South Carolina Legal Services

After submitting my information to them, I received a letter in the mail dated November 19 saying that my potential advocate Ms. Stephanie van der Horst would be in contact within seven days of the dated letter. After playing phone tag for weeks, I finally got a hold of Ms. van der Horst, only to be told that cases like mine aren't a priority for them and they wouldn't be able to help me. My issue is #1: Please learn how to utilize email. All this phone tag could've been avoided if you simply learned how to follow up and schedule calls via email. #2: Ms. van der Horst attempted to speak over me when I was explaining my situation. To me, this speaks to the lack of active listening skills on her part, a skill that is important for attorneys to have.

Rita Roache is a legal aid attorney. She is one of a kind. A beautiful, Classy, Sensational Woman who helped me in 2015 with my custody case. She believed in me and gave me the tough love I needed to be able to break free from, something that was holding me back from being the mother to my daughter, I had always been. I will forever be grateful for this woman. Forever! She’s extremely talented. She works at legal aid because of her extreme passion for helping others. Not because she has to. This woman was Nominated as a Candidate to be. A Charleston County Judge. Unfortunately, she lost. We are in a state and city. Where the color of your skin determines your social status. (Charleston. SC) is where the slave trade began) its history. Unfortunately a horrible part of American History that

Spoke to an attorney today. She spoke down to me and was curt and rude. It was almost like it was a personal affront to her that I would have the audacity to even ask for help. The pro bono folks are much nicer.

I was accepted by legal aid March 2021. I was 6 months in when they switched my attorney. Summer 2021 I was given an attorney from the Charleston office. I reside in Florence. My case is in Horry county. May 2023 we finally had our first hearing. Not only was I not able to use the most important affidavit I had bc of her mistake, she forgot half the stuff she needed at court and no one could hear her. She mumbles. At hearing in May we were given 30 days to have guardian ad litem (GAL for short) it is November and I still don’t have a Gal. So after many calls to supervisors and the situation and her attitude only getting worse after each complaint, I called the bar. Now of course I lost the attorney I had which in my opinion really didn’t matter bc I believe we would still be waiting on her

My experience with this “service” has not been great. One Attorney spent roughly about 11 months, give or take, on my case and did absolutely nothing. I requested that a Rule To Show cause be filed on my behalf from the moment she was appointed but I never saw it get done. Then after not being able to reach her after numerous of calls, I found out my file was bounced to another Attorney. That Attorney was appointed only a week before the final hearing with no facts other than when she spoke to the opposing Attorney before even speaking with her own client. I spoke with the manager who was bouncing my file back and forth between these 2 Attorneys. I had questions that they did not want to answer. The assigned Attorney also yelled at me stating that “no one is represented for free.” The mana