Older & WiserProgram Developed by Neighborhood Legal
Services Association
Neighborhood Legal
Services Association (NLSA) and southwestern Pennsylvania
legislators are co-sponsoring Older & Wiser, a public
service initiative providing free legal information seminars on
matters of special importance to elderly adults and their families.
NLSA developed the
project on behalf of the 14-county Southwestern Pennsylvania Legal
Services Consortium and will co-host the first seminars with
legislators from districts within its four-county service area. The
project is a cooperative effort between NLSA, who developed the
presentations, legislators who host the seminars, and the private
bar who deliver the information to the public during the seminars.
Plans are for the
project to expand to additional legislative districts within the
remaining 10 counties served by the southwest consortium. NLSA and
the Southwestern Pennsylvania State Legislative Delegation
officially launched Older & Wiser at a joint news
conference
in Harrisburg on Tuesday, Sept. 30, in the main Capitol Rotunda.
A Guide to Legal Issues
for
Pennsylvania Senior Citizens is Updated for 2007-2008 by the PA Bar
Association
The popular, A Guide to
Legal Issues for Pennsylvania Senior Citizens, has been
updated for 2007.
Created by the PA Bar Association Senior Lawyers
Committee, the guide is designed to provide information about
legal issues faced by Pennsylvania's older citizens and their
caregivers.
It offers basic information, describes various
services and ways to access them and outlines areas that may
require specific legal advice or expertise. The updated version is
only available online.
EJM is produced by the Washington D.C.
based Legal Services Corporation. It is the country’s only feature
magazine dedicated exclusively to exploring equal justice issues
and the work of public interest lawyers. EJM tells the untold
stories of courageous clients and intrepid attorneys who turn
shallow lawyer stereotypes on their head.
Click here
to view the current online edition of the magazine.
Welcome to the
Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network
Community Education Page
The links on the left to
PALawHELP.org are your gateway to a wealth of
general legal information from Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network and a variety of other
sources. This information, while no
substitute for the personalized advice of a legal professional, can
serve as a useful resource for individuals navigating their way through
the legal system.
The
KEYS Program
Changing the Lives of
Families on
Public Assistance Through Education
Select
each section to view
this video,
produced by Representative Todd Eachus,
Chair of the Pennsylvania House Democratic
Policy Committee,
featuring the Keystone Education
Yields Success (KEYS) Program for
recipients of Temporary Assistance
to Needy Families.
Pennsylvania Legal
Aid Network Presents 2008 Excellence Awards
The 2008 Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network Excellence Awards were
presented at the annual awards dinner on Tuesday, March
18, 2008, at the Harrisburg Hilton & Towers.
The
evening's keynote speaker was Supreme Court Justice
Cynthia Baldwin. A social hour preceded the awards
dinner which began at 6:00 PM.
The Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network
Excellence Awards honor members and friends of the legal
aid community who exemplify excellence in their
commitment and accomplishments as advocates for
low-income people. The 2008 Excellence
Award recipients include a variety of civil legal aid
professionals, private attorneys, lay advocates and
supporters of civil legal aid from across
Pennsylvania.
The award winners are led by Andrew Susko, White
and Williams, LLP and current President, Pennsylvania
Bar Association, of Philadelphia, PA. Attorney Susko who received the special Outstanding Leadership
in Support of Legal Services Award.
The other 2008 Excellence Awards winners include:
Jay Alberstadt, Jr., The
Quinn Law Firm; Board of Directors, Northwestern
Legal Services, Erie, PA.
Sandra A. Ballard, Pro
Bono/Public Services Coordinator, Dauphin County
Bar Association Pro Bono Program, Harrisburg,
PA.
Nadia Hewka, Senior Staff
Attorney, Community Legal Services,
Philadelphia, PA.
Leodus Jones, Executive
Director, Community Assistance for Prisoners;
Board of Directors Pennsylvania Institutional
Law Project, Philadelphia, PA.
John F. McKenna, MacElree
and Harvey; Board of Directors, Legal Aid of
Southeastern Pennsylvania, West Chester, PA.
David Tilove, Director of
Information & Technology, North Penn Legal
Services, Bethlehem, PA.
A video tribute to each of the award
winners was presented during the awards ceremony. Those
video tributes may be viewed by
clicking here. Pennsylvania Legal
Aid Network, Inc. salutes each of the 2008 award winners
for their efforts in promoting equal justice to all.
NPLS Launches Computer-Assisted Custody Documents to Help
Low-Income People
North Penn Legal Services
has created legal forms for low-income parents to use to start a
custody case or change a custody order through the use of
innovative software called "HotDocs," a product of LexisNexis.
Parents answer a series of questions over the
Internet, and their answers are used to produce legal documents
for their particular situation and county.
"The goal of producing computer-assisted
custody papers is to get people in the door at the courthouse,"
said Victoria Coyle, Esq., Executive Director of North Penn
Legal Services. "Parents producing their own custody papers will
save time for staff at legal services organizations in all
counties across the state," explained Coyle. Low-income people
can find the computer-assisted forms in the Children and
Families section at
www.PALawHELP.org.
“The design and availability of the statewide custody complaint
form by North Penn Legal Services will provide significant
assistance to self represented litigants, as well as the general
public, in Pennsylvania. Plans are to incorporate these new
forms into the new website being developed to afford additional
help, on a statewide basis, to self represented litigants in the
family law area,” said Judge Jack A. Panella, chair of the
committee established by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the
Pennsylvania Bar Association to develop legal education and
community outreach programs in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network Recognizes
Participants in 2007 Martin Luther King Jr. Internship Program
The Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network
celebrated the 2007 Martin Luther King Jr. Internship Program at a
reception that was held on August 8, 2007 at the Dauphin County Bar
Association in Harrisburg.
Certificates of Recognition were presented to the interns who
participated in the program this year. Interns receiving recognition
included:
Bernardo Carbajal
North Penn Legal Services
Jacqueline Castaneda
Friends of Farmworkers, Inc.
Taisha Chambers
Legal Aid of Southeastern PA
Karen Fernandez
PA Institutional Law Project
Vanessa Yvette Flores
Philadelphia Legal Assistance
Joseph Palmerson
PA Utility Law Project
Seema Pereira
MidPenn Legal Services
Rasheedah Phillips
Community Legal Services
Mark James Reccek
Southwestern PA Legal Services
Justin P. Schantz
Laurel Legal Services
Funding and financial support for the
MLK Internship program is provided by the Pennsylvania Interest on
Lawyers Trust Account Board and the Pennsylvania Department of
Public Welfare. PLAN appreciates the ongoing support of these
organizations for the MLK program.
The 2007 edition of The Drum Major, a collection of
essays by the interns reflecting on their summer in legal services,
was distributed at the reception. The essays included in The
Drum Major may be viewed at the link below.
