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By Tiffanie Reynolds Staff Writer

Low-income residents of Osceola County no longer will have to navigate the legal system on their own.

As soon as next month, the bar association will be launching the Legal Aid Society of Osceola County, or LASO, offering free legal aid to low-income and elderly residents of Osceola County. Although not offering attorneys to represent clients for free, their services will help residents navigate legal documents as well as the system.

Many of our judges, they carry massive court dockets, and the mass number of cases are usually Pro Se [self-represented]. People who need help making sure their documents are complete, that theyre accurate, and that the judges rather than just having to send them off to figure our what to do with the cases, we can make sure that the work gets done correctly, said Benjamin Carpenter, executive director of LASO.

The societys current focus will be on family law, offering legal help in divorce and maternity/child support issues. They chose this area of law as their focus because the judge, due to incomplete or incorrect paperwork, dismisses a majority of these cases. As the society becomes more established, they plan on expanding their assistance to veteran affairs, credit card and consumer help and housing with a focus on elderly issues.

LASO will be made up of attorneys, paralegals and law students from Florida A&M University and Dwayne O. Andreas Law School in Orlando. As school partners of the society, LASO will give these students a chance to fulfill mandatory hours in the field before graduation.

Along with these schools, the Osceola Bar Association has partnered up with the county government and Flywire, a technology corporation, to organize LASO. On top of working with local government, the society will also have a server and computers for both the staff and clients. These will be used as a portal to exchange information from client to staff, allowing the legal representative to get the information that they need to help the client more efficiently.

Sometimes they just need that oversight and guidance to make sure that even though this is something they have a right to represent themselves with, theres an outlet for them to have review and assistance, said Carpenter.

LASO is not yet official. They are putting their society for review in front of the county commissioners, who need to approve the program as well as give them the lease to use space in the Osceola Courthouse Square.

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Free legal aid coming to the county