Van Nuys, CA — Some familiar faces at the Government Center are the newspaper solicitors who sell legal advertising at the County Building. The newspaper solicitors in Van Nuys are a great help to the community. With years of area knowledge of the Government Center, they provide people with help and necessary information. Knowing where the public needs to go and providing answers to government questions, is a fantastic service to the community.
Kavin Hamm, of the LA Metro publication has been soliciting for legal ads in Van Nuys for almost two years. “We get asked every question in the book. From where is the court, to ‘how do I file a police report,’ to how much do birth certificates cost?” One of the key parts of being a solicitor is finding out what service they need and thereby helping people get to where they need to go, while providing a service of selling legal ads. Some of the solicitors in Van Nuys have branched out, and are also setting up corporations, getting business licenses, and assisting in obtaining re-sellers permits.
“I try and provide every service a new business needs. From the DBA and setting up a corporation, to working with professional organizations and banks to get them up and running,” said George Christopher Thomas, one of the newspaper solicitors who has been working at the Government Center in Van Nuys for nearly six years. “There are so many different people with different issues who come here to the Government Center.
I look at it as an opportunity to help everyone I can, from the homeless person looking to recycle my Coke can, to the famous people that come to the Government Center for court, to the average Joe that just needs a DBA so he can open his bank account. I want to meet and help them all,” said Thomas. It seems they are a wealth of information, but they also have a job to do. Selling legal ads in a highly charged competitive environment can be quite stressful. “You have all of your newspaper competition right there, offering the same service.
Over the years I’ve seen many solicitors come and go, a few have used less than kosher business practices but 99 percent have been good public servants,” said Thomas. Another solicitor explains it as “I would love to help everyone, and let everyone use my pen, but I can’t. I need to sell legal ads for my newspaper. I can help you, but we have to make it fast, or else I could lose a sale.” Solicitors are not just people who bother you going door to door selling magazines and vacums. In Dutch and Estonian, the direct translation of a solicitor is an advocaat, meaning an advocat, or someone that acts on your behalf in somekind of legal matter.
In Britain, a solicitor is a lawyer who prepares legal documents and briefs, gives legal advice, and can speak on behalf of his clients. And here in this country, a solcitor is defined as one who solicits. Which makes sense, but the tricky and often complicated act of setting up a business often needs an advocate and legal ad specialist to navigate the bureaucracy to get the paperwork completed proprely.
The next time you see a solicitor in Van Nuys, know they will be happy to give you help and advice, give you directions, and lend you a pen – so say thank you and know that despite having a job to do, solicitors can be quite helpful in deed.