Nassau Bar Association to provide free legal help at open house

The Nassau County Bar Association is hosting an open house Oct. 24 in Mineola to field residents’ legal questions in person for the first time since the pandemic started.  

Attendees will be able to get consultations with an attorney on issues including bankruptcy, divorce, family law, employment, mortgage foreclosure, senior citizens’ issues and landlord-tenant disputes. During the pandemic, the bar association had provided phone consultations but is now returning to an in-person format for the open house.  

While the attorneys don't provide legal representation, the meetings aim to help attendees understand their options, said Madeline Mullane, director of pro bono activities at the bar association. 

The goal is to allow attendees “to at least pick the brain of an attorney for a half-hour or an hour and be able to sit with somebody confidentially and not have to worry about paying for it,” Mullane said. “Maybe that’s the only answer they need … and then they can make a decision to determine whether this is something where [they] need to hire an attorney.”  

The Bar Association is holding the event in collaboration with Nassau/Suffolk Law Services, a nonprofit public interest law firm that provides assistance to low-income clients and people with disabilities, and The Safe Center LI, a Bethpage nonprofit created in 2014 through the merger of the Nassau County Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Coalition Against Child Abuse & Neglect.

Local court officials, including some from Nassau County Supreme Court, also plan to participate to explain how to handle tasks, such as filing motions or retrieving property records.

For people who need legal representation, the bar association runs a separate referral service in which clients are matched with a lawyer for an initial $50 consultation before deciding whether to seek higher-cost legal help. 

The event will run from 3-7 p.m. at the bar association’s office at the corner of 15th and West streets in Mineola. Masks are required. Interpreters will be available for Spanish and Haitian Creole speakers, with additional languages available upon request.  

People interested in attending can call 516-747-4070 ext. 1231 or email ncbaopenhouse@gmail.com to register and help ensure there is an attorney available with expertise in a specific area of the law.

By Jonathan LaMantia

jonathan.lamantia@newsday.com@jonlamantia

Jonathan LaMantia covers residential real estate and other business news on Long Island. He previously covered the business of health care for Crain's New York Business.