BOWLING GREEN — Matt Reger knows how churches step up to the plate to help their neighbors at home and abroad with food, clothing, and shelter.

The Bowling Green city prosecutor is impressed with the church-sponsored medical missions that go to other countries to treat the sick and wounded.

But while spending a year in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, he saw too the need for legal services for the poor — a need that agencies such as Legal Services of Northwest Ohio can only partially meet because of the demand.

“People who are poor don’t have as much access to the legal system, and I think that’s something for churches to be concerned about,” Mr. Reger said.

Since October, 2010, Mr. Reger and a contingent of area lawyers willing to volunteer their time have been quietly running Community Christian Legal Services. They hold a once-a-month legal clinic at Bowling Green Alliance Church where Mr. Reger is a member. It is free and open to all.

“In Micah 6:8, God tells us to do justice to others,” he said. 

“That’s my inspiration. I want to do that for people, help people who are poor.”

Bowling Green attorney Esteban Callejas said his reason for volunteering his time is simple.

“It’s just what I feel is part of being a lawyer, that there are certain obligations you have and one of those obligations is to help people who cannot afford legal representation,” he said. 

“I look at it as a civic duty and a professional duty.”

Since the program began almost two years ago, local lawyers have assisted more than 150 people. Mr. Reger said the most common problems arise from domestic relations issues — divorce, child custody, and visitation. Financial issues, ranging from consumer credit problems to foreclosure, as well as estate issues — “I need a will. Do I need a will?” — are the next most common.

“The idea of the clinic is to have a consultation with an attorney,” Mr. Reger said. “We either direct them to Legal Services of Northwest Ohio or direct them to an attorney they can afford or an attorney willing to take their case pro bono.”

They do not handle criminal cases as criminal defendants who cannot afford an attorney have access to public defenders. 

In some cases, lawyers are able to give them advice that may answer their question without further legal work.

“Nobody comes in with super complex issues,” Mr. Reger said. “They seem complex and overwhelming to them because they don’t understand the system and they don’t have the financial means to find out.”

In some cases, he said, people who come in can afford a lawyer but have misconceptions about lawyers or don’t know if they really need one.

“Many think the minute they step into an attorney’s office, it’s like a taxi and the meter is running,” Mr. Reger said, adding, “We try to give people help. We try to give people direction.”

The Wood County Bar Association provided $5,000 in seed money to Community Christian Legal Services, but Mr. Reger would one day like to see the program grow and receive support from area churches. He envisions offering free, quarterly educational seminars on various aspects of the law, offering legal clinics at the county’s senior centers, and even to have a paid staff member some day.

He modeled the local program in part on one in Indianapolis, Neighborhood Christian Legal Services, which began as a free, monthly legal clinic in 1994 and has grown into a $1 million a year nonprofit organization that gets a fourth of its funding from churches. 

He stressed that the service is non-denominational.

“The reason the legal service is there, the reason this is being provided is because of my faith,” Mr. Reger said. 

“I have a skill that God gave me that I’m using for His benefit, for His glory. It has nothing to do with who comes to us. Anyone can come to us.”

The once-a-month legal clinic runs from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month at Bowling Green Alliance Church, 1161 Napoleon Rd. 

Beginning in September, the agency also will hold weekly intake sessions from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Mondays at donated office space at 541 W. Wooster St. 

There, an attorney will talk to clients briefly to assess their need and try to connect them with an attorney who can represent them pro bono.

Anyone interested in helping the clinic may contact Mr. Reger at matthew.reger@yahoo.com.

Contact Jennifer Feehan at:

jfeehan@theblade.com

or 419-724-6129.

First Published August 25, 2012, 5:01 a.m.