The Law Center responds to the needs of our local community by referring and directing people to local area resources where they might be able to get help with their legal matter. In addition, we match pro bono attorneys with clients who do not qualify for assistance through existing service providers and who cannot afford paid representation. The Law Center operates in cooperation with The Contra Costa Bar Association and its Pro Bono Committee and with other local aid agencies.
Please note that we are not an emergency response organization, nor do we handle criminal matters. If you have a criminal matter, contact your local Public Defender’s Office or Bar Association. Regarding family law matters, we currently only provide referrals to other aid agencies and give suggestions as to how other people with limited means are getting assistance. As of now, we do not match Pro Bono Attorneys with Family Law related cases.
If you are seeking pro bono legal assistance, please send us a request for assistance using the fillable form on the “Contact Us” page here: http://thelawcenter.cc/contact-us/. This is the quickest and best way to log your request with us. If you are not able to use the fillable form, you can contact us by telephone, email or fax and we will get back to you as soon as we can, but using the fillable form is preferable. Please give us a brief description of what you would like assistance with, describe your efforts to obtain assistance so far and let us know if you have any hardships. Please avoid leaving confidential information. We just need to understand what you would like to talk with an attorney about in order to direct you to the appropriate resources and/or to find you an appropriate pro bono attorney.
Step 1 – Referrals to other resources, outside agencies and general info on how you might be able to find legal assistance: When we contact you, we will generally direct you to our “For the Public” links and resource section and discuss the various ways people with limited or no income are able to find an attorney to assist them. We will have you try and contact the referrals and instruct you to keep detailed records of your efforts. If you are not successful with the with the referrals, then you would contact us again and we would go over your efforts. Sometimes we make suggestions and will ask you to try the referrals again.
Step 2 – Pro bono attorney assistance efforts: If we determine that you are not able to get assistance from our referrals, we may make other efforts to try to help you get help such as by contacting local private attorneys who believe in pro bono assistance. There is no guarantee that we will be able to find an attorney to speak with you or assist you. We will try to find you an attorney for several weeks. If an attorney offers to speak with you, we will contact you immediately. However, if six to eight weeks pass and you do not hear from us, it is probably safe to assume that no attorney is able to speak with you or assist you. This can be for a variety of reasons some of which are, the attorneys are already handling pro bono matters, not available, to busy with other cases, on vacation or do not handle your type of matter. Keeping this in mind, you should continue to look for pro bono assistance outside of TLC while this process is going on.
For more information, on this process and how to start Step 1 (referrals), view the “For the Public” drop down link tab above. While you are waiting for us to get back to you, you are strongly encouraged to continue looking for assistance outside of TLC to protect your rights.