Other Volunteer Opportunities
Provide advice on our statewide helpline
We receive approximately 2,000 calls a month on our legal advice helpline. Vermonters can leave a voicemail or submit a request for help online. We screen these calls and respond accordingly, sometimes by providing brief legal advice. You can sign up for shifts providing advice to callers on a variety of issues. Before your first shift, we will offer training on housing, consumer issues and public benefits. If you are interested in this opportunity, please contact us.
Be a trainer on a LSV CLE event
This is another way for you to get pro bono credit and help the project recruit new attorneys. Do you have a special interest in a unique pro bono idea or project? Bradley Showman, Pro Bono Coordinator, will meet with you to discuss what you would like to do to help either on an individual or group basis. Contact us.
Be on a referral list
Bankruptcy referral list
Legal Services Vermont receives dozens of calls each week from low-income Vermonters who have substantial debt and are seeking help with bankruptcy. People often want the relief that a bankruptcy can provide. They may not have a full-time job, they may have no attachable property, and they may face steep challenges to keep a roof over their heads and their families fed. These individuals need an attorney to represent them in a simple chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy. We want to be able to refer debtors to attorneys who can help them with bankruptcy for a price that people can afford. If you would like your name on our referral list, please contact us.
Social Security referral list
We maintain a list of attorneys who take initial denials for Social Security disability-based benefits cases. Callers are screened for low-income eligibility, but otherwise are left to contact attorneys on the referral list directly. If you would like your name on our referral list, please contact us.
Join a probate panel to help preserve housing
Vermont Legal Aid’s Homeowner Legal Assistance Project (HLAP) helps connect homeowners with mortgage assistance programs. One major issue for homeowners who are applying for mortgage assistance is that some Vermonters may be living in homes they inherited, but never took through probate. These homeowners risk losing their mortgage housing due to delinquent mortgages when mortgage assistance could help get them caught up if they could establish ownership. Banks and mortgage servicers often refuse to accept payment or work out mortgage delinquencies without sufficient proof of property ownership.
This is where your help can make a difference. We are seeking volunteer attorneys with probate experience to help low-income heirs through the probate process to save their primary residences. We maintain a panel of attorneys we can reach out to when new probate cases are identified. If you would like to be on the panel, please contact us.