Texas County lawyers to offer free legal advice
Attorneys across Oklahoma will provide free legal advice Thursday, Sept. 30 during the 70th annual statewide Law Day celebration. Oklahoma City and Tulsa lawyers will staff the statewide, tollfree hotline between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. The toll-free number to call is 800-456-8525 or email AskALawyer@okbar.org. Legal questions may also be submitted online at www.okbar.org now until Sept. 30.
“This annual event gives us the opportunity to provide a much-needed community service,” said Oklahoma Bar Association President Mike Mordy of Ardmore. “Volunteer attorneys will be standing by to take calls and emails. Wanting to help people is what motivated us to become lawyers, and we encourage Oklahomans with legal questions to call in.”
Lawyers in other counties will also be giving free legal advice. About 300 lawyers will be volunteering statewide.
The Ask A Lawyer free legal advice project is one of several events in which Oklahoma lawyers participate to observe Law Day. The accompanying Ask A Lawyer television program will air across the state on Sept. 30 at 7 p.m. on OETA. The show is designed to share information about legal issues in easy-to-understand language. This year's topics are bankruptcy, divorce and a spotlight on the OU College of Law legal clinic.
LAW DAY IN TEXAS COUNTY
To celebrate Law Day, members of the Texas County Bar Association will participate in the Ask A Lawyer program in conjunction with the statewide effort to provide free legal advice. The number to call in Texas County is 580-338-6591, and the phone number will be staffed from 7-8 p.m.
Avery Haines serves as the county's Law Day chair. The Law Day chairperson works in conjunction with the state bar's Law Day Committee to coordinate the Ask A Lawyer call-in event.
WHY CELEBRATE LAW DAY?
Though Law Day is celebrated across the country, it was Wewoka attorney and 1953 OBA President Hicks Epton who originally had the idea of celebrating the law and how it affects our lives in 1951. President Dwight D. Eisenhower established Law Day nationally by proclamation in 1958; in 1961, Congress set aside May 1 as a day for all Americans to celebrate their freedom and the ideals of equality and justice under the law.
More information about Law Day is available on the OBA website at www.okbar.org/LawDay.
The 18,000-member Oklahoma Bar Association, headquartered in Oklahoma City, was created by the Oklahoma Supreme Court to advance the administration of justice and to foster and maintain learning, integrity, competence, public service and high standards of conduct among Oklahoma's legal community.