sure the paperwork is as streamlined as possible.
“It is important to get these people through the process as quickly as possible with very few complications because as you can imagine they have enough complications in their lives already,” she said. “A lot of them aren’t divorced already because it is so complicated. Hopefully, we will be able to achieve our goal and get them out of their situations.”