Legal Services office reopens at Kotzebue

KOTZEBUE (AP) -- After four years, Alaska Legal Services Corp. has found the money to reopen its office here this month.

The operating cash came from a donation from Maniilaq Association. The office will serve the NANA Corp. region's 12 villages of Ambler, Buckland, Deering, Kiana, Kivalina, Kobuk, Kotzebue, Noatak, Noorvik, Point Hope, Selawik and Shungnak.

Alaska Legal Services offers free legal assistance in civil cases to low-income people. Since early 1996, when the office closed, legal assistance for the NANA region had been provided from the Fairbanks and Nome legal services offices.

The new office offers a full range of services, including assistance with family law subsistence issues, tribal law issues, housing problems, benefits issues (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, welfare benefits), services for people older than 60, Native allotment claims, wills and estates, and property disputes.