Legal Assistance
NCVLI has a long history of helping crime victims secure access to justice through no-cost legal services. We do this through partnerships with other legal service providers across the country and our Crime Victim Litigation Clinic.
Victims’ Rights Legal Fellows
A key part of NCVLI’s commitment to increasing access to justice for crime victims is working with legal fellows across the country as they acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to meet victims’ varied legal needs. Legal Fellows are new to the field of victim law either because they only recently entered the legal profession or because they only recently transitioned from another area of law.
Overview
NCVLI provides fellows with extensive training and technical assistance, mentorship, resources, and other support as they begin or transition their legal careers in Victim Law. Fellows can have a tremendous impact on the lives of survivors; some examples from the work of Fellows with whom NCVLI has recently worked:
● A Fellow sat in on a law enforcement interview with their client, even though law enforcement had initially told them they could not be in the room. The victim later shared how empowered and supported they felt.
● While attending a status hearing in the criminal case, a Fellow heard the defense make an unexpected motion to release the defendant. The Fellow stood up, asked to be heard, and argued their client’s opposition to release. While the release outcome was what the client hoped for, they were grateful for the Fellow’s effort to make room for their voice to be heard in the criminal case.
● A Fellow who represented a child-sex trafficking victim filed a successful motion for restitution that included recovery for the victim’s future lost income and resulted in an award that was larger than the amount the prosecutor had requested.
NCVLI’s work with attorney and law student fellows includes sponsoring externally-funded legal fellows as part of NCVLI’s legal team and acting as the designated training and technical assistance (TTA) provider of fellows hosted by other organizations. For law school students, recent graduates, and attorneys transitioning to new careers who are seeking to have NCVLI sponsor their externally-funded fellowship focused on victims’ rights, please contact ncvli@lclark.edu.
Crime Victim Advocacy Program (CVAP)
Project Background
In recent years, NCVLI has undertaken two victims’ rights legal fellowship programs in partnership with Equal Justice Works (EJW), through funding from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime (OVC).
The first of these was the Crime Victims Justice Corps (CVJC) that placed more than 60 attorney fellows and 40 law student fellows in nonprofit organizations across the country to represent victims of crimes, from 2018-2020. CVJC fellows delivered civil legal assistance and rights enforcement legal assistance to victims, including victims human trafficking, campus sexual assault, hate crimes, fraud, and identity theft.
Building on the lessons learned from CVJC, the second and current effort was launched – the Crime Victims Advocacy Program (CVAP). CVAP is funded by a $5 million award from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime and once again NCVLI is the dedicated training and technical assistance provider.
Project Details
CVAP fellows provide legal assistance to victims across the country, with an emphasis on increasing access to such assistance for victims in underserved Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. There are 18 CVAP attorney fellows and 18 law student fellows placed at legal services organizations across the country. These fellows represent victims in a myriad of contexts, including as they seek enforcement of their rights during criminal investigation and prosecution. They provide victims with direct representation, brief advice, and referrals, depending on capacity and the needs and priorities of their victim-clients. The fellows also conduct outreach, community education, and partnership-building activities in the communities in which they work to increase underserved communities’ capacity to effectively support victims’ legal and other needs.
As the designated CVAP training and technical assistance provider, NCVLI leverages its expertise in victim law to help the fellows develop the knowledge and skills.
During the first year of the program, NCVLI responded to technical assistance requests from fellows on a range of victims’ legal issues, including victims’ rights to restitution; to access case information; to exclude a correction officer from the room during the sexual assault forensic examination of a juvenile being held in custody; and to access pre-arrest police reports for the purposes of immigration applications. During this same period, NCVLI trained the Fellows on various topics, including: victims’ rights; trauma-informed lawyering; advocating with cultural humility; the fundamentals of privacy law; and providing holistic legal services through partnerships with other attorneys.
NCVLI also ensures that CVAP fellows have access to a robust collection of written and video resources on victim law and rights representation, and, In coordination with EJW, supports fellows’ supervisors by working with them to address the unique challenges and opportunities that can arise when supervising new or transitioning attorneys.
To learn more about the CVAP program visit EJW’s website and see the details of each of the fellows’ projects.
This program is supported by an award under 15POVC-22-GK-01116-NONF, awarded by the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Attorney Fellow FAQs
Fellow Profiles
COMING SOON!
RISE – Rights in Systems Enforced Project
The vision of the Rights in Systems Enforced (RISE) Project is a national network of legal clinics providing legal representation to assist victims in asserting and seeking enforcement of their rights in criminal cases, and, as necessary during and in support of such representation, provide those victims representation on collateral civil legal matters arising from the victimization. RISE positions NCVLI as the national training and technical assistance provider to these clinics.
Wraparound Victim Legal Assistance Networks
The vision of the Victim Legal Assistance Networks is that there is “No Wrong Door” for a victim seeking legal services. If a victim calls an organization that is not able to meet a specific need, the victim will still be assisted and connected with an organization that can help. This Project ended in 2019. Related resources and replication tools remain available.
Crime Victim Litigation Clinic
The Crime Victims Litigation Clinic (CVLC) at Lewis & Clark Law School offers second and third year law students the unique opportunity to be on the cutting edge of criminal law and procedure. In the CVLC, students will have the chance to work on a variety of casework and policy issues touching on sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking, homicide, trafficking, “revenge porn”, “child pornography”, identity theft/fraud and much more. Over the years CVLC students have worked on high profile cases including those with defendants Kobe Bryant, Bill Cosby, Jeffrey Epstein, and Hope Solo.
