Sunday, July 19, 2009

Louisiana Legal Assistance to Military Personnel (LAMP)

The legal community in Louisiana provides Legal Assistance to Military Personnel in a variety of ways.

For the Warrior Community

Active duty service members may wish to go first to Armed Forces Legal Assistance's online database to "locate active duty legal activities offering general legal services within the continental United States". Here is a list for the state of Louisiana.

General-Purpose Resources

Servicemembers, veterans and their families are of course eligible to use the same resources as anyone else.

Private Practice Attorneys

The Louisiana State Bar Association has a good Lawyer Referral and Information page, giving tips on finding a lawyer and how to work with one. Typically, a lawyer in private practice will listen to your situation for 15 or 20 minutes, then give you an idea about how to proceed, in general terms, without charging you. If the matter is something the lawyer can help you with, but must charge for, sometimes you can work out a military-family discount, especially if you are easy to work with. In addition to the Lawyer Referral and Information page, you may wish to the Findlaw website's city-by-city list of lawyers in Louisiana who are interested in representing active-duty military personnel, military reservists, and veterans.

Educating Yourself

One way that the warrior community can fix its continuing shortage of legal resources is to train up a corps of veterans as lawyers and other legal professionals. Loyola University School of Law has Programs for Veterans page and consider becoming a lawyer, paralegal or legal secretary in service to your community.

For Lawyers

The Louisiana State Bar Association has a Military Law Committee who
"... to coordinate statewide efforts to assist in legal matters affecting active, reserve and other members of the military and their families and to inform and advise Bar members of matters relating to the practice of military law in Louisiana. ..."
You can join it here.

LSBA's directory of Legal Services organizations may be another way to find programs you'd wish to support.

Law students at Tulane may participate in its Military Law Society, although I haven't seen whether it hosts clinics for military personnel or veterans.

It is likely that there are other Louisiana programs, sponsored by local bar associations, law schools, and others. Anyone with more information on these or other programs are invited to contact me; the most convenient way is to add in a comment below. The purpose is service!

See also

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