Lake Station schools partner with Indiana Legal Services to provide free advice

LAKE STATION | Annie and Jesse Pacheco wasted little time Thursday night setting up an appointment for free legal advice through Indiana Legal Services Inc.

"This will help a lot of people out," Annie Pacheco said.

She and her husband and their school-age daughter were among about a dozen people who came to Edison Junior/Senior High School to learn more about a new academic-legal partnership called the Lake Station Family Stability Project.

The Pacheco family has had numerous problems revolving around Jesse's health status — recovery following a kidney transplant operation — as well as a mortgage foreclosure and benefits issues.

"Something like this program will really be a benefit," Annie Pacheco said.

The goal of the program is to help resolve the pressing civil legal problems that might cause a family to uproot their children from the school where they started the academic year, according to Angela Ruiz, assistant principal at Edison Junior/Senior High School.

"In an effort to improve students' academic performance, we realize that many problems in the home create major obstacles to a child's learning, social adjustment and scoring well on ISTEP and other standardized tests," Ruiz said.

The legal services are free to families who follow certain financial guidelines as well as to seniors 60 and older and victims of domestic violence, Steve Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez serves as the managing attorney for Indiana Legal Services Inc. in Merrillville.

"For our legal team to have a better chance to resolve these legal problems in favor of the embattled family, we need to be involved in the legal matter as early as possible," Rodriguez said.

He said the program, which is nonprofit and funded through the government, handles only civil matters.

"We don't handle any criminal cases," Rodriguez said.

Issues they do handle include foreclosure or landlord-tenant dispute and matters related of domestic abuse in the household, visitation, support payments or public benefits.

Although the program gives priority to parents of Lake Station school students, including those who attend River Forest Community School Corp., all residents are welcome to come talk with the Indiana Legal Services attorney on any noncriminal legal problem they might have, Rodriguez said.

Office hours at Edison are 9:30 a.m. to noon the first and third Tuesday each month.

More information about the program is available by calling (219) 886-3161 or (888) 255-5104.