The destruction caused by the recent flooding is devastating for Nebraska families, communities and our state. Knowing the legal rights, benefits and resources available to low-income survivors of a disaster is crucial to recovery. Legal Aid of Nebraska can help. Legal Aid of Nebraska’s Disaster Relief Project offers free legal assistance for low-income survivors of Nebraska’s floods, through both online resources and a network of trained volunteer lawyers across Nebraska.
Survivors of Nebraska’s flooding can get free and immediately useful information on our website: http://www.disaster.legalaidofnebraska.org. Click on “Help for Disaster Survivors,” and find a wealth of resources useful for all flood survivors, and especially for renters, farmers, and Native Americans. Resources include basic disaster-related legal issues (housing, government benefits, insurance, fraud, document recovery, etc.). Special resources have also been developed for low-income survivors of disasters on working with utilities, and dealing with tax issues.
Low-income Nebraskans can apply for direct legal representation two ways:
• Applying online at legalaidofnebraska.org/apply, or
• Calling the Disaster Relief Hotline at 1-844-268-5627. You can see the hotline hours at disaster.legalaidofnebraska.com/apply
If you are an attorney and want to volunteer to help low-income disaster survivors, apply at http://disaster.legalaidofnebraska.com/volunteerapplication.htm.
In the coming days and months, Legal Aid’s Disaster Relief Project is ready to help low-income Nebraskans slammed by the disastrous flooding, gain hope, seize opportunity, and recover as fully as possible through free legal information and assistance.
Legal problems may include:
Insurance Issues including submitting claims, avoiding public adjuster fraud, negotiating insurance settlements, and filing an appeal.
• Government Benefits including applying for benefits and/or filing an appeal for denial of benefits, benefit award disagreement, or overpayment notices.
• Housing (renters) including identifying your rights as a renter of a damaged unit, facilitating communication with your landlord, negotiating early termination of a lease, resolving issues with renter’s insurance claims, and recovering personal items from damaged rental units.
• Housing (owners) including negotiating payments, understanding your options in real estate contracts, and obtaining disaster assistance.
• Contractor Fraud Issues including hiring a contractor and avoiding fraud, reviewing work contracts/estimates, obtaining proper work permits for repairs, passing city inspection, and recognizing and preventing predatory lending.
• Document Recovery including replacing lost documents (driver’s licenses, SS cards, EBT cards, etc.) and replacing immigration documents.
About Legal Aid of Nebraska
Legal Aid of Nebraska was established in 1963 and is the only statewide non-profit civil legal aid provider in Nebraska, providing free, high quality services to low-income Nebraskans in all 93 counties. Legal Aid’s mission is “to promote justice, dignity, hope and self-sufficiency through quality civil legal aid for those who have nowhere else to turn.” Legal Aid’s administrative offices are in Omaha, Nebraska.
Website: legalaidofnebraska.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/legalaidofnebraska/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LegalAidNEB
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/legalaidneb/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/legal-aid-of-nebraska
More details at: http://www.flood.unl.edu