Be a Pro Bono Paralegal at this Year’s 4ALL Statewide Service Day!

Crosby, a white woman with short golden brown hair, wears a pink blouse and black blazer with white dots.By Stephanie Crosby

I am proud to be the co-chair of the 16th Annual 4ALL Statewide Service Day, which will be held on Friday, March 3, 2023, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The 4ALL Statewide Service Day is a pro bono program of the North Carolina Bar Foundation and held in conjunction with the North Carolina Bar Association. During 4ALL, North Carolina lawyers provide free legal answers, information, and resources to callers seeking information regarding North Carolina-related legal matters. Once again, paralegals will be able to participate virtually as call screeners.

So what would you, as a paralegal volunteer, do? Paralegal volunteers will act as call screeners for attorneys. Working from your home or office, you will utilize a phone service called Telzio that can be accessed by website or mobile app. You will be the caller’s first point of contact and obtain information based on the caller’s legal issue at hand. You will then place the caller in a queue to have their questions answered based on the information obtained. This will allow attorneys to have an idea of what type of issue is to be expected and to know what kind of question they will be asked. All callers, paralegals, and attorneys remain anonymous, so there is no attorney-client relationship established.

Every year the 4ALL Statewide Service Day is a great day to be in the legal profession. I hope you will join me as a call screener this year. We are asking for people to volunteer for a two-hour shift, but we would love to have you assist in more than one shift if you can. You just need to register for the earliest shift you are willing to serve, and then you can stay logged in to Telzio and help as long as you would like. You also will be able to log in and log out during the day and assist when you can.

Please join me in volunteering for the 2023 4ALL Statewide Service Day! The greatest need for volunteers is for the 5 to 7 p.m. shift, but you can always sign up for additional shifts! For more information and to register as a 4ALL volunteer, please visit the 4ALL Statewide Service Day web page.

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The Paralegal Division Blog is managed by the Division’s Communications Committee. Via the blog, the Communications Committee provides information written by attorneys, paralegals, and other experts designed specifically for paralegals in the areas of substantive law, ethics, technology, paralegal practice advice, and more. If you are interested in signing up to submit a blog post on a future date, you can do so here. When you are ready to submit a blog post, you can do so by using this form.

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