VET'S - free legal help!

Veterans face a myriad of unique legal challenges, and the Shreveport Bar Foundation’s Pro Bono Project has launched an effort to provide assistance to those who have served.

They are hosting quarterly free legal clinics at the Highland Center, which are open to all veterans regardless of income. Several attorneys will be on hand to answer questions and provide guidance at the next clinic, to be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 9 at the Highland Center, 520 Olive St., Shreveport.

Attorneys will be on hand to help with issues ranging from divorce to veterans benefits to traffic tickets.

The Pro Bono Project has also brought its mobile clinic to Volunteers of America’s Veterans Transitional Living Program, which houses 56 homeless veterans. Many of them need the legal help before they can return to the workforce.

So far they have assisted 17 veterans with everything from expunging misdemeanors to successions. In one case, a man had been fired after his employer did a background check, but with help he was able to get his job back.

“They think it just goes away,” said Gernine Mailhes, staff attorney for the Pro Bono Project. “Part of their treatment is to face these issues.”