Published on April 02, 2006
Legal Assistance For Victims
In the aftermath of domestic or sexual violence, victims may need civil legal remedies including civil protection orders, child support, child custody, immigration representation, and housing and public benefits assistance. Yet all too often, victims of domestic violence and sexual assault must appear in court by themselves in order to secure these desperately needed civil legal remedies - 70% lack legal representation. The retainers or hourly fees needed to hire private legal representation are beyond the means of most victims. To obtain these remedies, victims need knowledgeable legal assistance that helps them access the civil legal system. The provision of legal services is believed to be one of the most significant factors resulting in a decline of domestic violence.(ref )
The Legal Assistance Program for Victims funds efforts to meet the broad civil legal assistance needs of victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Programs which have been funded through this grant program provide: civil legal representation for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault in family law, immigration, housing, and public benefits matters; training to improve the delivery of civil legal services; collaborations between domestic violence victim services and legal assistance programs; support to victims navigating the criminal justice system; education for law students on how to serve victims of domestic violence and sexual assault; and the improvement of pro bono civil legal assistance.
The Legal Assistance Program for Victims is the only federal funding program designed to meet all of these needs. The Legal Assistance Program is authorized for $65 million; last year Congress appropriated only $38.5 million. This year, because of the President's Block Grant proposal the amount of funding for this crucial program area is uncertain.
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WHY CIVIL LEGAL ASSISTANCE MATTERS
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If you are a survivor who has needed or used civil legal services or if you provide civil legal services to survivors, please use our webform below to post your personal comments about why full funding for the Civil Legal Assistance program is so important. We'll compile your comments into a booklet that will be hand-delivered to legislative offices.
Some tips about writing personal comments.
1. BE BRIEF! We cannot use anything over 300 words, and we aren’t able to edit things down. If it is too long, it will not be included in our book to Congress. Talk about your experience with civil legal services if you were able to access them, or if not, talk about how the lack of legal representation impacted you and/or your children. Try not to go into all the detail of your case - limit it to discussing how not having an attorney resulted in your or your children's safety being jeopardized. Please do not identify anybody by name in your comments.
If you are a legal services provider tell about the work you do, how it makes a difference and why this funding matters. It's especially powerful to tell the story of how your services made a difference for one person or family. You may also wish to tell about funding cuts or cuts in programming that your agency has experienced. But please, don't just talk about the money. Talk about the tragedies you are witnessing and the lives you are touching. Make it real, so they cannot turn away and pretend not to know..
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