Legal community aids recovery from Helene’s devastation

The state’s bar, court system and legal community are continuing their efforts to restore services and help residents of Hurricane Helene-ravaged Western North Carolina.

One key step has been taken in Buncombe County. The courthouse in Asheville will reopen for “essential operations” at 8 a.m. Tuesday, a release on the North Carolina Judicial Branch’s website says. Work hours will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.

The decision was made in consultation with Chief District Court Judge Calvin Hill, Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Alan Thornburg, District Attorney Todd Williams, Chief Public Defender Sam Snead, Sheriff Quentin Miller, and Clerk of Court Jean Marie Christy.

Plans for operations for the week of Oct. 14 will be announced Friday, the brief said. A timeline also has not been set for a return to full operations, Chris Mears, the Judicial Branch’s communications projects manager, said in an email.

“The city still does not have water. That would be a necessity to return to full operations,” he said, adding that he had been told the courthouse is “fine.”

Out-of-state volunteers

The North Carolina State Bar and the North Carolina Supreme Court have loosened the rules on unauthorized practice of law by allowing out-of-state lawyers to offer legal services to indigent victims of the storm.

“The State Bar petitioned the Supreme Court for this emergency rule to streamline the process by which out-of-state lawyers can provide pro bono services in North Carolina,” a news release on the court’s website says. “In its petition for the emergency rule, the State Bar noted that, ‘There is not sufficient time to follow the prescribed procedural steps to amend the State Bar’s administrative rules and still provide the indigent legal services now when they are desperately needed.’”

The rule expires in January 2025, and it requires participating lawyers to register with the State Bar and to work through a legal services organization.

Nonprofit legal organizations also are organizing to help victims of the storm.

Disaster Legal Services, the North Carolina Bar Association, North Carolina Bar Foundation, Legal Aid of North Carolina and the Young Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association, in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have set up a toll-free legal aid hotline at 866-219-5262.

Callers who qualify for assistance will be paired with volunteer lawyers who will provide free legal help, a news release on the North Carolina Bar Association’s website says.

The lawyers will offer help with:

• FEMA appeals.
• Disaster Unemployment Assistance and other disaster benefits.
• Insurance claims.
• Home repair contract and contractor disputes.
• Contractor fraud and consumer protection.
• Replacement of wills and other important legal documents destroyed in the disaster.
• Mortgage foreclosure.
• Landlord-tenant problems.