Make a Difference at Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service Inc

Category:A crime & legal-related nonprofit. Mission Statement: The mission of the maryland volunteer lawyers service (mvls) is to remove barriers to justice through free civil legal help, community engagement, and advocacy for equitable laws. (see schedule o for the complete mission statement.) Here are some of the key programs we worked on last year: - Program 1: Mvls provides legal help in a broad range of civil legal matters including family, housing, consumer, criminal record relief, estate planning & administration, and tax controversy. last year, mvls' pro bono program matched over 2,900 low-income clients with attorneys and tax professionals for free representation in civil cases. mvls has more than 800 active volunteers on its panel and employs staff attorneys with subject matter expertise in all legal areas listed above to support volunteers. mvls recruits volunteers from all sectors of the bar, including small and solo firms, large law firms, corporations and government attorneys, and from accounting firms. - Program 2: The judicare project is a reduced-fee program designed to provide free legal services to clients who otherwise would be unable to afford representation in contested family law cases. mvls operates this project in 15 maryland counties and baltimore city. experienced volunteer lawyers are paid $120/hour for up to 35 hours to resolve these difficult cases. for the year ended june 30, 2024. our judicare panel attorneys closed 160 cases, primarily involving contested custody that directly benefited 503 family members. - Program 3: Housing stability is a core focus at mvls, with a particular emphasis on older adults to ensure they can age in place and successfully pass on their assets to their next generation the advanced planning project educates marylanders about the need to do estate planning so they can pass their most important asset, their home, to their family. this program combats generations of wealth extraction from communities of color, many of whom had not engaged in estate planning and had lost their homes to tax sale or foreclosure. the my home, my deed, my legacy project builds upon this work and provides pro bono legal services for estate planning and deed disentanglement to clients who were traditionally denied access to justice. in fy24, mvls handled 348 estates and deeds cases. If you are interested in learning more about our opportunities, please visit our website at: www.mvlslaw.org