All You Need to Know About Wichita Legal Aid
Legal aid, by definition, is the provision of assistance to people otherwise unable to afford legal representation. In Wichita, the need for such services is pronounced. With a population exceeding 391,000 and only a handful of large scale legal aid agencies to meet the demand, many in the city are unable to secure timely legal advice. In some communities, access to legal information is limited to those earning less than $15,000 annually, but in Wichita, while those making that salary are prioritized, help is provided to all regardless of their income.
Legal aid offers a broad range of services including assistance with child custody and divorce, and direct help with civil legal issues in criminal matters . Organizations like Kansas Legal Services, the Bar Association of Wichita, and the Kansas Bar Association have made it a mission to serve the underrepresented communities of Wichita, offering events that teach people how to represent themselves, pro bono representation from volunteer attorneys, and direct legal referrals. With pro bono representation, low-income individuals can access the advice of a volunteer attorney, often at no cost or at a reduced fee. Some of the services provided by Kansas Legal Services have included housing, family, consumer rights, and bankruptcy legal assistance.
Services Legal Aid Can Help With
From family law to employment matters, consumer rights issues to housing disputes, Wichita legal aid organizations cover a wide range of legal matters. As free legal assistance organizations, generally these organizations seek to assist economically disadvantaged individuals and families with legal issues that may be beyond their ability to address on their own.
No matter what matter you are trying to address, legal aid organizations rely on the information provided through a series of short eligibility questions that guide them in determining whether you or your loved one qualify for their services. While legal aid organizations vary their eligibility questions somewhat, regardless of the organization, the first question will almost always be whether you can demonstrate a financial need.
Legal Aid organizations in Wichita often handle areas such as: Consumer Rights, Family Law and Domestic Violence, Healthcare, Housing, Immigration, and Employment Law. Important to keep in mind, not everyone qualifies for legal aid assistance or the specific service they are seeking. And not all legal aid organizations do the exact same work (ie: certain agencies work primarily with immigrants, while others primarily assist in family law matters, etc). As mentioned above, the best way to find out whether you qualify for the services of a legal aid organization, is to answer their eligibility questions truthfully and to the best of your ability.
Who Can Access Legal Aid?
Eligibility requirements for legal aid in Wichita may differ depending on the nonprofit organization. In general, civil legal aid organizations require applicants to fall at or below 125% of the federal poverty income guideline. These guidelines consider the number of members in your household. Applicants must be able to prove their need for legal aid by submitting the appropriate documentation required by each organization.
For example, Kansas Legal Services requires assistance seekers to fill out an application and submit income information including the Social Security numbers and dates of birth for all household members, as well as recent tax forms, pay stubs and current proof of assets. Kansas Legal Services will consider income levels from the past month and anticipate what your income level will look like in the near future. If your income level meets the eligibility criteria, Kansas Legal Services will assign you to a staff attorney to discuss your options. For less simple cases, they will assign you to an attorney who specializes in the appropriate area of law. Whether you get to speak to someone immediately depends on currently available staff and the nature of your case. This organization can also help you with family law cases like pertaining to divorces, custody, guardianships, child support and child advocacy.
Wichita is also home to the Catholic Charities Legal Aid & Immigration Services. This organization helps low-income individuals with legal matters like public benefits, immigration, safe housing, healthcare access and special education rights for children. For victims of crimes like traffic incidents, assault or personal injury, they provide victim and witness advocacy services. This branch of Catholic Charities also operates under income eligibility guidelines that are typically 125% of the federal poverty income guideline. However, they also consider special circumstances, such as disability, serious health issues and domestic abuse when reviewing an application for services.
If you are looking for an immigration attorney or a translator for your case, Catholic Charities will review your income information and special circumstances before connecting you with spiritual care agents. They will interview you to determine what services can help you and will connect you with the appropriate legal aid charity that is best equipped to assist you.
How to Get Help from Legal Aid
There are several steps to accessing legal aid services in Wichita, so it is important that you understand the process from start to finish to ensure that your case is handled properly.
The most important step is that you contact the local legal aid center. In Wichita, you can contact the Kansas Legal Services office at 1034 N. Main St. For general information, you can reach out to the entire state at 1-800-723-6953.
The local office will walk you through the process for applying for legal aid. You can apply in person, over the phone or online, so explore the options that are most convenient for you.
All potential clients must first qualify for legal aid. You must reside in the state of Kansas, meet income requirements and be within their area of services (which include basic legal needs, domestic violence and foreclosure prevention, among other issues). The organization will inform you of these requirements and help determine if you are qualified.
You should be prepared to provide information regarding your financial status, as well as other questions related to why you need legal aid. The questions they ask will help determine if you qualify and whether or not you’ll be connected with a volunteer attorney in Wichita.
If you meet the requirements and there are available attorneys for your specific needs, you will be referred to a Kansas legal aid volunteer attorney. You will be informed about what to expect from the legal aid attorney, and they may ask for further documentation as needed.
Top Legal Aid Organizations in Wichita
Numerous organizations in Wichita and surrounding communities provide free or low-cost legal services to those in need. Below is an overview of some of the key legal aid organizations serving the area.
Kansas Legal Services
KLS is a nonprofit law firm that serves 49 counties in Kansas, including several counties in Sedgwick, Butler, and Cowley. KLS provides client-centered representation through legal advice, brief consultations, and full legal representation in its over 50 offices. KLS strives to increase access to justice for the low-income community by providing essential legal services.
Consumer Credit Counseling and Law Project of Wichita (CCCLP)
CCCLP operates as a joint project of the United Way of the Plains and KLS to offer free legal counseling and debt management assistance regarding credit card, medical , and other consumer debt matters.
Community Legal Services of Mid-America
CLS of Mid-America is a nonprofit corporation that provides low-income and elderly clients with legal representation in family law and domestic relations cases. CCLS also offers limited legal advice and referrals to various free legal services programs in the region.
Volunteer Attorney Project (VAP)
The VAP is constantly looking for volunteer attorneys to assist with its mission of educating and empowering clients who are unable to access conventional legal services in their community. The VAP provides clients with one-on-one meetings for 30 minutes with a local volunteer attorney via a web-based video conferencing system.
Wichita Bar Association (WBA)
The WBA is comprised of practicing attorneys and judges in the Wichita area and is dedicated to the promotion of civic improvement. The WBA provides a wide range of services and programs to members and the community, ranging from the establishment of an annual scholarship fund for qualified high school seniors to freestanding legal clinics for the poor through the Robert J. Dole program.
Difficulties in Offering Legal Aid
Like many legal aid organizations across the country, those in Wichita face staggering challenges in keeping up with the high demand of clients seeking their help. In addition to being underfunded, other problems also limit the scope of the assistance these empowering organizations are able to provide. For one, there are legal limitations as to what sort of matters they are allowed to assist on. A notable example is the Kansas Legal Services organization, a prominent provider of free and low-cost legal representation in the area. As KLS is permitted by federal law to use the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) grant it receives only for civil cases, KLS cannot direct any of the grant funds to a case involving criminal issues. Since criminal cases often go hand-in-hand with civil rights considerations, KLS cannot recover lost medical payments through subrogation for injured clients who had been charged with DUI during their auto accidents-not because these patients are guilty but because their DUI charge can be used as an excuse to delay or deny their recovery. Even in the same cases where something else like bad faith exists, KLS attorneys must often turn to private attorney referral programs just to get desperately-needed help. Stretching already limited resources even further, clients with some issues can be facing continuous threats that worsen or multiply their problems before they get help. For example, some may have little to no money for food or transportation to even make it to the legal aid office, let alone pay any court-filed fees to initiate necessary measures.
Significance of Legal Aid in Wichita
For the residents of Wichita, legal aid services play an indispensable role in ensuring that all individuals, regardless of their financial background, have access to justice. The Wichita legal aid community strives to address a broad range of issues, from family law and domestic violence to consumer rights, housing stability, and immigration. For many residents, these legal aid programs provide a vital lifeline in critical situations.
One such story is that of Maria Gonzalez, a single mother of two who found herself facing eviction after her landlord attempted to increase her rent with only a few days’ notice. Having just lost her job, Maria couldn’t afford the increase and was unsure how to proceed. After being referred to Prairie State Legal Services, a local legal aid organization in Wichita, Maria was able to receive counsel on her eviction rights. This advice not only helped her understand her options but also led to a negotiated reduction in her rent increase and an extension of her lease.
Another example is that of David Tran, a recent immigrant from Vietnam who was denied legal permanent residency after a lengthy application process. David sought help from the Catholic Charities Legal Services of Wichita and was able to obtain pro bono legal representation. With the help of his advocate, David was able to resolve his residency status and is now working to bring his wife and children over to the United States.
These are just two of the many stories of residents in Wichita who have benefited from the invaluable services offered by the legal aid community.
Prospects for Legal Aid in Wichita
As with the state of the country, the future of legal aid in Wichita is uncertain, though not dismal. With national trends toward privatization and defunding of state and local programs requiring interventions by NGOs, many non-profits are becoming entrepreneurial, leveraging their political savvy and business acumen to address social issues. Not to mention the fact that many nonprofits have been funded and operated for decades, so you can expect that innovation will carry forward in some fashion, perhaps even at an accelerated pace.
Even in Kansas there is some hope, as the Kansas Bar Association (KBA) has been meeting with nonprofits providing legal aid in Kansas to discuss and address current funding shortfalls. The KBA also hosts Justice Sunday in support of Kansas Legal Services, its local legal aid non-profit . As the oldest legal aid organization in the Midwest and the first legal aid organization in the United States, KLS has a long history of addressing the unmet civil legal needs of vulnerable Kansans, so it is not likely that it will close its doors, even with limited funding.
Under the auspices of the KBA, pro bono attorneys have also been working in partnerships with:
United Way: The Housing Coalition of Sedgwick County, Inc., working in partnership with many community agencies and United Way, offers pro-bono and sliding scale fees. Their public resource guide features 275 agencies that help more than 360,000 people in 12 Kansas counties. Kansas Appleseed Center for Law and Justice: As Hungry for Justice, this nonprofit uses pro bono volunteers and student interns from nearby law schools to address hunger issues in Kansas.
Future legal aid in Wichita will be largely driven by Kansans themselves, as well as the willingness of the state and locals to see and accomplish justice in eradication of poverty in Kansas.
