Homeless Resource Day Recap

On Saturday, March 28, 2015, Anne Arundel County held its 8th annual Homeless Resource Day at Annapolis High School.  This was the seventh year that volunteer attorneys from Anne Arundel County provided individuals and families experiencing homelessness with legal assistance. The Anne Arundel County Local Pro Bono Committee worked hard to recruit volunteer attorneys to participate in the Resource Day and to create a program to train the volunteer attorneys in assisting individuals seeking to file a petition for expungement. Prior to Homeless Resource Day, the Law Library hosted an expungement training program provided by the Homeless Persons Representation Project.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This year, 18 attorneys provided 74 clients with legal advice on 83 different issues ranging from criminal records to wills and , the most commonly asked about legal issues were expungement of criminal records and family law.  Ten expungement petitions were filed for three participants. The Anne Arundel County Local Pro Bono Committee maintains detailed statistics, which can be found here.

Thank you to our volunteer attorneys and Local Pro Bono Committee members for providing this pro bono service to Anne Arundel County’s citizens in need. Local Pro Bono Committee members in attendance were Joan Bellistri, Michelle Moodispaw, Anita Bailey of Legal Aid and Bill Davis of the Public Defender’s Office. Other attorney volunteers from the Office of the Public Defender were Bill Cooke and Jessica Wisner. Additional Legal Aid volunteers were Margaret Leonard and Kathleen Hughes.  Volunteers Tasnima Apol, Kari Fawcett, Dallas Houston, Jessica Daigle, Kurt Roper, Gene Brennan, Ginina Stevenson and Bob Waldman provided a wide range of experience and backgrounds. In addition, Jeff Gold from the Homeless Persons Representation Project was on hand to assist with expungement questions, and Lonni Summers, Ellyn Riedl and Cansa Hatfield from MVLS provided assistance with tax and consumer issues.  MVLS reported 5 intakes. We look forward to providing even greater service next year!