By: Liz Whipple, Staff Attorney, Director of AVLF Safe Families Office
Each year, the Violence Policy Center in D.C. releases a study “When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2009 Homicide Data.” Georgia is ranked sixth in the nation for its rate of women killed by men. Sixth!
I was recently told you can’t control the actions of others, you can only control your own actions. As an attorney, never mind an attorney who does domestic violence work, this is not something I like to hear. I don’t want to join a drum circle, I don’t want to meditate, and I don’t want to let things just be.
Controlling things is precisely what I want. I want an abuser to stop hurting a loved one. I want a client to leave her abuser and never look back. I want a grown person to love their elderly parent, not terrorize them in their own home. I want my clients’ young children to emerge emotionally unscathed from a home filled with strife. I want the judge to grant every protective order I bring in front of her. Bottomline – I want to win.
Sometimes, some of these things happen. Occasionally, I take the credit. Much of the time, however, I am brought back to that much-resisted reality: I can only do as much as I can do. Realistically, sometimes that’s enough, sometimes it isn’t. Even when it is “enough”, the small part I’ve played in someone’s life is exactly that – a small part. I have to be happy with that, and let them deal with the entirely, hopefully equipped with a tool that can make dealing with that entirely a bit easier.
Losing a protective order case is a hard thing to accept when you believe your client needs an order to stay safe. There’s simply no getting around it. But volunteer attorneys provide so much to their clients, even if the petition itself is denied. The simple presence of someone there to advocate for you can strengthen a victim’s resolution to stay safe from their abuser. While it’s always incredible to have a person share in your victory, suffering a loss with someone is an entirely different experience, and is far more likely to strengthen one’s resolve to stay safe.
I am in Protective Order Court every Monday and Friday. I see the difference attorneys make in that courtroom, and it affirms my belief that we need to provide representation now more than ever. Attorneys don’t win every case. Each case they don’t win is more of a reason their presence is so important. Pro se clients are alone and facing an intimidating process, and attorneys can make a world of difference to a case. Coming to court alone can often be a barrier to a client pursuing a protective order – who wouldn’t be afraid of facing their abuser alone, in a setting as intimidating as a courtroom, with the prospect of telling intimate details of your life to a room full of people. Things we take for granted are often beyond the abilities of a pro se client – negotiating consent orders, presenting any evidence, even telling a coherent story.
The harsher the numbers get, the tougher an order becomes to obtain, the greater our obligation is to make sure victims have voices in our courts. Attorneys, especially volunteer attorneys, simply have to be there. I may vent, I may (occasionally) cry, but I am going to be there. Thanks to those of you who are there with me.
Monday, October 17, 2011
The Value of Volunteering
By: Steven Cayton, Esq.
I graduated law school in 2009 and went to work for an attorney I had interned with both summers of law school. I quickly discovered that there is still so very much I needed to learn and more I wanted to do. I enjoyed the consumer defense work I was doing, who doesn’t enjoy suing abusive debt collectors, but I wanted to do additional work to help those in need. In my endeavor to branch out I started taking numerous CLEs, including those outside of my practice area and that was how I found out about AVLF. I started with the Guardian ad Litem program in the fall of 2010 and learned how rewarding these cases can be. Its a wonderful feeling knowing that you can be a neutral participant whose only there to represent the best interest of the children in the case. I was lucky to get a case that was fairly straightforward and where both parents were reasonable to deal with.
After working the GAL program I knew I wanted to do more and did the training for the domestic violence program at AVLF. These cases are about getting the protection of the courts for the victims of domestic violence through obtaining a Temporary Protective Order. My first case quickly taught me the importance of having trained attorneys to help these victims. Since taking that first case I have averaged one or two TPO cases a month and they are incredibly rewarding, but can also have an element of frustration. I have spoken with a number of domestic violence clients who exhibit the classic signs of this crime including rationalizing the behavior of their abuser. Many tell me how the person is really good at their heart, was just having a rough time, only gets this way when they are intoxicated, etc. It is a bit heartbreaking when the client on the other end of the phone is trying to tell you why they don’t need your service because they have worked things out with their abuser. In one case I flat out told the client based on her facts that I was sure she would end up dead. Cases that severe aren’t that common and are easily outweighed by the rewards of a client who does follow through and the look on your case when you are successful in getting a TPO.
They say you learn the most from failure. In one particular case of mine I found the adage true but also that it was the most rewarding case. To put the case in perspective you have to keep in mind that the lifespan of most of these cases, from assignment to hearing, is 1-3 weeks. This particular “favorite” TPO case of mine took three months. The short version is that the respondent was actively avoiding service. Have any of you ever called a party’s attorney and have the lawyer on the other end of the phone tell you he isn’t my client? Needless to say this went on for a bit. Finally the respondent started a new job and we found out when and where and his second day on the job he was served with the ex parte 30 day temporary protective order for domestic violence. We ended up being unsuccessful in court, largely because of the delay from the last time of abuse until we were finally able to get the hearing. Why then do I call this one of my favorite cases? The main reason is because my client was so happy to have gotten a day in court in which the one who hurt and harassed my client. My client’s story was told, and my client felt vindicated by that. The second reason I consider this one of my favorite cases is because it was simply such a tremendous learning experience. TPO hearings are like mini trials. You give a brief opening and closing, direct and cross examine witness, enter evidence, and get a ruling that is essentially like a verdict. The best part is that it happens usually within 30-60 minutes. That’s a lot of experience for a new lawyer to gain in an hour.
Volunteering with AVLF has many benefits. From the learning experience to the emotional rewards of helping those in need through one of AVLF’s many programs it really is food for the soul. The staff members at AVLF - Liz, Toni, Amanda, Lila and others - keep telling me thank you for the volunteering that I have done. In reality it is I who should be thanking them, and not just for all the times they answer my numerous questions. They and AVLF have provided me with experiences that I value more than money, and that is why I do my pro bono work through AVLF.
I graduated law school in 2009 and went to work for an attorney I had interned with both summers of law school. I quickly discovered that there is still so very much I needed to learn and more I wanted to do. I enjoyed the consumer defense work I was doing, who doesn’t enjoy suing abusive debt collectors, but I wanted to do additional work to help those in need. In my endeavor to branch out I started taking numerous CLEs, including those outside of my practice area and that was how I found out about AVLF. I started with the Guardian ad Litem program in the fall of 2010 and learned how rewarding these cases can be. Its a wonderful feeling knowing that you can be a neutral participant whose only there to represent the best interest of the children in the case. I was lucky to get a case that was fairly straightforward and where both parents were reasonable to deal with.
After working the GAL program I knew I wanted to do more and did the training for the domestic violence program at AVLF. These cases are about getting the protection of the courts for the victims of domestic violence through obtaining a Temporary Protective Order. My first case quickly taught me the importance of having trained attorneys to help these victims. Since taking that first case I have averaged one or two TPO cases a month and they are incredibly rewarding, but can also have an element of frustration. I have spoken with a number of domestic violence clients who exhibit the classic signs of this crime including rationalizing the behavior of their abuser. Many tell me how the person is really good at their heart, was just having a rough time, only gets this way when they are intoxicated, etc. It is a bit heartbreaking when the client on the other end of the phone is trying to tell you why they don’t need your service because they have worked things out with their abuser. In one case I flat out told the client based on her facts that I was sure she would end up dead. Cases that severe aren’t that common and are easily outweighed by the rewards of a client who does follow through and the look on your case when you are successful in getting a TPO.
They say you learn the most from failure. In one particular case of mine I found the adage true but also that it was the most rewarding case. To put the case in perspective you have to keep in mind that the lifespan of most of these cases, from assignment to hearing, is 1-3 weeks. This particular “favorite” TPO case of mine took three months. The short version is that the respondent was actively avoiding service. Have any of you ever called a party’s attorney and have the lawyer on the other end of the phone tell you he isn’t my client? Needless to say this went on for a bit. Finally the respondent started a new job and we found out when and where and his second day on the job he was served with the ex parte 30 day temporary protective order for domestic violence. We ended up being unsuccessful in court, largely because of the delay from the last time of abuse until we were finally able to get the hearing. Why then do I call this one of my favorite cases? The main reason is because my client was so happy to have gotten a day in court in which the one who hurt and harassed my client. My client’s story was told, and my client felt vindicated by that. The second reason I consider this one of my favorite cases is because it was simply such a tremendous learning experience. TPO hearings are like mini trials. You give a brief opening and closing, direct and cross examine witness, enter evidence, and get a ruling that is essentially like a verdict. The best part is that it happens usually within 30-60 minutes. That’s a lot of experience for a new lawyer to gain in an hour.
Volunteering with AVLF has many benefits. From the learning experience to the emotional rewards of helping those in need through one of AVLF’s many programs it really is food for the soul. The staff members at AVLF - Liz, Toni, Amanda, Lila and others - keep telling me thank you for the volunteering that I have done. In reality it is I who should be thanking them, and not just for all the times they answer my numerous questions. They and AVLF have provided me with experiences that I value more than money, and that is why I do my pro bono work through AVLF.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
AVLF Welcomes Skadden Fellow, Lindsey Siegel
By: Lindsey Siegel, Staff Attorney, Skadden Fellow, AVLF Domestic Violence Project
Two summers ago, when I was a law student intern with the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation’s Safe Families Office, I worked with Silvia, a Spanish-speaking woman who came to the office for a protection order. Silvia’s husband had broken her arm the night before and she didn’t feel safe staying at her house. Nor did she have any family or friends with whom she could stay. With the help of the courthouse interpreter, I helped her fill out the petition and secure a coveted space at a local domestic violence shelter. After the judge signed the protection order, though, Silvia wanted to go home to get some clothes and personal items. I told her I was afraid for her safety, but she insisted, so I waited for her to return so we could drive to the shelter’s drop-off point. When she didn’t return after several hours, I figured she lost her chance at leaving, and I couldn’t stop worrying about her. Then, two weeks later I was attending the 12-month protection order hearings and I spotted Silvia in the courtroom. She wasn’t alone, though—she had with her not only an advocate, but also a pro bono attorney. After her hearing (where she did obtain her 12-month protection order), I went up to her in the hallway to find out how she was doing. As it turns out, she had found space at a different shelter soon after she came to our office, and the advocates there had connected her with the attorney for her case. I couldn’t believe how resourceful Silvia had been all along her journey escape her abusive husband—all the while being new to the area and having a language barrier. I was so impressed, and the experience reminded me why I enjoy working with such strong women.
When I heard a few months later about how recent law graduates can obtain Skadden fellowships to design new public interest projects, I immediately thought of AVLF and the Safe Families Office. I knew that it was the goal of the office to expand and provide more holistic legal services to survivors, and a fellowship seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so. In creating a project to address some of the most pressing needs, we looked to a study AVLF conducted in 2009 with domestic violence service providers in Atlanta. There, housing and employment arose as two of the areas with biggest gaps in legal services.
Unfortunately, many women are not as lucky as Silvia, and instead must choose between staying with abusers or homelessness. Many times, survivors of abuse find it difficult to maintain their housing and their employment while they try to escape the violence. It is no surprise then that domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness in the U.S. In Atlanta in particular, between 22% and 57% of homeless women have reported that domestic violence was the direct cause of their homelessness. For low-income women, most of whom rent, the problem is exacerbated by the fact that housing managers and landlords will sometimes evict the entire family after an abuser is violent or will impose high penalties if a survivor wants to terminate her lease early to seek safety. An employer with an abused employee can also create barriers to a survivor maintaining the economic self-sufficiency needed to escape the abuse. Employees facing violence at home often need to miss days of work to hide the signs of abuse, placate abusers, or attend court hearings, and many lose their jobs as a result. Further, a survivor’s job may be in jeopardy when her partner or husband shows up or calls her office repeatedly.
To address some of these barriers, the fellowship project we’ve created will provide housing- and employment-based legal services to survivors of domestic violence. Through the project, I aim to enforce the rights that survivors have, and if necessary, create new precedent where gaps in the law exist. It seems only apt, then, that we launch the fellowship project during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a time where advocates bring this all-too-pervasive problem to light and discuss solutions to eradicating it. Two years after that summer internship, I’m thrilled to be a new member of the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation staff and I’m eager to take AVLF’s work in new directions with this fellowship project. I hope to reach clients who are facing barriers, but who otherwise may not have found people to advocate for their rights. Most of all, I’m excited to rejoin this movement and put my newfound legal education to work for those escaping abuse.
Two summers ago, when I was a law student intern with the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation’s Safe Families Office, I worked with Silvia, a Spanish-speaking woman who came to the office for a protection order. Silvia’s husband had broken her arm the night before and she didn’t feel safe staying at her house. Nor did she have any family or friends with whom she could stay. With the help of the courthouse interpreter, I helped her fill out the petition and secure a coveted space at a local domestic violence shelter. After the judge signed the protection order, though, Silvia wanted to go home to get some clothes and personal items. I told her I was afraid for her safety, but she insisted, so I waited for her to return so we could drive to the shelter’s drop-off point. When she didn’t return after several hours, I figured she lost her chance at leaving, and I couldn’t stop worrying about her. Then, two weeks later I was attending the 12-month protection order hearings and I spotted Silvia in the courtroom. She wasn’t alone, though—she had with her not only an advocate, but also a pro bono attorney. After her hearing (where she did obtain her 12-month protection order), I went up to her in the hallway to find out how she was doing. As it turns out, she had found space at a different shelter soon after she came to our office, and the advocates there had connected her with the attorney for her case. I couldn’t believe how resourceful Silvia had been all along her journey escape her abusive husband—all the while being new to the area and having a language barrier. I was so impressed, and the experience reminded me why I enjoy working with such strong women.
When I heard a few months later about how recent law graduates can obtain Skadden fellowships to design new public interest projects, I immediately thought of AVLF and the Safe Families Office. I knew that it was the goal of the office to expand and provide more holistic legal services to survivors, and a fellowship seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so. In creating a project to address some of the most pressing needs, we looked to a study AVLF conducted in 2009 with domestic violence service providers in Atlanta. There, housing and employment arose as two of the areas with biggest gaps in legal services.
Unfortunately, many women are not as lucky as Silvia, and instead must choose between staying with abusers or homelessness. Many times, survivors of abuse find it difficult to maintain their housing and their employment while they try to escape the violence. It is no surprise then that domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness in the U.S. In Atlanta in particular, between 22% and 57% of homeless women have reported that domestic violence was the direct cause of their homelessness. For low-income women, most of whom rent, the problem is exacerbated by the fact that housing managers and landlords will sometimes evict the entire family after an abuser is violent or will impose high penalties if a survivor wants to terminate her lease early to seek safety. An employer with an abused employee can also create barriers to a survivor maintaining the economic self-sufficiency needed to escape the abuse. Employees facing violence at home often need to miss days of work to hide the signs of abuse, placate abusers, or attend court hearings, and many lose their jobs as a result. Further, a survivor’s job may be in jeopardy when her partner or husband shows up or calls her office repeatedly.
To address some of these barriers, the fellowship project we’ve created will provide housing- and employment-based legal services to survivors of domestic violence. Through the project, I aim to enforce the rights that survivors have, and if necessary, create new precedent where gaps in the law exist. It seems only apt, then, that we launch the fellowship project during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a time where advocates bring this all-too-pervasive problem to light and discuss solutions to eradicating it. Two years after that summer internship, I’m thrilled to be a new member of the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation staff and I’m eager to take AVLF’s work in new directions with this fellowship project. I hope to reach clients who are facing barriers, but who otherwise may not have found people to advocate for their rights. Most of all, I’m excited to rejoin this movement and put my newfound legal education to work for those escaping abuse.
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