Legal Services of Southern Piedmont

Legal Services for the Elderly empowers residents of Mecklenburg County who are 60 and older to make their own plans and decisions governing end of life issues, to enable them to retain their property and assets unencumbered by debt; protect them from predatory lenders and other financing abuses; and assist them in obtaining government sponsored benefits.

The program focuses on the following issues:

1) To empower older persons in Mecklenburg County through education and legal representation, thus allowing them to remain self-sufficient, their property unencumbered and their finances protected.
 
2) To prevent and protect older persons from becoming victims of financial exploitation and abuses such as predatory lending and fraud.

3) To improve quality of life for older persons.

Case Work

• Simple wills, powers of attorney and advance directives
  
• Guardianship of a disabled spouse
• Uncontested grandchild custody
• Age discrimination in housing 
• Consumer and housing issues including home foreclosures, predatory lending practices, exploitation and unfair debt collection practices
• Government Benefits including Medicaid and Medicare, Food Stamps, Social Security and SSI
  

The program represents residents of Mecklenburg County who are 60 years of age or older regardless of income and assets. The program’s main purpose is to protect the legal rights of low-income elderly persons who are unable to afford legal representation, but does not exclude clients based on income.

Community Outreach

Legal Services for the Elderly conducts community outreach and provides community legal education, including presentations and speaking engagements, to senior citizens and to the staff of other agencies. The project works regularly with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Senior Centers and numerous other senior citizen facilities in the county including Mecklenburg County Council on Aging, North Carolina’s Ombudsman Program and other agencies serving the elderly.

Legal Services for the Elderly relies almost exclusively on the LSSP and Mecklenburg County Bar Volunteer Lawyer Programs to recruit volunteer attorneys to represent clients whose cases have been evaluated and accepted in this program.