Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania Offers Support for a Variety of Clients

Although the nonprofit has never stopped making itself available to those who need its services, even during the pandemic, Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania is slowly gearing up to welcome clients back to its offices at some point. 

“We are here for anybody that has legal problems that have been made worse by the pandemic. To ramp up operations, I believe the governor’s guidance (calls for) 75 percent occupancy, so we have that to consider, and the guidance also says to continue to work remotely where possible. So we are trying to balance those two directives. I think it’s a time when we need to ramp up our in-office presence, so we’re doing gradually and thoughtfully and making sure that we continue to be responsive to the needs of the communities,” said Shawn Boehringer, executive director of the organization that provides free civil legal Aid in Montgomery, Bucks, Chester and Delaware counties. 

While the offices have been closed due to the pandemic, the staff has been available to assist individuals with cases ranging from domestic violence and housing to bankruptcy, employment, and elder law. 

“Assistance from the CARES Act provided funding for legal services programs to deal with COVID-related issues. So we are planning on ramping up our staff short term to deal with a higher volume of COVID issues, which include landlord-tenant cases, consumer collection cases, bankruptcy, family law issues that may have arisen from the pandemic,” Boehringer said.

Legal Aid’s expanded helpline hours are 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Helpline (877-429-5994) serves Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties. To start an online application, visit lasp.org/apply.

Legal Aid is offering a virtual Employee’s Rights workshop, July 20, at 2 p.m. via Zoom.

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