CIVIL ADVOCACY PROGRAM

 Read more about our:

ELDER LAW INITIATIVE including the Community Partnership for Improved Long term Care 

CHILD HEALTH ADVOCACY PROJECT (CHAP),a partnership with UVA's Children's Hospital and Law School

VIRGINIA INSTITUTIONALIZED PERSONS (VIP) PROJECT
 FORECLOSURE AND EQUITY THEFT PREVENTION PROJECT
The Civil Advocacy Program (CAP) provides assistance to individuals and families in Central Virginia who face legal dilemmas related to housing, public benefits, employment, consumer protection, or the rights of the elderly, and engages in systematic advocacy with and on behalf of low-income people in these issue areas.  To read about other organizations working on these issues and to access information you can use, click here.

Basic Services 

Family stock

Consumer Law   We advocate on behalf of disadvantaged clients who have been targeted by  merchants and lenders. Our clients are people who are sold defective cars, elderly homeowners pressured into risky mortgages, and payday loan borrowers who face abusive and illegal collection practices.  In addition to our client representation, Legal Aid participates in local, state, and national legal reform activities, such as the Virginia Partnership to Encourage Responsible Lending (VaPERL).

Employment Law  We represent workers in disputes involving discrimination, unpaid wages, Family and  Medical Leave Act, and other employment law issues, and assist them with unemployment insurance cases.  We also participate in local and statewide efforts to foster increases in minimum and living wage standards, and for other policies that further workers’ rights.

Housing Law  Legal Aid Justice Center provides representation to individuals in their efforts to access and maintain decent, safe, and affordable housing.  The staff also represents local resident associations fighting for the preservation of affordable housing and for the rights of their fellow tenants in local housing policy.  In Richmond, Legal Aid staff coordinates the Housing Unit, which engages dozens of pro bono private attorneys each year in representing tenants. 

Mental Health Law  We provide representation to institutionalized persons through our  mental health law clinic work, and access to appropriate mental health services forms a major part of our Virginia Institutionalized Persons (VIP) project (see below.)

Public Benefits and Disability Rights Law  We advise individuals through our Charlottesville office on eligibility for public benefits and represent clients whose benefits are wrongfully denied, terminated, reduced, or otherwise placed at risk.  Our work helps clients obtain and keep cash benefits, food assistance, health coverage, and other necessities of life.  In addition, Legal Aid Justice Center provides representation for children and adults with disabilities and works with state and local officials to obtain necessary services for these clients.

 

Cross-Cutting Initiatives

 
Elder Law  In our work visiting area senior centers to advise groups and individuals on their rights, we saw a need to address more proactively the issues surrounding long-term care for elderly members of our community. Legal Aid Justice Center helped to establish the Community Partnership for Improved Long-Term Care and Regional Family Council, which has produced a guide to selecting a nursing home, and sponsored successful community programs.   Learn more.

Child Health Advocacy Program (CHAP) In a new program initiated in partnership with the University of Virginia Medical Center and the University of Virginia School of Law, Legal Aid Justice Center does direct outreach to people whose health problems may also involve legal issues.  Doctors or in-house social workers at the Medical Center facilitate contact between interested clients and LAJC staff, and this system provides increased access to legal services tailored to the kinds of legal issues patients face.  LAJC is now working to replicate the success of CHAP in Richmond.  Learn more.   Read the CHAP brochure.  Lea el panfleto del CHAP.  

Legal Education and Assistance for Families (LEAF)  With support of the local United Way, we initiated the LEAF program, which specifically addresses the unmet health and health-related needs of low-income families, particularly those with children who are disabled or at-risk or that have other disabled household members. The proactive LEAF program was created to educate this underserved population about legal avenues available for addressing the challenges they face, and to handle the casework that flows from that outreach. 

Virginia Institutionalized Persons (VIP) Project has as its mission is to investigate the conditions of Virginia’s prisons and mental institutions and, through political advocacy and legal action, to increase accountability within the system to ensure that Virginia operates its institutions consistent with constitutional standards and human dignity. Learn more.

 

The Civil Advocacy Program at the Legal Aid Justice Center has many generous supporters, including Legal Services Corporation of Virginia, the University of Virginia School of Law, the  Jefferson Area Board for the Aging, the Virginia Law Foundation, the Charlottesville-Albemarle Bar Association, the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, local governments, private foundations and individual donors.