Family Law Clinic
Opportunities for Attorneys and Legal Professionals
How It Works
Legal Aid offers clinics five days a week at the Matheson and West Jordan Courthouses. We are always looking for new talented and enthusiastic volunteers to help the clinic staff assist the public with their family law cases. Applicants must be students enrolled in a legal program or have legal experience. Complete and submit the Google Forms application below for consideration. If you are interested in some day working for The Legal Aid Society of Salt Lake, you will be interested to know that the majority of our staff started as volunteers!
Legal Aid Society continues through the last 93 years to provide legal representation for people with family law cases. Legal Aid also provides assistance and legal representation free of charge for victims of domestic violence seeking court orders of protection; our Bridge the Gap program allows domestic violence victims to go directly into our domestic relations program and receive legal representation in their divorce, custody and other cases; Legal Aid's Self Represented Litigant Family Law Clinic provides individuals with the necessary legal forms--and assistance in completing and filing them--in family law cases where they must, or choose to, represent themselves.
Position:
Volunteer Paralegal Assistant
Volunteers will receive specialized training from Legal Aid paralegal staff and will be expected to help people prepare to act as their own attorneys in court to resolve their family law cases. The work involves providing information to patrons about the legal process, providing the proper court document forms, and helping the patrons create their own case documents using the Utah State Court's Online Court Assistance Program (OCAP).
Requirements:
Paralegal experience at the Associate degree level is preferred; fluency in a language other than English is very helpful since volunteers sometimes work with patrons whose knowledge of English is limited. Must be able to always act in a professional manner and be helpful and patient with people trying to navigate an often daunting legal system.
Those applying must attend a 2-hour orientation and training and be able to commit to a minimum of six hours per week for a minimum three month period. Work hours are weekdays between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.
Paralegal training and experience is helpful, as is fluency in other languages. Legal Aid paralegal staff provides specialized training in Family Law.