They sacrificed their yesterdays for our today.  Some gave up the lives they might have known, and some gave up their limbs.  These valiant men and women are our veterans.

As a token of appreciation for their valor, lawyers and students at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law have made plans to address veterans’ present-day legal woes.  The law school has already signed up a few potential clients, but it has refrained from asking these veterans to travel and will instead come to them for house calls.  It plans to offer free legal assistance across Michigan from a mobile law office that will travel throughout the state this summer.  

Many of these veterans have been issued nuisance tickets for their behavior as well as their dependence on drugs.  Oftentimes, they end up homeless and living on the streets.  Still others, traumatized and disabled by war, require help with filing claims for public assistance.  They need help dealing with child support, taxes, preparing wills, getting Social Security disability coverage, and even avoiding foreclosures on their homes.

Although law schools across the country have stepped up their efforts to help military personnel and veterans, particularly service members coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan, Detroit’s “law-on-wheels” approach has never been seen before.  Areas such as Wayne County, Oakland County, and Macomb County have around 280,000 veterans, states a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs report.

About $100,000 will be spent initially by the school to establish the clinic.  Later, the school’s authorities expect to garner additional financial support from the state, private donors, and other lawyers.

The director of the Immigration Law Clinic, David Koelsch, said that the school recognizes the need for such a program and hopes that more people will come to it in time.  If the program gets the support it is hoping for, the school will add another mobile law office and will also make the veterans clinic permanent.