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Our Programs
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Property Transfer Clinic
The Property Transfer Clinic offers monthly assistance to Alameda County homeowners who have questions about the assessment process, transferring property to family members, what happens to property after the death of a loved one, common exclusions from assessment, and Prop. 19. The Clinic is a partnership between and among Legal Access, the Alameda County Assessor's Office, and the Alameda County Law Library. It grew out of the need from the Assessor's Office to refer residential property owners to attorneys knowledgeable about real property and estates/trusts since the Assessor's Office cannot give legal advice. Since it was established in November 2020, the Clinic has served more than 200 clients.
Lawyers in the Library
The Lawyers in the Library Program offers clinics every week in seven different locations in Alameda County where volunteer attorneys give brief advice on a wide range of legal issues, including employment law, landlord/tenant law, personal injury, and trusts/estates. The program is a partnership between Legal Access and the Alameda County library consortium, and the chief goal is to offer space for community members to get free legal help and resources since libraries serve as hubs of information.
HFA Title Clearing Clinic
This program provides education, preparedness resources and legal assistance to homeowners throughout Northern California (Monterey and north). The HFA Title Clearing Program aims to help low-income Californians that are vulnerable to property loss due to foreclosures, high interest rates and financial instability. After a disaster, survivors struggle with obtaining disaster aid due to their title status bring unclear. With the loss of documents during wildfires and other natural disasters, people are often left with little to no evidence that they own, or are partial owners of a property. Communities that are low-income and most vulnerable to property loss are primarily comprised of people of color. Program will partner with community organizations to schedule educational presentations and title clearing clinics.
California Free Legal Answers
Free Legal Answers is a virtual bro bono clinic. It is focused on resolving legal issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic and California wildfires, and providing clients with individualized advice and counsel and targeted referrals where appropriate.
CalOES Listos Disaster Preparedness Project
This project is funded by CalOES, California's Governor's Office of Emergency Services. We are working to educate socially vulnerable groups about disaster preparedness from a legal standpoint.This includes producing educational content(online and printed), providing workshops/presentations, and working with local community groups and social organizations.
Disaster Legal Assistance Hotline
The Disaster Legal Assistance Hotline provides Californians a free consultation with an attorney about legal issues that arise as a result of disasters. Legal Access Alameda steps in to help clients who could not find assistance through other DLAC partners in their area.
CLASP
This monthly, remote clinic will give anyone seeking legal advice a chance to speak with an attorney in almost every legal field, and receive a 15-20 minute consultation. Volunteer attorneys hold short advice-only phone consultations in a wide spectrum of areas of law, including family, immigration, housing, employment, consumer, bankruptcy, personal injury, trusts & estates, real estate and more. Callers seeking further assistance will directed to other legal services organizations or to the ACBA's Lawyer Referral Service.
Spanish Family Law Clinic
This monthly, remote clinic to assist monolingual Spanish-speakers is in partnership with Centro Legal de la Raza who helps with client signups. At this clinic, low-income, self-represented litigants are assisted by volunteer family law attorneys who speak Spanish and are able to help them sort out their legal issues, fill out judicial council forms, and give them legal information. The main areas of focus for this clinic are dissolutions, child custody, visitation, child support and spousal support. All appointments are currently conducted over the phone. All clients are either residents of Alameda county or have a family law case filed in Alameda county.
Zoom Family Law Clinics
These remote, general family law clinics are held twice a month. Family law attorney volunteers meet with low-income, self-represented litigants one-on-one via Zoom and help them sort out their legal issues, fill out judicial council forms, and give them legal information. Main areas of focus include dissolutions, child custody, visitation, child support and spousal support. All cases must be filed in Alameda County.
Ch. 7 Bankruptcy
The Ch. 7 Bankruptcy program is an educational clinic for people who have not yet filed for bankruptcy. General information is provided on the procedure of bankruptcy, alternatives to bankruptcy, who can file, where and how to proceed. People learn about the process of filing for bankruptcy through a brief phone screening consultation with a volunteer bankruptcy attorney. If appropriate, an attorney will recommend a bankruptcy filing for the client and instruct them to schedule a follow up form completion appointment. During this bankruptcy form completion appointment, attendees fill out a lengthy questionnaire and gather all necessary documents. Attorneys meet individually with attendees and complete all of the court forms. Attendees file the paperwork at the Bankruptcy Court.