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Our Mission and Work
The Public Law Center (PLC), Orange County's pro bono law firm, is committed to providing access to justice for low income residents. Through volunteers and staff, PLC provides free civil legal services, including counseling, individual representation, community education, and strategic litigation and advocacy to challenge societal injustices.
Some of our current activites include:
- Private Attorney Referral
- Orange County Human Trafficking Coalition
- Community Legal Clinics
- Family Advocates
- Southeast Asian Legal Outreach Project (SEALOP)
- AIDS Legal Assistance Project (ALAP)
- Community Organizations Legal Assistance Project (COLAP)
- Impact Advocacy
Private Attorney Referral - PLC has a longstanding relationship with the Legal Aid Society of Orange County by which Legal Aid refers indigent clients to PLC for placement with volunteer attorneys in the private bar. Clients' cases encompass a wide array of substantive matters including family law (e.g. dissolution, child custody and support, paternity), children's issues (e.g. guardianship and adoptions), consumer fraud (e.g. auto purchase, lease or repair, trade school student loans, home improvement contractor fraud), bankruptcy, wills and uninsured tort defense.
Orange County Human Trafficking Coalition - PLC is part of a coalition led by Community Service Programs (CSP), Inc. to provide services to victims of the growing crime of human trafficking. PLC assists victims who have been held in involuntary servitude, living in hopeless despair, with legal assistance to begin anew.
Community Legal Clinics - PLC conducts bi-monthly free legal clinics at several community sites in Orange County where our staff and volunteers offer brief counsel and advice to indigent clients. During the winter, PLC staff and volunteers conduct weekly legal clinics at Orange County's two armory-based temporary homeless shelters. PLC also works with the OCBA to co-sponsor domestic violence clinics at various locations throughout the county as well as courthouse-based bankruptcy and guardianship clinics.
Family Advocates - PLC has joined together with the St. Joseph Health System in a collaborative effort called Family Advocates. Family Advocates is designed to improve the health of low income clients by adressing legal issues, such as domestic violence, landlord/tenant and immigration, which may have adverse health consequences. Family Advocates conducts bi-monthly legal clinics at La Amistad, a community health clinic in the City of Orange operated by the St. Joseph Health System and a monthly legal clinic at Camino Health Center in San Juan Capistrano.
Southeast Asian Legal Outreach Project (SEALOP) - Orange County is home to the largest Vietnamese community in the world outside of Vietnam. PLC staff and volunteers conduct bi-monthly legal clinics in the Vietnamese community where clients receive culturally-sensitive legal information and, if necessary, direct representation.
AIDS Legal Assistance Project (ALAP) - PLC provides civil legal services to indigent persons living with HIV or AIDS. We work closely with the AIDS Services Foundation of Orange County, various community groups and the Orange County Health Care Agency to assist clients. Client services involve areas such as wills and estate planning, advance health care directives, immigration, bankruptcy, discrimination, employment, health care access and landlord/tenant issues.
Community Organizations Legal Assistance Project (COLAP) PLC provides transactional legal assistance to local nonprofit organizations that face a variety of different business law issues such as contracts, employment and real estate. PLC also provides legal assistance to those interested in starting new non-profit organizations designed to benefit Orange County's low income residents. This project is part of PLC's participation in Equal Justice Works' Pro Bono Legal Corps and is sponsored by the law firm of Buchalter Nemer.
Impact Advocacy - PLC seeks to address broader issues that affect more than just the individual clients who come through our door. PLC has been and continues to be involved in a variety of advocacy efforts involving affordable housing and health care, two areas where scarce resources and overwhelming need combine to create problems for many of Orange County's low income residents. Working with other advocates, PLC seeks to develop solutions through the legal system to address these systemic problems.
PLC opens access to justice for those who are most vulnerable to injustice. Our collaborative relationships with other organizations help make Orange County a better place to live for everyone. |
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