Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada
800 S. Eighth St.
Las Vegas, NV 89101
702-386-1070
info@lacsn.org
http://www.lacsn.org

Mission

The mission of Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada is the preservation of access to justice and the provision of quality legal counsel, advice and representation for individuals who are unable to protect their rights because they cannot afford an attorney.

Services

Founded in 1958, Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, Inc. (LACSN and formerly Clark County Legal Services, Inc.) is the largest legal aid organization in Southern Nevada. As a qualified 501(c) (3) organization, Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada meets the legal needs of low income Nevadans, a population that exceeds 300,000 people in Clark County alone, through a variety of both traditional and innovative programs.

The professional staff consists of 23 full time attorneys working across a wide variety of practice areas. LACSN has recently been ranked the 13th largest law firm in Clark County. On a daily basis, our staff responds to problems that range from everyday consumer disputes to the most serious forms of child abuse or neglect. Our clients range from battered wives to defrauded customers. Our staff appears in every state and federal court in Nevada. In 2007, we provided services to over 11,000 Nevadans and we expect that number to continue to rise at a rate consistently greater than the rate of increase in the general population.

We fulfill our mission of providing access to justice by providing free, quality legal counsel, advice and representation for individuals who cannot afford an attorney. Here is an outline of the programs we offer:

Children's Attorneys Project: The primary mission of this program is to ensure that the abused and neglected children in our child welfare system have their own voice in court through legal representation. Our eight attorneys currently represent over 1,100 children, many of whom view their attorney as the only person who has positively impacted their lives. We also offer a Special Education Program which help parents fight for the rights of their special needs children who have been denied the educational accommodations that are guaranteed by the federal government. Additionally, we have created a Surrogate Parent Initiative where volunteers in the community offer to be a surrogate parent to kids in foster care when dealing with the school district on special education issues.

Domestic Violence Project: Victims of domestic violence are often unsure or unaware of their rights and have suffered silently for years before coming forward. We help them obtain protective orders against their abuser, divorce and custody orders, and child support payments. This enables the victim to separate from the abusive environment and experience safety and empowerment, often for the first time in their lives. We have five full time attorneys who manage this case load and provide counsel and advice to anyone staying at the area's domestic violence shelters. Within this project we offer services to battered immigrants through our Immigrant Protection Program. This program utilizes the protocol in the Violence Against Women Act by assisting victims of domestic violence petition the United States to stay in the country lawfully.

Consumer Rights Project: This unit handles a wide variety of consumer related matters including unfair debt collection, used car scams, deceptive trade practices and payday loans. We also assist some homeowners who have been victims of real estate scams. Specifically, we helped an elderly couple get their home back from an acquaintance they met at church who said they would help our clients save their home; our clients unknowingly signed over their house to these folks. Our three full time attorneys and five paralegals handle an enormous volume of calls, which resulted in helping over 4,000 people in 2007. We also assist people who are representing themselves in Bankruptcy court through our Bankruptcy Facilitator Program. This program provides the necessary forms to submit, instructs citizens how to self-represent and explains their rights and protections under bankruptcy law.

Social Security Project: This project helps clients when they have been wrongfully denied disability benefits by the federal government. Without these benefits, these citizens have no other means of financial support and typically end up on welfare. In 2007, LACSN successfully won 85% of the appeals for clients.

Community Legal Education Project: Since 1999, and in conjunction with the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law, we provide free legal information to individuals through the use of law students in topics such as Divorce, Paternity/Custody, Small Claims, Bankruptcy and Guardianship in an effort to inform people about their legal rights and the legal process. Since its inception, these classes have served over 25,000 residents of Clark County.

Pro Bono Project: LACSN operates the only pro bono legal aid program in Clark County. This project supplements the efforts of each of our programs through local attorneys who volunteer their time, especially on cases that LACSN is not able to handle. Last year, 448 new clients were placed with attorneys. Since 2000, when this program became part of LACSN, over 2,300 clients have been referred to private attorneys for free representation. The once a week Ask A Lawyer Program, which LACSN runs with the Family Court, provides citizens with access to LACSN and pro bono lawyers to ask questions about their family law cases. LACSN also offers law students to work on pro bono cases with private attorneys through the Partners in Pro Bono.

You Can Help by Volunteering

We need private attorneys to volunteer to represent our clients on a pro bono basis through our Pro Bono Project. We also need volunteer attorneys to assist with our Ask A Lawyer Program.