Community Outreach

Activities of the Adams Center encompass the University's partnership commitment to aiding and improving the surrounding community. They also introduce Susquehanna students to the types of legal services often needed by under-served populations.

Current and future projects include:

• internships with Snyder and Union county court systems
  
  
• internships with North Penn Legal Services, a regional provider of legal representation, advice, referrals, and educational materials to low-income residents
  
  
• Independent study research projects in social and criminal justice
  
  
• special projects, including the translation of English-only videos and written materials into Spanish for use by the growing Spanish-speaking clientele of North Penn Legal Services

• creation of a rural pro se assistance clinic:

On April 20, 2007, the Adams Center held a focus group meeting with leaders from Northumberland, Snyder and Union counties to consider the idea of creating a rural pro se assistance clinic to serve unrepresented people in the region. The Adams Center learned a great deal from that meeting.

Northumberland, Snyder and Union counties, like the rest of the nation, face substantial issues relating to the ever-increasing number of pro se litigants. The inability of many of the area residents to hire counsel, coupled with financial/staffing restrictions, which prevent North Penn Legal Services from meeting the demand, and the lack of attorneys able to provide pro bono legal services, contribute to the need to address how pro se litigants may best be helped through the system. The attendees reported that pro se litigants are routinely asking court staff for legal information, frequently have problems completing necessary paperwork, and often submit poorly drafted documents. The majority felt that pro se litigants are generally unable to access or effectively navigate the justice system.

The meeting helped the Adams Center understand the types of cases in the area most often involving pro se litigants and related problems. They include divorce proceedings, especially those in which custody and visitation are at issue; actions seeking orders of protection to prevent domestic violence; landlord-tenant disputes; child and/or spousal support proceedings; actions to collect a debt; and enforcement of court orders.

The attendees suggested that many pro se litigants are illiterate, and, assuming they are able to lay their hands on the right forms, the forms that need to be filled out are often incomprehensible to the unrepresented. It was strongly suggested that an assistance clinic would be of great help if it merely made the correct forms available with instructions; helped clients complete the forms; and coordinated a pro bono services project with area attorneys.

At the conclusion of the meeting, everyone in attendance agreed that the logical next step is to form a committee to look more closely at the issues involved, and then hold a second meeting of the entire group in the fall. The Adams Center is forming such an advisory committee and hopes to present a plan for creating a rural pro se assistance clinic to the University and the community representatives later this year.