Landlords have lawyers, but most Nashville renters don’t. A $2.6 million pilot program aims to change that.

If you’ve ever seen a cop show, then you’ve heard your Miranda rights: You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you.

But that’s only if you’re being charged with a crime.

DarKenya Waller is the executive director of the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands. She says that you do not have a right to an attorney in civil cases.

“And more often than not, the person on the other side has one. And so, unless you get to Legal Aid … you have to navigate those waters alone,” Waller says.

Legal Aid Society is the state’s largest nonprofit law firm. A recent Vanderbilt study found that more than 99% of landlords in Nashville had legal representation in civil cases, compared to less than 1% of renters. Right now, its Nashville office only has two attorneys representing all of its housing cases.

“When you wake up, it’s go, go, go,” says Karin Morris, one of Legal Aid’s housing attorneys.

Katie Ovalle is the city’s other housing attorney. She says the job requires a lot of extra hours.

“You have to understand that we have clients who don’t work a typical 9-to-5 type schedule. We have clients who work second shift. We have clients who work third shift,” Ovalle says. “So, it’s not unusual that we’re on the phone with a client at 9 p.m. because that’s the only time they can talk.”

But Ovalle and Morris will soon have help. Metro passed a $2.6 million grant that will fund its Right to Counsel program. With that money, Legal Aid Society will be able to triple its number of housing attorneys from two to six.

Morris says that will not only allow them to take on more cases but give the cases they do take more attention.

“Because you got to keep in mind, we don’t have any investigators. We are the investigators,” Morris says. “A lot of our clients don’t have all of the documents, so we need to get those things. And by having this Right to Counsel, it’s going to allow us to breathe and be able to take those moments to get that type of information that can better provide better — or I should say, adequate — representation for our clients.”

The two-year pilot program will also include an education program — for both tenants and landlords — as well as a partnership with Conexion Americas to better serve Nashville’s immigrant communities.