March - April 2003

Cover

The March-April issue features articles on custody and visitation, language-minority clients, and representing immigrant clients.

 
  • Opening Our Doors to Language-Minority Clients

    For quality representation of a client population that is becoming more diverse linguistically, legal aid programs must find a way to meet clients' language needs and must recognize that language access to public services is increasingly being understood as a civil rights issue. The recent experience of Community Legal Services in Philadelphia as it assessed its clients' language needs and adopted a policy to meet them is illustrative.

    By Paul M. Uyehara

  • Representing Immigrants: What Do LSC Regulations Allow?

    Immigrant populations around the country continue to grow, and immigrants are more likely than the native-born population to be poor. This disproportionate poverty makes immigrants more likely than others to be financially eligible for legal services. Regulations of the Legal Services Corporation detail when the programs receiving its funding may represent immigrants. Particular rules apply to the representation of citizens and nationals, lawful permanent residents, refugees, and victims of domestic violence.

    By Sara Campos

  • Internet-Based Legal Research for the New Legal Services Attorney

    Through the Internet, the legal services community has access to the collective expertise of their colleagues and to substantive legal information. For advocates, the Web site of the National Center on Poverty Law, www.povertylaw.org, is the online gateway to such information. The Poverty Law Library, recent CLEARINGHOUSE REVIEW articles, Poverty Law News, and links to other sites of the Internet are found on the Center's Web site.

    By Michelle Nicolet

  • What's Up?

    Using cutting-edge technology the National Center on Poverty Law's Web site specifically meets the information needs of legal aid and pro bono attorneys through a comprehensive access to poverty law and policy research information.

  • Custody and Visitation: Considerations for Every Attorney Retained by a Survivor of Domestic Violence

    While studies show that batterers are very likely to prevail in custody proceedings against survivors of domestic violence, advocates representing survivors in child custody and visitation litigation can resort to innovative legal strategies.

    By Caitlin Glass, Tamara Kuennen, and Sharon Lopez