CLARO (Civil Legal Advice and Resource Office)

Interns are needed for the Staten Island CLARO Pro Bono Project for Pro Se Debtor Defendants.

Staten Island CLARO (Civil Legal Advice and Resource Office) interns are needed for an innovative, advice-only, volunteer outreach program for pro se defendants with Civil Court cases in Richmond County. Interns will assist the unprecedented numbers of individuals who must defend themselves in consumer debt collection cases. In 2009, creditors filed over 240,000 consumer credit cases in New York City Civil Court, 15,269 of them in Richmond County. Of these cases, only 179 (or 1%) debtor defendants had attorneys representing them.

Debt collection matters can be overwhelming for pro se litigants. Often, debtors first learn of a lawsuit after their wages have been garnished or their bank accounts frozen. CLARO provides limited legal assistance to unrepresented debtor defendants with consumer debt cases in Civil Court.

Staten Island CLARO sponsors include: the Richmond County Bar Association, the Staten Island Women's Bar Association, and Wagner College.

Beginning in February, New York Law School interns will have the opportunity to engage in twice-monthly sessions at Richmond County Civil Court (18 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island 10301), on the:

first week of the month; daytime session; Tuesdays from 2-4pm, and
third week of the month, Thursday evenings, from 6pm to 8pm.

Interested students should send a resume and brief statements of interest to Courtney Patterson, the Justice Action Center's Graduate Fellow, at courtney.patterson@nyls.edu no later than Wednesday, January 25, 2012.

A mandatory, two-hour orientation will be held in early February.