About the Clinic
In order to address the rising need for bilingual legal services in the District, the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Program along with a number of partners, sponsors a Spanish Advice & Referral Clinic to provide free legal services to Spanish-speaking District residents.
The Clinic provides general legal information, advice, and referral services in Spanish. Visitors to the Clinic will be able to receive assistance from volunteer attorneys with civil legal problems governed by DC law.
The Clinic is limited to giving brief general information and advice on immigration/asylum, landlord and tenant, bankruptcy/debt collection, consumer law, employment law, family law, health law, personal injury, probate, public benefits and tax law.
If brief service is not enough to resolve the problem or if a different type of service is required, Clinic volunteers will attempt to refer individuals to or provide information about a legal or social service provider appropriately suited to handle the case.
Partners
Special thanks are owed to the following organizations that helped to make the Clinic a reality:
- The Hispanic Bar Association
- CentroNía (formerly the Calvary Bilingual Multicultural Learning Center)
- The Central American Resource Center (CARECEN)
- The Carlos Rosario International Career Center
- AYUDA
Volunteering
The Clinic is staffed primarily by bilingual attorneys recruited from the Hispanic Bar Association and the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Program's Pro Bono Partnership (PART) law firms.
Attorneys interested in volunteering are not expected to be familiar with every area of the law or to have experience in the matters on which they will advise clients. The Pro Bono Program staff and expert mentors are available on-site, and reference manuals and guidebooks are provided. If warranted, a follow-up letter or phone call may be appropriate in certain circumstances if a volunteer wishes to check a point of law.
For more information on volunteering for the clinic, contact Elizabeth Campbell, D.C. Bar Pro Bono Program managing attorney.
