DISASTER RESOURCES, TRAINING, AND PRO BONO GROWTH
By Legal Services of North Dakota
Legal Services of North Dakota( LSND) had a busy first quarter of 2026. In addition to serving individual North Dakotans in need of legal assistance, LSND has prepared a variety of educational materials for legal professionals and updated its pro bono program to better support volunteer attorneys.
DISASTER WEBSITE LAUNCH Legal Services of North Dakota launched its Disaster Services website in November 2025. Since then, more than 700 website visitors have used its resources to prepare for or recover from a disaster. The website includes resources for three types of users: individuals, disaster relief organizations, and volunteer attorneys.
The Volunteer Attorney section goes in depth about defining a disaster, the type of assistance available after a disaster, and how an attorney can help disaster-affected clients. A list of common legal needs after a disaster, both in the short term and in the long term, is available in the Volunteer Attorney section. This list is handy for legal professionals to have available to anticipate the needs of their disaster-affected clients and mitigate any circumstances that may exacerbate an issue. The most common issues are related to property: insurance, landlord / tenant disputes, temporary housing assistance, and title work. Long-term needs that can often be avoided with early legal assistance include bankruptcy, tax issues, and consumer protection issues such as scams.
The Education for Disaster Relief Organizations section is useful for both legal and non-legal organizations. It includes a guide to continuity planning, an overview of how disaster response and recovery work in North Dakota, and a toolbox with resources that improve an organization’ s disaster preparedness. Attorneys representing these kinds of organizations are encouraged to share the website with their clients.
The last two sections of the Disaster Services website are for individuals. There is information about preparing for all types of natural disasters, a link to check the disaster risk level of their home, and a resource directory disaster survivors can use to connect themselves with the support they need during disaster recovery. Attorneys working with individuals who are affected by a disaster or live in a high-risk disaster area should share this website with their clients.
NEW LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM The most useful tool on the website, however, is LSND’ s new learning management system( LMS). The LMS is available to both attorneys and disaster relief organizations. Part of LSND’ s mission includes educating its communities. The LMS helps LSND achieve that mission by providing resources to the North Dakota legal community and disaster relief organizations statewide.
The Volunteer Attorney section also includes a comprehensive guide to completing FEMA Individual Assistance applications and making appeals when an assistance application is denied. Finally, links to external government websites for more information about FEMA or additional resources for disaster legal issues are available too.
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