Legal chat talk show popular in South Florida Haitian community.

• Author: Labrousse, Lissette

Language is not a barrier for South Florida Haitian-Americans who want to know more about legal issues. The Haitian Lawyers Association provides a weekly television and radio show, spoken in Haitian Creole, for a growing South Florida Haitian-American community.

Since 1999, the Haitian Lawyers Association (HLA) has produced a television legal talk show, called "Koze Legal." Koze Legal, translated to English as Legal Chat, was established as a forum to educate South Florida's Haitian-American community about important legal issues and its rights and responsibilities in various areas of law.

Additionally, the association began a call-in radio show in February that broadcasts on local talk radio and expands the listening audience to include more than 300,000 Haitian-Americans living in South Florida. Plans are underway to broadcast the pretaped television shows on radio, too.

"The show has received great reviews from the community," said Lisa Metellus-Hood, president of HLA. "It serves as another avenue to provide access to the legal community that is not readily available for some, especially Haitian people."

The project is one opportunity for the nonprofit voluntary bar association to ensure it carries out its mission to protect and promote the general welfare of the Haitian-American community and other minority residents in the South Florida area, Metellus-Hood added.

Koze Legal covers a wide spectrum of legal topics related to immigration, criminal law, family law, bankruptcy, domestic violence, real estate, and landlord/tenant law. With its unique format, it is the only television program run by Haitian lawyers, spoken in Creole, and completely created for the Haitian community to address particular legal concerns.

Attorney Beatrice Cazeau, HLA vice president, and HLA member and attorney Donald Gelin produce the show and have served as hosts of the show. The 30-minute show, produced four times each month, usually includes a host with three guests. Several HLA members and other various professionals from the community appear as guests to discuss their specific areas of law as well as assist in the production of the show.

Cazeau added that she receives "wonderful feedback from the public." The show provides a forum to answer questions about topics that may be culturally accepted but are legally unacceptable in a city or county.

Since radio is a primary source of information for the Haitian community, the move to add a radio show was ideal...