In Person LAFLA Firefighter Expungement Clinic (Pro Bono)

LAFLA Firefighter Expungement Clinic (In person)

Clinic Date: Saturday, March 21, 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Location: LAFLA Ron Olson Justice Center, 1550 W. 8th St., Los Angeles, CA 90017

Parking: Street parking or free parking in the garage (additional information will be provided before the clinic)

Volunteer Form: All volunteers must sign the volunteer confidentiality form to participate in the clinic. This form ensures that all volunteers will be covered by LAFLA’s malpractice insurance.

Training:
1. Expungement Clinic What to Expect Training Video (9 minutes). Please note that this video has one slide that addresses logistics for LAFLA’s remote clinic, but everything else pertains to the 3.21.26 clinic. 

2. LAFLA AB2147 Expungement Overview Training Video (28 minutes). 

3. Optional but highly encouraged: Cultural competency and trauma-informed care training available at pbtraining.org. 

4. Optional: How to draft an expungement declaration guide for volunteers (will be emailed to you).

Clinic Description:
Help formerly incarcerated individuals who fought California fires clear their criminal records.

A record expungement allows individuals who have completed their sentence(s) to dismiss criminal convictions, allowing them to move on with their lives and seek jobs and other opportunities that would otherwise not be available. LAFLA will be hosting an expungement clinic to provide record-clearing relief to formerly incarcerated individuals who participated in firefighting programs while serving their sentences. This program is in response to Assembly Bill 2147, which went into effect in January 2021. The bill was passed to assist formerly incarcerated individuals who contributed to wildfire-related efforts in California to be able to pursue firefighting jobs and other first responder frontline work that would otherwise not be available to them. In collaboration with a nonprofit that works with formerly incarcerated firefighters (many of whom helped fight the 2025 LA wildfires), volunteer assistance is requested to help draft petitions and declarations under the supervision of a LAFLA attorney during a three-hour period.

Volunteer Role:
During the clinic, pre-trained volunteers (who may be paired with another volunteer) will be given a client file to review and can ask questions about the case with a LAFLA supervisor. Thereafter, the volunteer(s) will meet with a LAFLA client to prepare one to two expungement petitions and, if relevant, a declaration in support of the petition. The LAFLA supervisor is available the entire time to provide support to volunteers and review the final completed documents. Volunteers will provide legal services in a limited clinic setting, and clients will be representing themselves pro se at their expungement hearing. The volunteer service ends at the conclusion of the clinic, and LAFLA will take over to provide further guidance to the clients.

Clinic Schedule Breakdown:
9:30–10:00: Check in, get assigned client file, review file, and ask LAFLA supervisor questions before meeting with client.

10:00–12:30: Volunteers interview client and review client documents to complete petition(s) under the supervision of a LAFLA advocate.

12:30–1:00: Volunteers check in with LAFLA supervisor to review completed petition(s). If all is approved, clients sign documents, and everyone can leave.

Please contact Phong Wong at pwong@lafla.org if you have further questions about logistics or training information.

If you are interested in representing the client at the hearing to gain court experience, please contact Phong. The hearings are very informal and can be done remotely. Expect about three to six hours of time.

Sponsored by ACC SoCal Pro Bono Committee