Free legal services for veterans to start Friday in Big Country

Feb. 27--The Big Country Veterans Legal Clinic, which will provide free legal services for Big Country military veterans is launching this week with the aim of easing vets' transition into civilian life.

The Abilene Young Lawyers Association's program will be 2-5 p.m. Friday at the Taylor County Veterans Services Office, 400 Oak St., and will be available the last Friday of each month.

"This will provide an opportunity for any bona fide veteran that qualifies for services to consult with an attorney and potentially receive a free legal representation for their situation," said Jeremy Shipp, a local attorney and member of the association. "Our local organization applied and received a grant from (Texas Young Lawyers Association) to open this veterans legal clinic."

Veterans legal clinics are a primary component of Texas Lawyers for Texas Veterans, offering local bar associations the opportunity to provide veterans with the basic civil legal assistance..

"Essentially, the (Texas Young Lawyers) are widely considered the public service arm of the state Bar of Texas," Shipp said, adding that the 27,000-member state organization spends about $1 million on public interest projects.

Veterans often have complex issues that go beyond health care needs, including help filing for federal benefits and working within the legal system to help speed transition to civilian life.

Civil practice areas covered in veterans legal clinics include bankruptcy, child support, consumer/contracts, divorce or custody and guardianship issues, landlord or tenant issues, wills and estate planning and tax assistance.

"So these are largely stuff that most folks have to deal with at some point," Shipp said. "We're going to be here helping them (veterans) navigate a lot of those governmental processes."

Many Young Lawyers chapters in the state have started legal clinics but Shipp said this is the first of its kind that will serve Big Country veterans.

"We're planning to have four lawyers at each clinic so we can kind of rotate months," Shipp said, adding that the local chapter has 25 members. "Veterans who are interested can just call in (the Veterans Services Office) and they'll put them on a schedule to come for a particular clinic day."

Shipp said the local chapter also has participating attorneys in Sweetwater "so if there are folks out there who couldn't make it to Abilene, that will be like our satellite office."

Not all civil cases can be pursued in court, but for those that can, Shipp said veterans "most likely will be referred to other Young Lawyers who may not be at that clinic to make sure everyone is getting representation and we're spreading it around town to other attorneys."

The clinic won't handle criminal cases, but there is a program recently started in Taylor County does.

The Pretrial Diversion Veterans Docket -- through the Taylor County District Attorney's Office -- helps veterans who have been arrested in nonviolent crimes address underlying issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder or substance abuse. Instead of going to trial, a veteran accused of a crime could be qualified to go through a year of rehabilitative counseling and assistance, whereupon the criminal charges could be dropped.

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