Home | Online Resources | UB Catalog | Campus Libraries | About UB Libraries | Forms | Search | Help

Domestic Violence Victims' Civil Legal Assistance Grants
Program Brief

INTRODUCTION

The Domestic Violence Victims' Civil Legal Assistance Discretionary Grant Program is designed to strengthen civil legal assistance for victims of domestic abuse through innovative, collaborative programs that reach more battered women than are currently being served and on a broader range of issues than are typically addressed. The core components of projects supported by this grant program include training, mentoring, and collaborative relationships.

Lawyers and legal advocates providing services through this Program are encouraged to obtain training and work with mentors from respected domestic violence victim advocacy organizations within the community to be served, and non-lawyers must be fully supervised by attorneys in accordance with local Bar rules. Training and mentoring should be ongoing to address issues that may arise during the course of the project.

SCOPE OF THE PROGRAM

A. Authorized Program Purposes

The Civil Legal Assistance Program provides an opportunity for communities to examine the ways in which the civil legal needs of battered women are met. Funds may be used to support or provide direct legal services on behalf of victims of domestic violence in civil matters directly related to the domestic violence, including but not limited to: cases to obtain, modify or enforce civil protection orders; divorce or legal separation; spousal and child support; child custody and/or visitation; administrative matters such as access to benefits; housing and/or landlord-tenant matters; and matters related to employment, including unemployment compensation proceedings.

All direct legal services organizations applying for funding through this Program are strongly encouraged to formally collaborate with domestic violence victim advocacy groups within the community to develop and implement a civil legal services program. Prior to program development, the advocacy and legal organizations should jointly identify the areas of greatest need for civil legal representation and ensure effective and appropriate cross-training of legal and advocacy staff and effective advocacy. Such a collaboration should reflect the active, ongoing role of the domestic violence victim advocacy organization and include both initial and ongoing training programs for lawyers who will handle cases. Applicants that establish such collaborative efforts with domestic violence victim advocacy organizations will receive priority consideration for funding.

B. Special Interest Categories

OJP is interested in funding projects that respond to the unmet civil legal needs of domestic violence victims within the special interest categories listed below. Proposed projects do not need to address multiple special interest categories to receive support. Applicants are not required to address any of these special interest categories; however, applications that do so will receive priority consideration for funding.

OJP encourages all applicants to develop programs to reach diverse and traditionally underserved populations, including racial, cultural, or ethnic minorities; the disabled; language minorities; or domestic violence victims in rural or inner-city areas. The following list does not imply any ordering of priorities among categories.

OJP is interested in programs that:

1. Establish or strengthen law school clinical programs that provide direct legal representation to domestic violence victims in civil cases.
   
   Law school clinical programs that provide representation for women seeking civil protection orders are eligible for consideration under this Special Interest Category. In addition, OJP is interested in supporting programs that provide a broader range of services, such as assistance with divorce, custody and visitation, access to benefits, landlord-tenant issues and matters related to employment, are also of interest to OJP. Law schools are encouraged to collaborate with
   local domestic violence victim advocacy organizations and shelters to develop programs that are responsive to victims' needs and include collaborative cross-training in advocacy and legal issues. OJP is also interested in law school clinical programs that develop a multi-disciplinary component (for example, a clinic that collaborates with a hospital).
   
   
2. Establish or strengthen direct legal services programs to make a broad range of civil legal assistance readily available to domestic violence victims.
   
   Direct legal services organizations that provide free or low-cost legal services are the first line of defense for victims of domestic violence. OJP seeks to support projects that would establish and staff a service center in a central location at which battered women can get an attorney's help in securing and enforcing protection orders, obtaining a divorce or separation, and resolving custody and visitation issues. OJP also is interested in programs that would reach underserved battered women.
   
   
3. Establish or strengthen legal advocacy programs operated out of or under the direct auspices of domestic violence victim advocacy organizations and shelters.
   
   OJP is interested in supporting shelters and advocacy organizations that have established or would like to establish legal assistance programs by arranging with one or more lawyers to provide services to resident and non-resident domestic violence victims, as well as projects that coordinate representation from among a cadre of lawyers who are willing to provide pro bono or low-cost legal representation for domestic violence victims. An essential component of such a program is sufficient, comprehensive, ongoing training that would ensure a consistent level of qualified representation by attorneys and/or legal advocates knowledgeable about the law and sensitive to the dynamics of battering relationships.
   
   
4. Establish collaborative efforts between domestic violence victim advocacy organizations and local agencies (such as police departments, prosecutors' offices, or the courts), local services or businesses (such as public housing agencies, hospitals, community and other health clinics, public schools, and public libraries) to provide on-site legal advocacy and/or legal assistance information in places battered women are likely to access.
   
   Attorneys and information about civil legal rights and remedies must be available and accessible in safe locations that battered women are likely to access. Some jurisdictions place a legal advocate in a community health clinic. Others place lawyers or legal advocates in a local police station or sheriff's office. Any program that will rely on non-lawyer legal advocates must ensure that appropriate supervision is provided in compliance with state and local Bar rules and applicable statutory limitations.
   
   
5. Establish or strengthen programs to recruit, train, and coordinate attorneys who will provide pro bono civil legal assistance to domestic violence victims.
   
   Grants may support the development and implementation of pro bono programs by Bar associations, including programs that recruit law firms that agree to train a certain number of attorneys, within the firm as a domestic violence "department"; the recruitment and training of lawyers from diverse practice areas who must agree to take a minimum number of domestic violence cases pro bono; or other means of coordinating the training and assignment of pro bono attorneys. Key components of such programs include the recruitment, training, and ongoing mentoring of attorneys, the mandatory acceptance of a minimum number of pro bono cases following the completion of training, as well as the referral and placement of domestic violence victims with attorneys who have completed the program.

C. Program Limitations

The Office of Justice Programs (OJP) recognizes that the client base of most direct legal services providers includes more than domestic violence victims. Any organization that has this broader client base must develop, with input from a local domestic violence victim advocacy organization, a conflict screening process that will ensure that no civil or criminal legal matter is handled for the abuser of a client.

Grant funds may not be used for certain activities. Prohibited activities include, but are not limited to:

• civil legal assistance to alleged batterers or, in the case of mutual arrest, to the primary aggressor;
• assistance to any individual in obtaining citizenship or permanent or temporary residency; or
• law reform initiatives, including, but not limited to, litigation.

Projects funded under this Program must serve primarily women victims of domestic violence.

ELIGIBILITY FOR AWARDS

Eligible grantees for this Program are non-profit organizations, either public or private, that provide legal services to victims of domestic violence or that work with victims of domestic violence who have civil legal needs. This includes such entities as law school legal clinics, legal aid or legal services programs, shelters for battered women, and Bar associations. To be eligible for a grant, applicants, other than domestic violence victim advocacy organizations, are strongly encouraged to enter into a collaborative working relationship with a nonprofit, non-governmental domestic violence victim advocacy organization from the community to be served.

For more in formation about this Grant Program, please contact:

Violence Against Women Grants Office
Office of Justice Programs
810 Seventh Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20531
Telephone: (202)307-6026
Fax: (202) 305-2589
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/vawgo

Top of page
View PDF Version
Return to Index