CHAPEL HILL — People can get some of their legal questions answered pro bono in Chapel Hill on Saturday, thanks to an annual service of the North Carolina Bar Association.

It’s called Ask a Lawyer Day, and this year’s Chapel Hill-Carrboro edition is  being held Feb. 1 between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the Chapel Hill Public Library.

The statewide annual event gives citizens the opportunity to get some free legal advice from members of the NCBA’s Young Lawyers Division.

“Generally, we’ll have somewhere between 30 and 50 people come out during the four or five hours that we’ll be out there,” says Bar Association member Daniel Hatley. “And each person has between 20 and 30 minutes that they can sit down with an attorney and ask just whatever questions are on their mind.”

Hatley says the benefits of the service go both ways.

“For young lawyers, it’s going to provide them some experience – that one-on-one client interaction that they may not have already,” he says.

The most common questions from citizens involve divorce, splitting of marital assets, setting up a will for an elderly family member, and issues between landlords and tenants.

Whatever questions people may have, the lawyers at the library on Saturday will have it  all covered.

“We have specialists in a number of areas – family law, estates, tax law, and criminal law,” say Hatley.

No question is off-limits, except in the rare case where an attorney may have a conflict of interest. In that case, the person asking the question will simply be referred to another lawyer.

No registration is required for the event – just show up.

For more information, call the Chapel Hill Public Library Information Desk at (919) 968-2780.

Other locations are listed here.