The Sixth Chancery Court District, which includes Attala County, along with the Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project is sponsoring free Family Law & Expungement Legal Clinics to assist low-income residents with their legal matters.
The clinic for Attala County is planned for Friday, Sept. 15th at the Attala Chancery Court building located at 230 W Washington St. in Kosciusko.
The clinics will start at 9 a.m. and participants must pre-register.
Participants will receive legal court documents prepared by licensed Mississippi attorneys and/or legal advice on the following legal matters: expungement, guardianships, irreconcilable differences (no fault) divorce; name changes; birth certificate correction; and emancipation.
This is great opportunity for grandparents, relatives or family friends taking care of children who are not their own to obtain the necessary documents to enroll the child in school, for individuals to obtain help in clearing their criminal records to obtain employment, and more. Participants will need to visit https://mvlp.org/clinics for a list of documents that are required to receive services at the clinic.
The clinics are pro se clinics, meaning those who attend and receive services from the attorneys are empowered to handle their legal matters in court on their own. The clinics are designed to assist self-represented litigants in preparing to go to court. The pro bono attorney will not go to court with the participant.
Eligibility to attend a clinic is limited to people whose income is at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. For example, that would be an annual income of $25,760 or less for an individual, or an annual income of $53,000 or less for a family of four, based on the Federal Poverty Guidelines. Persons seeking assistance must register in advance and be screened for eligibility by MVLP.
About MVLP
The Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project (MVLP) is a 501(c) (3) legal nonprofit entity that was formed as a collaboration between the Mississippi Bar Association and the Legal Services Corporation to provide free legal services to low-income residents of Mississippi, for more than thirty-six years. Founded on the belief that everyone should have access to courts, MVLP’s early efforts of reaching those in need were accomplished exclusively through directly representing clients. MVLP currently assists clients with civil legal matters, primarily in the following areas: uncontested divorces, emancipations, simple wills, power of attorney, advance healthcare directives, adoptions, guardianships, name changes, birth certificate corrections, conservatorships, and expungement matters. In 2018, MVLP served approximately 1,700 Mississippi residents through referrals, direct representation, advice and legal clinics.
