Founded by Central California Legal Services (CCLS), Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center (Legal Aid), with the support of the local law firm of Lang, Richert & Patch, and the Consulate of Mexico in Fresno-the Clinic, the first of this collaborative in the Central Valley, will provide free legal assistance to low-wage workers who are subjected to illegal practices on the job.
The Clinic will help workers with problems such as minimum wage and overtime violations, failure to pay for work performed, or refusal to grant meal and rest breaks.
The institutions that have joined to make this new Clinic possible are all committed to providing access to justice to those who are least able to secure it. CCLS has been in the community offering free legal aid for 45 years. Legal Aid has represented working poor people with employment law problems for more than 40 years, and has directed a Workers' Rights Clinic in the Bay Area for 20 years, relying on law students and volunteer supervising attorneys who practice in the field of employment law to deliver expert guidance and advice to clients. This is the first time the collaborative model used for Legal Aid's Clinic will be employed in the Central Valley.
Ana de Alba, a Central Valley native and an attorney with Lang, Richert and Patch and its pro bono coordinator stated "We are proud to join forces with these two excellent nonprofit organizations to provide free legal aid to low-wage workers in our area. And for our firm, engaging in pro bono services is not something we undertake lightly; it is very much about who we are."
