A program is looking for Montanans to represent people in courts on tribal reservations, who often lack access to legal assistance when they need it. The Tribal Advocate Incubator Project wants to train lay advocates – that is, people who are not lawyers by profession – to represent folks in tribal courts across the state. …
MLSA’s Rural Incubator Project for Lawyers (RIPL) has been selected by the Rural Justice Collaborative (RJC) Advisory Council as one of nine national Rural Innovation Sites to serve as a model for other rural justice programs throughout the nation. Established in 2018, RIPL aims to reduce the justice gap that prevents low and moderate income …
In early 2020, Providence Montana and the Montana Legal Services Association (MLSA), with support from the Montana Healthcare Foundation, launched a medical-legal partnership (MLP) to provide support to patients in need of civil-legal assistance. Through this program, low-income patients can receive free legal help in areas of law including housing, benefits, insurance, education and employment, …
In states like Montana, the prescription for healthier patients may be lawyers. “Without legal help along the way, the woman would have just been like, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’” Kallie Dale-Ramos, Medical-Legal Partnership Staff Attorney.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, thousands of Montanans have found themselves struggling to pay their rent and facing the possibility of eviction. MLSA has worked hard to help people access the services they need to avoid eviction – including legal information on how to access rental assistance and eviction moratoriums, and legal assistance in the …
HELENA, Mont. – COVID-19 is underscoring the importance of ensuring that people’s estates are in order, but estate planning can be be tricky for tribal members. That’s why Montana Legal Services Association and the Indian Land Tenure Foundation have partnered to develop a do-it-yourself online form. Many tribal members own land through a trust in …
Natasha Chapel was at a loss when she received her termination of tenancy notice. A resident of Troy Mobile Home Park, Chapel got by on less than $800 a month. When she received the notice in early June, she suddenly faced the cost of moving her trailer and finding new, affordable housing in just two …
Lawyers often play a critical role in society. Perhaps nobody knows that better than Mēghan Scott, AmeriCorps’ project director of Justice for Montanans and the Montana Legal Services Association’s program coordinator of the Rural Incubator Project for Lawyers. In her role with the Justice for Montanans Project, Scott oversees about two dozen AmeriCorps members helping …
HELENA, Mont. — Legal documents can be hard to parse, and for rural Montanans, and it also can be hard to find help filling out those documents. The Court Help Connect Program assists people representing themselves on civil legal issues, by connecting them virtually with folks at the State Law Library who can answer their …
MLSA is proud to announce that MLSA staff attorney Kallie Dale-Ramos is the 2020 recipient of the American Bar Association’s SCLAID Centennial Access to Justice Award, which seeks to honor new attorneys for their innovative and exceptional achievements on behalf of their clients and for advancing access to justice. Ms. Dale-Ramos received this award in …
