ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The right to attorney protections don\u2019t apply to civil cases, leaving many Floridians with no legal help for issues that shape daily life. <\/p>\n
Nearly half of the state can\u2019t afford a lawyer, creating what advocates call a widening justice gap. <\/p>\n
Jeff Harvey, CEO of Community Legal Services<\/a>, said low-income residents feel that gap the most. <\/p>\n [EXCLUSIVE:Become a News 6 Insider (it\u2019s FREE)<\/a>| PINIT!Share your photos<\/a>]<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a shame to be one legal issue away from poverty, and then after you lose your legal issue, now you qualify for services,” Harvey said. \u201cThat just doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d <\/p>\n Harvey said those who qualify for no-cost help are often living far below the poverty line. Some residents automatically qualify, including seniors, domestic violence survivors, and in some cases, veterans. <\/p>\n \u201cFor the most part, people who are 200% below the poverty line (qualify),\u201d Harvey said. \u201cThat\u2019s a family of four making $60,000 or less. For individuals, it\u2019s right around $17,000 to $18,000.\u201d <\/p>\n Community Legal Services also runs legal clinics for those who don\u2019t meet the income threshold. Harvey said that information can make a difference.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are things that people can handle on their own if they understand the process and the language and the terms,\u201d he said. \u201cIf somebody takes a couple of minutes and explains to you what the rules are and how it works, a lot of this stuff can be done.\u201d<\/p>\n The agency relies heavily on volunteer attorneys like Clyde Lemon of Fighter Law. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is my way of giving back to the community,\u201d Lemon said. \u201cIt\u2019s about showing that I care and I\u2019m willing to pour into individuals who need help.\u201d <\/p>\n Lemon works on cases involving evictions, sealing and expungement, and voting rights. He recently helped a Central Florida man regain his right to vote \u2014 a right he lost at 18 years old after a felony conviction. <\/p>\n \u201cThirty years later, he understood the importance of wanting to vote, and we were able to go through the process and get him the proper documentation,\u201d Lemon said. \u201cWe also made sure he did all the community service he needed to do to get his rights restored.\u201d <\/p>\n Lemon also volunteers with sealing and expungement cases.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are individuals who were charged with a criminal offense and now they want to get that covered on their record,\u201d he explained. \u201cA lot of times, people don\u2019t know how important that is, particularly when they\u2019re applying for jobs.\u201d <\/p>\n Lemon said he plans to keep volunteering, but he said the need far outweighs the available help. <\/p>\n Harvey said the organization depends on volunteers like Lemon and added seeing clients succeed underscores why access matters. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re grateful for people like Clyde,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re helping somebody where you\u2019re their only hope, the stakes are a little bit higher, and it feels like the impact is a little sweeter.\u201d <\/p>\n For Community Legal Services, closing the justice gap starts with giving people the knowledge, support, and representation they otherwise couldn\u2019t reach. <\/p>\n Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n Get breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n Copyright 2025 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The right to attorney protections don\u2019t apply to civil cases, leaving many Floridians with no…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,1335,139],"class_list":{"0":"post-69413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-headlines","10":"tag-florida-news","11":"tag-orange-county","12":"tag-orlando"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}