First-Ever National Advocacy Hotline In Need of Volunteer Attorney Advocates

Help Now! Advocacy, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that has been based in Oregon and was founded there in 2004, is in the process of establishing the first-ever national advocacy hotline to assist individuals and families through crisis situations.  Over the course of its 17 year existence, Help Now! volunteer advocates have assisted over 8600 individuals and families through a myriad of crises, all at no charge.   The services that Help Now! provides to people in crisis are nationally-unique, hence the importance of the hotline’s spreading the benefits of Help Now!’s services to people across the nation.  We are recruiting volunteer attorney advocates in all 51 jurisdictions to assist in our program and on the hotline. 

Help Now!’s advocates serve to “level the playing field” with more powerful others—landlords,   merchants, creditors, government agencies, etc.—for those ill-equipped to speak up of themselves.  In doing so, Help Now!’s advocates create social justice “in the trenches” on a case-by-case basis.  The need for competent attorney advocates to staff the crisis advocacy hotline is acute right now because of repercussions from COVID and from various natural disasters which have befallen the country.

Volunteer attorney advocates can assist from their homes or offices.  All phone services for the hotline have already been donated by a national phone company.  Calls for assistance will be routed to home or office phone numbers at times the advocate chooses to be “on call” to assist.  Any call coming into the advocate’s phone will reflect the hotline number so he or she will know that it is a hotline call.  If the advocate is unable or does not wish to take the call when it comes in, it will pass to another advocate or go to voicemail, later to be distributed.

Unlike legal cases and litigated matters which can take months to years to resolve, the crises presented to Help Now! for assistance can frequently be resolved through a single telephone call immediately following client intake.  And the advocate will know, as a result of his or her effort, a result will have been accomplished for an individual or family that could not have been achieved without the advocate’s intervention.  Please consider giving a few hours a week to be “on call” as a Help Now! volunteer attorney advocate.

This opportunity is not available to persons seeking to meet any state bar association's requirement for Pro Bono work in order to become a member of that state's bar. 

(While as of September 2023 we are not currently providing malpractice insurance for volunteers, in twenty years and 10000 clients assisted, we have had no claims whatsoever. Further, where a non-profit or volunteer social services organization is involved, the vast majority of states, based on our research, impose a higher standard of liability than ordinary negligence on any claimant. When we have more funding available, we intend to get malpractice insurance to cover all volunteers.)