Together, we move the needle towards justice!
Your support enables us to fight for justice for and with those who need it most. If you believe that “justice for all” means equal and accessible justice for everyone, please join our efforts by making a tax-deductible contribution.
Thank you!
YOUR SUPPORT AT WORK
Last year, LAJC delivered legal services to 1,700 individuals resulting in over $3.5 million in direct financial benefits, and provided know-your-rights information to thousands more. In addition to the individual outcomes, we moved forward myriad campaigns and efforts to address systemic injustices.
Economic Justice: Making it Less Expensive to be Poor.
Settled litigation against Richmond’s Redevelopment and Housing Authority (RRHA) over RRHA’s practice of systematically overcharging residents for utilities. The settlement paid current residents over $1M and implemented a more reasonable utility allowance going forward.
JustChildren: Building Communities where all Children Thrive.
Advocated for and helped ensure two major pieces of school discipline reform that together reduce the length of long-term suspensions and restrict the use of suspension for elementary school children. Helped secure the closure of one of Virginia’s remaining two juvenile prisons, while ensuring that the resulting gets reinvested in a continuum of services for justice-involved youth and their families.
Immigrant Advocacy: Protecting Immigrants’ Lives and Livelihoods.
We met the family separation crisis head-on: helping 20 NoVA-bound parents to reunite with their children and filing one of a trio of lawsuits nationwide that won a second chance to apply for asylum for over 400 parent survivors of family separation. We are currently challenging the prolonged detention of refugee children and deportation of family members who come forward to sponsor them out of detention.
Civil Rights & Racial Justice: Fighting the Criminalization of Poverty
Won a critical victory in a five-year battle to end the draconian Virginia law that automatically suspends the driver’s licenses of people too poor to pay their court fees. Being able to drive legally will restore dignity to and transform the lives of up to one million people who were stuck in an endless spiral of debt, unemployment, and incarceration for driving illegally.
Pro Bono
Helped build JusticeServer, an online case management prototype that allows far greater outreach to pro bono lawyers, thus increasing the number of clients served and better matching clients with lawyers specializing in their type of case.