Office won’t offer help with criminal defense, alcohol, substance abuse violations
The Student Legal Services Office — in the works for three years — is now open in the west wing of Russell House.
The office is operating under a partnership between the university and South Carolina Legal Services, a nonprofit law firm that traditionally serves low-income clients. It will be funded by a $3 increase in student activity fees. It’s the first partnership of its kind in the state, South Carolina Legal Services Executive Director Andrea Loney said.
Students will be able to use the office for civil litigation only, including landlord-tenant questions, employment law and probate law.
The office won’t deal with questions regarding criminal defense, personal injury, alcohol and substance abuse violations, immigration or tax law. Students also can’t use the services in “disputes against USC, its officials and employees or other USC students,” according to a release.
“We provide the legal representation only in the area of civil litigation, so we’re not going to represent any of your students who were driving drunk and get arrested for DUI,” Loney said at the office’s Wednesday ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Student Body President Chase Mizzell said the most common use of the legal services would likely be for lease agreements and employment contracts. In those cases, the office will make referrals to outside representation.
The office won’t be limited to helping students who come looking for it, though, Mizzell said.
“It will also be an informational source and an educational source to teach students about how to understand contracts that they’re entering into and be sure that before they enter into any legal endeavor that they understand what they’re doing,” Mizzell said.
The idea for the service was initially brought up by the Off-Campus Student Services Office three years ago, according to Jerry Brewer, associate vice president for Student Affairs.
“When we started expanding and having a lot more students, we had to have places for them to live,” Brewer said. “Well, they couldn’t live on campus because we didn’t have enough space, so they lived off campus, which kind of made the need for students to have assistance with off-site housing contracts, housing situations and other things.”
It was an interesting process, Brewer said, one that involved the university general counsel’s office, the state attorney general and the School of Law.
Student Government took the lead on the project, he said, and two years ago, student senate passed a bill proposing the fee increase, according to Mizzell, who was a senator on the student services committee at the time.
Like South Carolina Legal Services, Mizzell said the overarching goal of the program is to provide services to students “regardless of their financial background.”
“A lot of students don’t have the discretionary income to go out and hire a lawyer if they get into certain situations,” Mizzell said.
Loney, who came to USC for her undergraduate and law degrees, said she only wishes the service would have been available when she attended the university.
“I just think it would have been wonderful if I had somebody on campus like South Carolina Legal Services to guide me through a lot of the issues that I had in trying to attend school,” she said.
Appointments will be available Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Students can set up an initial appointment by calling 803-777-6611 and must bring their CarolinaCard to the meeting.