Senior Legal Hotline
by David Mandel

The Senior Legal Hotline aims to provide free phone advice to 10,000 Northern Californians over 60 this year - but it won't happen without continued growth of the hotline's volunteer corps. The corps's ranks have swelled to a current level of 17 active or retired attorneys and eight others. There's room - and need - for more. Attorneys advise seniors who have made appointments by phone or e-mail for a session of free legal advice. In most cases, the encounter consists of a single phone call; in some, advocates undertake additional brief service - letters, calls, document review - to help resolve a problem. When clients need more than the hotline can offer, we help them find it. Volunteers may also offer to speak to groups of seniors outside the office. The hotline is a project of Legal Services of Northern California and shares a downtown building with LSNC's Sacramento branch. Light rail is a block away and free parking is available. Staff consists of four attorneys (two of them former volunteers), paralegals and support assistants. Best of all, we have a good time while helping others.

Volunteer attorneys at the hotline tend to be either recently retired from the bar or new members. For retirees, volunteering can be a way to maintain active status with exemption from state bar dues. For new attorneys, hotline work is an excellent opportunity to gain experience interacting with clients and to gain substantive knowledge about many highly practical areas of law. Subject matter at the hotline covers the whole gamut of legal issues. New volunteers need no special expertise in elder law; the hotline has an advocate manual, videos, orientation materials, resources on most commonly asked subjects and access to specialized, low-cost training. A great start for newcomers will be the hotline's annual Elder Law Overview training, scheduled for Friday, March 16, 2001. For more information call the hotline at 551-2145; and to learn more about the program, check out the new, client-oriented web site, www.seniorlegalhotline.org. Hours of work are extremely flexible during regular daytime hours, but we need to know in advance when advocates are coming in order to make phone appointments for them. We have evening hours, to 8 p.m., twice a month, snacks provided - so people with full-time day jobs can volunteer. This may be expanded to weekly sessions.

Time commitment is negotiable, though to allow for the best training and orientation, a minimum of 12 hours a month for at least six months is preferred. Actual hours for our currently active attorney volunteers vary widely.