SB 610: Legal aid organizations: indigent persons.

Existing law makes it unlawful for a person or organization to use the term legal aid, legal aide, or any confusingly similar name in any firm name, trade name, fictitious business name, or any other designation, or on any advertisement, letterhead, business card, or sign, unless the person or organization is a legal aid organization subject to fair use principles for nominative, descriptive, or noncommercial use. Existing law authorizes a consumer injured by a violation of the above provision to file a complaint seeking specified injunctive relief, restitution, and damages. Under existing law, a legal aid organization means a nonprofit organization that provides civil legal services for the poor without charge.

This bill would revise that definition of legal aid organization to instead specify that it means a nonprofit organization that provides civil legal services for indigent persons without charge. The bill would define indigent person for these purposes and would make related, conforming changes.