Student Legal Services, a law firm that has been on campus for 25 years, seeks to help students resolve their legal issues.

Pamarah Gerace, director of Student Legal Services, said 2,000 students typically use their services each year, although by contract, the attorneys cannot go to criminal court for students.

“Basically, we are the law service on campus for the students, so that if they have any legal issues or questions, they come to us so that they won’t have to worry about hiring a private attorney. They can just worry about going to school,” Gerace said.

Gerace said approximately 30 percent of students use the service to settle disputes with tenants, which makes land disputes their most frequent cases.

However, there are provisions to the service. By contract, cases between more than one student, the University or the state, cannot be covered by the service.

“We’re a general practice law firm, which means that we basically cover anything that the students come in with, but in court, we will only deal with civil matters,” Gerace said.

Gerace said the civil matters the service litigates with often range from landlord disputes, contract upkeep, wills and even name changes.

Jesse Watson, administrative assistant for Student Legal Services, said he would like to see more students use the service, as anyone with legal questions could benefit from it.

“We will consult on pretty much everything,” Watson said.

Although the service’s attorneys cannot represent on criminal matters, they are able to consult students thoroughly.

“We don’t represent on criminal matters like if you got a drinking ticket, or if you got a traffic citation, but we deal with them regularly and we will consult student on them,” Watson said. “We usually get students to the point where they won’t need to hire another everything.”

Watson said the service is completely confidential, even when students are advised on the Student Code of Conduct hearings and cases with the University.

“We don’t tell code of conduct anything, we won’t tell the University anything and we won’t tell your parents anything,” Watson said. “We are completely leave.”

Although sure not to promote illegal activity, Avery said it always helps to be polite to the police, but without a warrant, they need consent to search anything you own.

“If you stop them before they can see [something illegal], then it can’t happen,” Avery said.

Avery also suggested students consult Student Legal Service before signing any large contracts.

“Don’t sign anything until you come and see us,” Avery said. “You need contracts, you’re going to buy a car, you’re going to rent an apartment, so let us read it before you sign it, because once you sign it, there isn’t anything we can really