Volunteer attorneys continue to offer their assistance throughout Colorado, including Montezuma and Dolores counties, laying the foundations for people without lawyers to accurately represent themselves in court hearings.
The free legal clinics are held at the Mancos and Dolores County public libraries once a month.
Ric Morgan, a volunteer attorney who has his own practice in Southeast Elbert County in Colorado’s Eastern Plains, has coordinated the clinics across the state for the past 20 years for anyone who is dealing with a legal issue.
The clinics give guidance, not advise, to people who have no attorney. They answer questions and explain legal processes and procedures on probate law, landlord-tenant law, civil protection orders, collections, veterans issues, appeals, property law, small claims and family law. Morgan said the one-on-one sessions usually take approximately 20 minutes in regards to any legal issue.
“Talking to a lawyer is enormously helpful for those who go by themselves,” Morgan said. “The six to eight volunteers statewide make sure the parties understand what their options are so they can make the best choice.”
Since court processes always involve stakes that are extremely high – children, jobs, home – and they can be incredibly confusing for people who are not that familiar with the law, they guide people on how to present evidence and make decisions.
Oftentimes, individual and civil cases take time and Morgan said that they usually work with people in three steps, where each step is typically one month from the next which allows people to follow up with a volunteer attorney before the next step.
The first step that usually motivates people to go to the workshop is filing paperwork, whether that’s for divorce, eviction or another reason.
Next, the court accepts the information to understand what it’s about, another example could be the return date for landlord and tenant issues.
Last, the judge rules the decision of the matter of the argument between both sides.
“I had a young man who came back into the clinic and told me how it went,” Morgan said. “He chose one option (that seemed best for him) and he said, ‘this morning I held my son for the first time.’”
Since 2018, Morgan said that several chief judges of different districts requested most of the new clinics because it saves a lot of time in the court process, in addition to them being beneficial to the parties. They found that it saves about an hour of the clerk’s time trying to explain to people what’s going on, which makes a big impact for the court’s resources, if they’re even available.
He said that the clinics were privately funded through Denver’s Freemasons. The grant they awarded was approximately $20,000 and the total cost per year for the entire Virtual Pro Se Clinic program is close to $2,000/ year. They serve around 2100 people each year at just under 500 clinics.
Since 2013, the volunteer attorneys have incrementally added four to five counties each year to their list of legal clinics. Currently they support 46 Colorado counties at 87 public libraries and next year in 2024, he said they’ll add six more counties at 96 local public libraries.
About 80% of the clinics are based in rural Colorado, with 37 clinics and nine in urban areas, according to Morgan.
Before 2013, the volunteer attorneys traveled in person to the clinics. By doing this virtually they are able to reach a substantial amount of people with only six to eight volunteers.
Morgan said they talk to about 175 people each month throughout the state. Since 2013, they assisted 471 self-represented parties in the Mancos and the Dolores County Public Libraries with 144 monthly free legal clinics.
At the same time, Ignacio, Silverton and Pagosa Springs collectively assisted 656 self-represented parties at 200 monthly free legal clinics since 2013.
Morgan said that they capitalize on existing public infrastructure where the people utilizing the legal services have access to the libraries’ computers in small study rooms to seek aid on whatever issue they hope to solve.
Each day is different, but typically four to six people utilize these services per scheduled clinic.
Morgan said they have four volunteers in training and that usually the volunteers who support the clinic are the kind of people who get their dream jobs – district judges, magistrates and one past volunteer is in the Supreme Court.
“We really like doing this program,” he said. “It’s wonderful working with people and helping them through the legal process. I think we’re very successful at doing that.”
November’s clinics - Call in advance to request a session
Dolores County Public Library in Dove Creek
Nov. 8 from 2-5 p.m.
(970) 677-2389
Mancos Public Library
Nov. 14 from 2-5 p.m.
(970) 533-7600
