Equal access to justice for all
This past Saturday, I went to volunteer with the CLASP drop-in legal clinic in Oakland. The legal clinic runs every first Saturday of the month at the Alameda County Law Library. People come to receive legal advice on all kinds of issues, from family law to housing to employment.
My role was to serve as intake supervisor. I managed the intake process: people sat down with volunteers to talk through their problems so that we can match them with the proper attorney. When most people come to the clinic, they don’t have their problems neatly defined as a legal question. As the CEO of my organization, Julia Wilson, put it: they have life problems that involve a legal solution. People come who are going through a divorce and want advice on how to handle custody issues, or who are being mistreated by an employer and want help, or who are being harassed by a landlord.
What strikes me about these clinics is how many clients show up. Last Saturday, we had 66 clients show up for help. Usually we have about 80 clients, so I expect we had lower turnout because of the long weekend. For family law questions alone, we had over 20 people. The Hayward Court Self-Help Center (which gets a lot of family law questions) has started referring people to the CLASP clinic.
We try our best to serve people quickly, but clients often end up waiting for hours just to speak to a lawyer. Clinics like this show me that our civil legal system is not working for everyone. People who can afford a lawyer can get the help they need quickly. People who are low to moderate income can’t afford an attorney and so must use free resources like this clinic. It would be one thing if the legal system only affected minor issues with limited consequences. But people were coming for questions that would affect how often they would get to see their kids, or whether they could keep their apartment, or if they would be able to stay in this country.
I am glad that I have the opportunity to serve the public through this legal clinic. But I hope that judges, lawyers, court officials, law schools, and others will continue to push for the legal system to become more accessible to others. I dream of the day in which clinics like this one are no longer necessary, when we will have access to justice for all.