The young man in the ball cap has no job, no income, no driver's licence and no permanent address.

"I'm at rock bottom," he tells the young woman sitting across from him. "I don't have anything."

That's not entirely accurate. He has one thing for certain -- a giant legal problem scheduled to land him in court next week and, if things don't go well for him there, maybe in jail.

And that's why the man finds himself sitting at a table in one corner of the chapel at the Salvation Army Centre of Hope on Horton Street on this Thursday afternoon.

He's here to talk to University of Western Ontario law students from Community Legal Services (CLS), a non-profit organization funded by the university and Legal Aid Ontario that provides free legal assistance to people who can't afford it.

"I don't understand any of this," says the man, flattening a wad of wrinkled papers on the table.

Queenie Lo, a first-year UWO law student from the Toronto area, adjusts her glasses, grips her pen and then, slowly but surely, starts darkening the "client intake form" with the relevant details.

"OK," she says as the man's tale tumbles out of his mouth in a jumbled skein of confused chronology. "And then what happened?"

It's a pattern that's repeated by local law students hundreds of times a year at places such as the Salvation Army, Fanshawe College and the Western Ontario Therapeutic Community Hostel.

"It's a win-win situation," says Doug Ferguson, CLS director and an adjunct

professor with Western's law faculty. "Students get some practical experience. And people who have nowhere else to turn get legal help.

"We handle the clients who fall between the cracks."

There is, I think, a common belief that legal help is like health care -- available and accessible to one and all, regardless of income or status.

Sadly, that's not true.

As Ferguson explains, there are three ways someone who can't afford a lawyer may hire one. First, they may qualify for a legal aid certificate to obtain a private lawyer who is paid by Legal Aid Ontario. But these certificates are mainly granted for criminal cases that may put a person in jail.

A second option is a community legal clinic. There are about 60 such agencies across Ontario, but there have been large cuts to the network of clinics, that deal mainly with matters involving social assistance and landlord-tenant disputes.

The third option is duty counsel. But these lawyers mainly dispense general legal advice and guidance; they do not, however, actually represent people in court.

That's where Community Legal Services steps in. Last year, nearly 200 UWO law students took part, working more than 850 cases and giving legal advice to another 250 people.

First-year law students interview potential clients and determine whether they qualify for assistance (CLS does not, for instance, handle more serious offences such as murder). Then, second and third-year students prepare the case, though their work must be ultimately approved by one of the clinic's three supervisory lawyers.

Tyler MacDonald is a second-year Western law student from Sarnia. So far, he has represented three clients in court -- and won each case.

He grows animated when asked about his first win last summer, defending a man charged with assault.

"Getting an acquittal at the end of that trial, shaking the client's hand, him telling me this was a big victory and how happy he was -- that was so rewarding," says MacDonald.

He says counselling real-life clients with real-life problems (many of the clinic's clients struggle with multiple issues, including mental illness) has taught him a lot.

"(The clients) want to tell us their life story, and you have to learn to treat those stories with respect," he says. "You need to be compassionate so you can find out what they really need to tell you."

In the end, good lawyers need to understand more than the technical aspects of law. And that's exactly what CLS tries to teach.

"This isn't glamorous work," says Ferguson. "But we want the students to get it: We're here to serve people."