Veteran’s Legal Institute is a tiny Orange County-based nonprofit battling a big need: Supporting the men and women who have served this nation in the armed forces.
Veterans returning to civilian life can be taken off track by disability bureaucracy, job discrimination, bankruptcy, evictions, car accidents, divorce and other civil issues. Legal disputes too frequently contribute to the reasons veterans experience joblessness and, ultimately, homelessness.
But the Veterans Legal Institute offers a lifeline.
This nonprofit which operates out of a small office in Tustin is Southern California’s only public interest law firm exclusively devoted to low-income veterans. That’s why it’s the Orange County Register’s charity of choice for year-end giving in 2023.
“We presently receive close to 400 applications for service per month, far more than our staff of 24 and volunteer force of 200 can handle,” said Antionette Naddour, executive director of Veteran’s Legal Institute. “The demand for service is increasing.”
A former civil litigator and officer in the California State Military Reserve, Naddour co-founded the institute in 2014 after her experience working for a Santa Ana legal aid group exposed her to the dire need for attorneys familiar with military culture who could navigate the unique challenges facing veterans.
Naddour has said that often there are “military-specific issues causing these honorable men and women to fall into poverty.” Mental illness and post-traumatic stress, for example, can prevent qualified veterans from accessing benefits and protections due to them.
That was certainly the case with Veteran’s Legal client Rafael Molina of Huntington…
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