NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Bar Association is recruiting attorneys to assist Tennessee's troops and veterans.
More than 37,000 Tennesseans currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan will be returning home over the next 17 months. Some will face legal issues such as foreclosure, bankruptcy, divorce and child custody.
Tennessee law protects those on active duty from lease terminations, mortgage actions and liens, and it provides a reprieve from pending trials. Lawyers are needed to help families take advantage of these protections.
Nashville attorney John Lewis is an Army veteran. He provides pro bono services to armed service members, and believes that guardsmen and reservists are especially vulnerable.
“Almost on a moment’s notice - be it either in a in-state capacity for a disaster, or war-fighting that’s been going on for the past ten or twelve years - they’re called away from communities, their lives, their jobs. They deserve a lot of support and help from their communities while they’re in this deployed status.”
Lawyers interested in volunteering may sign up online at militarylegalsupport.com.