Hurricane Isaac Survivors ElIgible for Disaster Legal Services

BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisianians who sustained damage from Hurricane Isaac can now call the Disaster Legal Services hotline at 1-800-310-7029 for free legal assistance and counseling.

Through the hotline, volunteer lawyers can help eligible hurricane survivors with legal issues related to the hurricane. Volunteer lawyers can discuss insurance claims, landlord-tenant issues, consumer protection issues and the replacement of wills or other important documents that were lost or destroyed during the storm.

Callers should be prepared to discuss particular legal problems caused by the disaster and to provide a current contact phone number. To be eligible for this free legal assistance, they must reside in one of the 21 parishes designated for Individual Assistance under the federal disaster declaration for Hurricane Isaac. The parishes are Ascension, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Jefferson, Lafourche, Livingston, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. Helena, St. James, St. John, St. Mary, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Terrebonne,  Washington and West Feliciana.

Disaster Legal Services is a federally funded program run under an agreement between the American Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division, Louisiana State Bar Association, the Louisiana Civil Justice Center and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The call center operates from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Voicemails are returned from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday. Legal assistance for Spanish-speaking callers is also available.

Hurricane survivors can register online at www.disasterassistance.gov or via smartphone at m.fema.gov. They may also call 1-800-621-3362 or (TTY) 1-800-462-7585. Those who use 711 Relay or Video Relay Services may call 1-800-621-3362. The toll-free telephone numbers are open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.

For more information on Louisiana disaster recovery, click www.fema.gov/disaster/4080 or www.gohsep.la.gov. You can follow FEMA on Twitter at www.twitter.com/femaregion6 or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FEMA. Also visit our blog at www.fema.gov/blog.