FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE    

Thanks to a recent grant from the Baldwin Memorial Foundation for $2,500, the Legal Aid Society of Hawai`i recently initiated a consumer outreach and education program. The first two presentations were held in Maui County to seniors on Molokai and Lanai.

"At Legal Aid, we saw clients who had made bad decisions, then had waited too long or didn’t respond in the technical way the law requires," explains Consumer Law Attorney Angela Lovitt, one of two Legal Aid attorneys heading the project. "We want to help clients avoid making future mistakes."

At the heart of this project is a consumer rights handbook which covers such topics as: Common Credit Problems for Low Income People, How Credit Works, and Secured Debt–Collateral. The handbook seeks to clarify in writing consumer issues important to senior citizens, minorities, and low-income individuals.

"One of our main objectives," Angela said, "is to empower people, to let them know that as consumers they have the right to demand information so that they can make sound decisions for themselves."

Two more outreach efforts to be made at the Cameron Center on Maui are in the works–a community presentation on July 24, 2002 at 6:30 p.m. and a service provider training session on July 25, 2002 at 8:30 a.m.

For more information on the consumer outreach and education project at Legal Aid, please contact Angela Lovitt at 527-8019 (O’ahu) or Nalani Fujimori at 244-3731, ext. 24 (Maui).

Contact:     Natalie Asturi
Phone:       (808) 527-8004
E-mail:       naastur@lashaw.org