SGA Legal Clinic to offer free 'tenant and landlord clinic'
For the fifth consecutive year, the Central Michigan University Student Government Association will partner with legal fraternity Phi Alpha Delta to offer free legal counseling to students.
Although the legal clinic has been open since 2010, this will be the first full year that landlord and tenant legal counseling will be offered to students by the legal fraternity.
SGA President Chuck Mahone said the idea for the newest addition to the clinic came to them when SGA noticed a large influx of advice seekers attended for counsel on renting houses and apartments.
“When we had the legal clinic, one of the trends we were seeing was that when students were renting properties, they weren’t understanding their rights. They weren’t understanding what they can and can’t do,” he said. “(SGA) decided to make our own subsection of the legal clinic that focused solely and directly on that because we were getting such a high volume of students who had concerns about (tenants and landlords clinic).”
Students suggested the addition of tenant and landlord counseling would be useful. Sparta senior Daniel Metivier said the clinic is overall “a good idea."
“Having (these) facilities could be a good step towards students educating themselves,” Metivier said. “Most students wouldn’t know where to start (with legal counseling) so that would at least give them a stepping stone.”
Mahone described the newest subsection’s addition as being “pretty successful." The most traffic for the clinic, he said, generally comes around Welcome Weekend and move-in days.
“It’s basically a pro-bono legal clinic,” Mahone said. “Students can come in, tell us their problems, and if they don’t know how to proceed we can offer them legal advice.”
From there, Mahone said students would be able to meet with attorneys Hope May, Gordon Bloem and William Sherley in order to discuss possible courses of action.
Zach Diederichs, director of CMU SGA Legal Clinic, said students interested in meeting with a lawyer must first send an email through the Orgsync page and a representative would contact them for a meeting.
“There is a formal way of setting up an appointment through the Orgsync legal clinic page,” Diederichs said. “If (students) give their contact information, email address, and a brief description of their situation (I will) put that forth to an attorney and then basically set up a meeting time and a place for the (student and attorney) to work it out.”
How long it takes for the attorneys to get back to the student however, Diederich said, is on a case by case basis.
“It’s really on a need basis,” Diederich said. “As far as Mr. Bloem and Mr. Shirley are concerned, they are full time attorneys and they teach so they are extremely busy themselves and it is on a volunteer basis, so it really depends on whoever is free.”
Students interested in seeking legal guidance can file for help at legalclinic.cmich.edu.
