A resolution to move the date students can waive an optional $8 legal services fee from the fifth week of each quarter to the second moved through Student Senate last night unopposed.
Currently, the Center for Student Legal Services automatically charges every OU student $8 per quarter for the possible use of legal representation for landlord-tenant matters, criminal misdemeanor offenses, alcohol offenses and consumer problems, according the Office of the Bursar's website. Students unwilling to pay the fee can opt out by a certain date by completing a waiver on their eAccount.
(Students) pay this $8 and it's almost like an insurance fee
said Senate President Robert Leary. This will up revenue and allow the Center for Student Legal Services to increase programming because most students opt out in the last two weeks before the deadline.
This academic year's deadlines for opting out of the legal services fee were Oct. 12, Feb. 8 and May 3. Each of the deadlines fell close to week five of the quarter. The Center for Legal Services is also open to students enrolled at OU during the summer.
This is a steal. It's an $8 lawyer said John Calhoun, a sponsor of the resolution and the senator for the College of Arts and Sciences.
Students are not supposed to be able to use legal services if they opt out of paying the fee, according to the Office of the Bursar's website. But, some students still choose to use legal services in the first few weeks of the quarter, and then opt out of paying the fee by the week-five deadline, Leary said. He added that this usually only happens with about five students every year.
During the academic year of 2008-2009, the Center for Student Legal Services collected $43,594 in student legal fees.
The fee is kept low because the lawyers in the Center for Student Legal Services are not paid as highly as private-practice lawyers, Leary said. There are currently two full-time attorneys employed by the center, and both are licensed.
The fee goes, in part, to pay the salaries of the lawyers employed by the Center for Legal Services.
This is something I really believe in and senate showed tonight that they do too
Leary said.
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Pamela Engel
