Sunday, May 17, 2009

Arkansas Legal Assistance to Military Personnel (LAMP)

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

For the Warrior Community


General-Purpose Resources

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

Private Practice Attorneys

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.

  • The Arkansas Bar Association has a Lawyer Finder you can use to search by geographical location and type of law. For example, you can pick "Veterans Law" and your city or county: try it here.
  • The Findlaw website has a city-by-city list of lawyers in Arkansas who are interested in representing active-duty military personnel, military reservists, and veterans here.

For Lawyers

  • If you are interested in practicing Veterans' Law or other relevant specialties, make sure that the Arkansas Bar Association and Findlaw have you in their lists (above).
  • The Arkansas Bar Association has Lawyers Assisting Military Personnel committee which "[a}ssists the Association in providing legal services specific to the needs of veterans of the United States Military as well as active and reserve personnel and their families." More information here. In 2001 it set up a Military Assistance Task Force which I'm having trouble locating on the website.
  • Arkansas Legal Services helps qualifying servicemembers and veterans; an excellent example is here.
It is very likely that there are other Arkansas 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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