The Volunteer Research Assistance Team (VRAT) is a team of law student volunteers who provide legal research assistance to legal service offices affiliated with LSAP. The assigned research projects are issues that the office needs brief assistance with in a relatively short time frame (usually 2-4 weeks). Typical assignments are either case-specific research or projects analyzing a particular legal issue.

VRAT members are able to select projects based on their available time and interests.  Throughout the semester, LSAP will e-mail research project requests to the members of VRAT.  Interested VRAT members must respond as soon as possible in order to volunteer for that specific project.  Each VRAT member is expected to complete one project per semester. Once a student has accepted a project, they are responsible for completing it and complying with any deadlines established by the attorney requesting the information.

VRAT gives students an opportunity to improve their legal research and writing skills outside the classroom.  Additionally, students may complete a writing sample, gain knowledge in an unfamiliar area of the law, or develop a lasting mentor-mentee relationship with the requesting attorney.  Most importantly, students will provide a valuable service to public interest agencies that lack the time and resources to devote to research projects. 

Past VRAT projects have included:

• Adoption Law Chart for all 50 states
• Landlord/Tenant Manual
• Research memo on the seizure of exempt bank accounts belonging to senior citizens
• Updated case law for a Guardianship Outline
• Research memo on access to medical records
• Shepardizing of cases for a brief on valuation of separate property during a divorce proceeding
• Research memo on student loan cancellation
• Updating of bankruptcy questionnaire used in pro se clinic screening
• Creation of PowerPoint for Pro Se Divorce Clinic*
• Interpretation Manual
• Creation of a database for domestic violence service providers

* In 2005, LSAP volunteer Judith Coon won the New York State Bar Association's Pro Bono Award for her work in creating a series of PowerPoint presentations for use in VLSP's Pro Se Divorce Clinic.