LA Offers Free Legal Aid For Navigating The Pandemic

LOS ANGELES, CA — Los Angeles residents and businesses that need help fighting for their rights and negotiating loans and leases while enduring hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic can now get free legal help.

Mayor Eric Garcetti introduced L.A. Represents, a program in partnership with the City Attorney's Office and volunteer attorneys to provide free legal services. The attorneys would be able to help small businesses looking to renegotiate their leases and applying for business loans as well as people trying to navigate aid programs and rent issues. The aid will be given regardless of citizenship status, and there is no need to qualify. The program is free for all Los Angeles residents.

"There are no qualifications. You just need to have a problem that you need assistance with ... without any fear, without any discrimination," Garcetti said. "This is universal."

The program is designed to help with dire situations exacerbated by the pandemic, he said.

"L.A. Represents is a coalition of our top law firms, bar associations and attorneys who are volunteering their services free of charge to the rest of us," Garcetti said Tuesday, adding the program will assist people who are facing immediate problems, such as rent, employment issues or domestic violence.

"These are complex situations, and we don't always all understand the law, those of us who are not lawyers," the mayor said. "Having a lawyer and an advocate by your side can make all the difference between a positive outcome or a negative one."

The program will also develop a legal support system for businesses that have been "devastated" by the pandemic, the mayor said. Some of the assistance L.A. Represents can help small businesses with include new lease negotiations, applying for business loans or help with interpreting new laws that have taken effect.

Residents of Los Angeles can go to coronavirus.lacity.org/larepresents to seek the free legal services.

Garcetti said although he hopes to speak later this week about some businesses and facilities that could reopen soon, he repeated his message from Monday that the city would not make changes to its Safer at Home orders until consensus is reached with county health officials and neighboring cities.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.