The Volunteer UP legal clinic will host a free expungement clinic on Monday – Martin Luther King Day – sponsored by the Camden County Board of Commissioners, ARCHER Attorneys at Law, Camden County College and the Camden County Bar Association.
The clinic will provide lawyers working pro bono to help people get their state criminal records cleared. Hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the college’s Camden Technology Center in Camden city.
Steven Salinger, CEO of Volunteer UP, said the purpose of the clinic is to aid the community.
“This is a way to alleviate a significant roadblock,” he explained. “Whether it assists somebody in pursuing a job, or education or something like that. It can also just make somebody feel better when something they did many many years ago is now not part of their record. It’s expunged, right? It’s gone.
“There are many reasons why this is really meaningful to the individuals we serve …” Salinger added. “It aligns with the goals of the community that really built and founded the clinic.”
The clinic is only for people with New Jersey-specific charges and doesn’t apply to pending or open criminal cases. Convictions that can’t be expunged include sexual assault, crimes committed by public-office holders, kidnapping, robbery, arson, false imprisonment, human trafficking, terrorism and endangering the welfare of a child.
Commissioner Jeffrey Nash, one of the founders of Volunteer UP and a member of its board for 10 years, noted that an expungement clinic can help people in recovery.
” … There are several recovery organizations throughout the country that recognize many of these people in recovery need legal help to unwind some of their legal challenges,” he related. “And to have attorneys from a clinic present and talk to them and see if they can help them, has proved to be very helpful in the recovery process.”
Salinger said Volunteer UP has more than 50 attorneys who will be represented at the clinic to serve an expected 300 attendees. The purpose of holding the event on MLK Day, Nash noted, is for attorneys to honor King’s legacy.
“They (the attorneys) volunteer their time on Martin Luther King Day as their day of service,” he added, “helping those who are seeking an expungement of their record … So it’s a very widely needed type of clinic.”
“(We) identified the Martin Luther King Day of Service as a great opportunity to set up what I believe is the largest – at least in Camden County – single-day expungement clinic,” Salinger claimed. “Where we have filed several hundred applications in the past, and traditionally, we see at least three or 400 people.
“Not saying we file for everyone, not saying all of them are granted, but we tend to see that many people.”
For more on the clinic or to volunteer, register at the Volunteer UP website.
