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Ensuring Equal Justice for All Louisiana Bar Foundation (LBF) has allocated $758,276 of its nearly $1.5 million 2006 grantee money to legal services corporations in Louisiana to help preserve, honor, and improve the state’s system of justice. In a single year, the LBF provided funding for legal services for more than 6,600 people. "The Louisiana Bar Foundation has been an important partner with the state’s legal services programs since the Foundation’s inception," said Joe Oelkers, Executive Director of Acadiana Legal Service Corporation. "The Foundation has provided significant funding to the programs which has been essential in fulfilling their mission of providing the poor with critical access to our civil justice system," he noted. All of Louisiana’s citizens are served by four regional legal services corporations; Southeast Louisiana Legal Services, located in New Orleans and directed by Brian Lenard and Mark Moreau; Legal Services of North Louisiana, located in Shreveport and directed by Alma Jones; Capital Area Legal Services Corporation, located in Baton Rouge and directed by James Wayne; Acadiana Legal Service Corporation, located in Lafayette and directed by Joe Oelkers. These four corporations advance the LBF’s objective to assure that every person in Louisiana has reasonable access to the justice system. These legal services corporations provide legal support to individuals in need of divorce, custody, visitation, child support, spouse abuse, adoptions, bankruptcy, income maintenance, Social Security assistance, and other civil legal problems. Imagine if every individual understood their rights, responsibilities and roles as citizens of our state. Louisiana would be the envy of the nation. This year the Louisiana Bar Foundation (LBF) is granting $59,555 to six law-related education (LRE) programs. These six programs bring teachers, community leaders and legal professionals together to teach legal rights and responsibilities to our youth. The LRE programs receiving grants this year are:
These organizations deserve applause for creating hands-on and creative educational programs that appeal to the youth of our state. They are planting seeds of legal justice and responsibility. Protecting and Empowering Against Abuse One out of every four women in a relationship will experience some sort of physical abuse in their lifetime-your mother, your sister, your daughter, your friend. "It can happen to anybody," said Dale Standifer, Executive Director of Metropolitan Battered Women’s Program. "Domestic violence cuts across all socioeconomic lines, it effects rich, poor, black, white, young, and old. It’s rampant," continued Standifer. Of the reported adult cases, 95% are women and 5% are men. Standifer’s oldest client was 80 years old, and had been in an abusive relationship for over 40 years. She commented to Standifer that she just did not heal as quickly as she used to. Her youngest client was a junior high school girl who answered her front door and was punched by her boyfriend. Most abusers hurt their partners between the neck and the knees so the bruises don’t show. "The bruises heal, but emotional damage to the victim, the ability to trust and to love, to do those things freely, can last a lifetime," says Standifer. In 2005, the Louisiana Bar Foundation awarded $147,744 in grants to 18 Domestic Violence agencies. These agencies enable people to leave abusive relationships and seek safety. Nearly 11,500 Louisiana residents were served by these agencies and more than one third of them needed legal services. The essential services provided by these 18 agencies includeproviding communities with a 24-hour crisis line, shelter for abused spouses and their children, legal services, education of domestic and dating violence, and establishing collaborative relationships with law enforcement, judges, clerks of court, and prosecutors. These agencies are doing what they can to break the cycle of violence. Since 1989, the LBF has awarded more than $3.5 million to help break the cycle of violence and offer hope to our future. The Louisiana Bar Foundation (LBF) has allocated $146,527 of its 2005 grant money to six legal service programs that handle specific areas of law for indigent citizens: AIDSLAW of Louisiana, Catholic Charities/Immigration Legal Services, Innocence Project New Orleans, Legal Aid Bureau, Louisiana Detention Project c/o Catholic Legal Immigration Network, and Mental Health Association in Louisiana. These funds will provide an estimated 3,500 poor persons with legal services. AIDSLAW of Louisiana operates statewide and provides direct legal assistance and educational clinics for HIV-positive individuals and others concerned with the legal problems of HIV-positive individuals. Catholic Charities/Immigration Legal Services offers direct immigration-related services for indigent aliens, primarily in asylum cases and battered immigrant spouse self-petitions. The Innocence Project is an organization who promotes the fair and equal administration of justice by investigating suspected cases of wrongful conviction of prisoners sentenced to life in prison and providing legal representation to indigent prisoners with provable cases of actual innocence. The Legal Aid Bureau is devoted to furnishing civil legal services to indigent residents in Louisiana’s most densely populated parishes. The Louisiana Detention Project aids desperate immigrants in need of legal services and who are being held in detention by the federal government in the state of Louisiana. The Mental Health Association is a wide-area legal advocacy program that performs exams for physician’s certificates for minors from six different facilities to identify those children who may need legal assistance. A primary objective of the LBF is to provide every person in Louisiana reasonable access to the justice system regardless of mental or physical condition, economic status, or type of legal problem. Through the funding of these Other Direct Legal Service Programs, the LBF is able to advance the reality of equal justice under the law. "Lawyers who have the heart-felt mission and passion to assist and provide access to justice to indigent citizens make pro bono work, they are the only ones that can provide the service," says Rachel Piercy, "I’d like lawyers to think of legal services as their first charity." Piercy is the Executive Director of The Pro Bono Project serving Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, St. Tammany and Washington parishes. The Louisiana Bar Foundation (LBF) has designated $108,215 of its 2005 grant money to six Louisiana pro bono programs; Baton Rouge Bar Foundation Pro Bono Project; Central Louisiana Pro Bono Project; Lafayette Parish Bar Foundation Pro Bono Project; Legal Services of North Louisiana Pro Bono Project; Northwest Louisiana Pro Bono Project; and The Pro Bono Project. Before Hurricanes Rita and Katrina Louisiana had 850,000 residents in poverty and this year approximately 25% or 212,500 of them will need the services of an attorney to help with one or more legal issues. Pro Bono Projects and Legal Service Corporations (LSC) are easily confused; both are non-profit organizations that provide access to the justice system to people who do not have the financial means to pay for legal services. The main difference is that one is a staff-based model and one is a volunteer program. . Louisiana has four LSC’s that furnish free legal services to the indigent in every parish of our state. LSC’s employ attorneys, paralegals and staff to function as a free law firm. Pro Bono Projects are volunteer programs, often operated by local bar associations and receive client referrals from their regional LSC’s, domestic violence programs or other agencies. Each Pro Bono Project is an agency that acts as a broker or clearinghouse between the community and volunteer lawyers. The LBF’s mission is to advance the reality of equal justice under the law. Pro Bono Projects are in precise accordance with the LBF mission as they work to assure every person in Louisiana reasonable access to the justice system. Pro Bono volunteers are fundamental in providing the poor with legal services. The Louisiana Bar Foundation (LBF) will grant $10,700 to Teen Courts this year. The Teen Court Grantees are: Iberia Teen Court, Teen Court of Calcasieu, Teen Court of Greater New Orleans and Teen Court of Morehouse. Teen Court organizations are an alternative to the juvenile justice system for first time misdemeanor offenders between the ages of 10-17. In these diversionary programs juveniles submit to trial and carry out community service and other sentences imposed by a jury of their peers. They also participate in court hearings for their peers as court clerks, bailiffs, jurors, prosecuting attorneys and defense attorneys. Local attorneys and judges serve as judges in the hearings for these programs. Teen Courts adhere to the LBF’s objectives to promote public awareness and understanding of the legal system and its goals, and supports and enhances law-related education in Louisiana. The approach of guidance and correction offered through Teen Courts hands-on experience with the justice system has a lower rate of recidivism than its juvenile justice counterparts. The success of these programs is evident as Teen Courts are one of the fastest growing crime intervention programs in the nation. CASA Programs: Providing Children a Voice in Court When an abused or neglected child is removed from their home they are put into "states custody". A judge can appoint a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer to establish a relationship with the child and to become the constant in the child’s life. The CASA volunteer serves as a fact-finder for the judge through researching case records and interviewing family members, teachers, doctors, lawyers, social workers and others. The CASA volunteer speaks directly to the judge on behalf of the child and submits a court report with a recommendation for a safe and stable future. The judge weighs the advice of the CASA volunteer, case worker and attorney to determine a permanent solution for the child. "CASA volunteers are people within the community who want to make a difference" said Courtney Arceneaux, "they are advocates of hope, trying to break the cycle of abuse." Arceneaux is the Executive Director of CASA of Terrebonne, Inc. in Houma which along with CASA of West Central Louisiana, Inc. receive funding through the LBF. Through CASA programs, the LBF helps provide children throughout Louisiana with a voice in court. Read more information about LBF Grantsmaking.
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