Georgia Legal Services adds Westtown Library to ‘circuit’

ALBANY — In addition to checking out books, reading periodicals and using computers, patrons of Albany’s Westtown Library branch can now add one more item to their list: getting legal help.

Georgia Legal Services “circuit rider” Whitney Knox, one of seven lawyers in the Albany GLS offices on Oglethorpe Boulevard, is available to discuss very specific legal issues with Westtown patrons from 10 a.m. to noon on the second Tuesday of each month. The program is part of Georgia Legal Services’ efforts to make its staff available where there are specific needs in the community.

“We circuit ride in all 33 of the counties in our service area,” GLS Supervising Attorney Rhonda Bass said. “Our services are offered to usually low-income individuals who meet federal poverty guidelines, and we offer elder law services to people 60 and over with no income guidelines.

“One of the reasons we do circuit riding is to provide services where they’re most needed. One of the biggest barriers to eligible individuals seeking legal help is a lack of transportation. If we provide our services at places near where there is a great need, we’re more likely to have a greater impact.”

The GLS attorneys stress that their services do not include criminal law, but they do make referrals. Georgia Legal Services offers legal help with wills for homeowners, living wills, some family law cases, food stamps, Medicaid/Medicare issues, bankruptcy, housing and other areas of civil law. Each case, though, is considered on its own merit.

In the Albany metro area, GLS attorneys circuit ride at Westtown, the Liberty House shelter on the third Thursday of each month and encourage drop-ins at their 131 W. Oglethorpe offices weekdays from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. in Dougherty County; at the 245 Walnut Ave. library in Lee County from 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. on the second Friday of each month; at the 205 E. Pope Street library in Worth County 1 p.m.-3 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month; at the Edison Medical Center in Calhoun County from 9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. on the second Wednesday of each month; at the 913 Forrester Drive Terrell County library from 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. on the fourth Friday of each month; at the 101 Sunset Blvd. Baker County DFCS office 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. on the third Friday of each month; and at the 165 W. Circle Drive Neighborhood Service Center in Mitchell County from 9:30 a.m.-noon on the fourth Friday of each month.

Walter Kelley, the senior partner with the Kelley Lovett & Blakey law firm and chairman of the Dougherty County Library Board, said offering GLS services at one of the county’s library branches is an expansion of the services libraries provide.

“We offer a place where needed services are more convenient to the people of our community,” Kelley said. “To me, that’s what libraries are for. This service offers greater exposure for Georgia Legal Services, and there’s no cost to them and no cost to us.

“For our libraries to become better partners in the community, we need to identify our citizens’ needs. This is an opportunity to do that with a service that does not cost us one penny.”

Georgia Legal Services, which was incorporated in 1971, has 10 offices statewide that serve 154 of the state’s 159 counties (excepting metro Atlanta counties). Legal Services Corp., which was founded in 1976, provides 48 percent of the firm’s funding, with the remainder coming primarily through grants.

The Albany/Valdosta regional office covers 33 counties in Southwest Georgia from the Alabama border to the west; the Florida border south; Echols, Lanier, Berrien, Irwin, Ben Hill and Wilcox counties east; and Wilcox, Dooly, Sumter, Terrell, Randolph and Quitman counties north.

The Albany-based office focuses on domestic violence cases, expanding legal services to underserved rural counties, keeping children in schools and targeting Latino communities.

“When we’re circuit riding, we discuss legal issues at locations convenient to citizens in that area,” Knox said. “We listen to people’s concerns to determine if we can do an intake. We take the information back to our office, and our managing attorney decides which cases to prioritize and assigns those cases to the attorneys on staff. Which attorneys are assigned to each case depends on specialty areas and caseload.

“We just started circuit riding at Westtown, and we haven’t done an actual intake yet. But we have had people drop in to discuss legal issues. We give what help we can, but we’re careful not to step outside the boundaries of the cases we help with. A lot of times we end up giving referrals.”

Bass, who has been with Georgia Legal Services for 15 years, said working with low-income clients is a calling.

“Working with our clientele is something of a proving ground for young attorneys,” she said. “But people like me who stay find that it’s a passion, a calling. I get great joy in helping individuals move out of poverty through our legal system.”

Knox, who has worked with GLS for two years, said services provided through her office offer great reward for clients who cannot generally afford legal help.

“You know going through law school that public interest work is not going to pay a lot of money,” she said. “But this is not necessarily a stepping stone for young lawyers looking to move into more lucrative practice. Once you get involved in people’s lives in a personal way, you develop a passion for this kind of work.

“I have classmates who’ve gone into private practice right out of law school, and I realize from talking with them that they’re not getting the experiences that I am. I’m doing things that impact the community, and right now that’s a more rewarding option for me.”

In addition to dropping in at GLS’s local office, individuals may call the firm’s regional office at (229) 430-4261, its benefits hotline at (888) 632-6332, its intake line at (800) 735-4271 or go online to www.georgialegalaid.org.