Few rape survivors seek help from formal social systems after their assault. The purpose of this study was to examine factors that prevent survivors from seeking help from the legal, medical, and mental health systems and rape crisis centers. In this study, 29 female rape survivors who did not seek any postassault formal help were interviewed…

In 2005 New Zealand signalled its intention to reform legal services by contracting research on disabled people's priorities in Auckland. The Legal Services Agency reported that because many disabled people do not have access to necessary legal services in New Zealand their priorities should be identified. This article suggests that the social…

Family mediation is described as "helping to find a solution that meets the needs of you, your partner and any children, and that you all feel is fair". There is a growing consensus that, in comparison with court hearings, family mediation improves outcomes for parents and children, in cases of child contact and residence dispute.…

Connecticut Women's Education and Legal Fund (CWEALF) is a statewide non-profit organization dedicated to empowering women, girls and their families to achieve equal opportunities in their personal and professional lives. Members are guided by their commitment to feminism, diversity, empowerment, personal responsibility and self-sufficiency,…

As the evidence will show, paralegals have become a vital part of today's law offices. More law offices are hiring paralegals to reduce costs and increase the availability and efficiency of legal services, thus placing these important legal-team players in high demand. There are a variety of paths to becoming a paralegal or legal assistant. The…

This guide is intended to give individual school board directors an introduction to some of the legal issues they may encounter in their board service. This material is not intended to answer every question, even in the subject matter areas they cover. This guide is merely intended to alert directors to the legal issues that they will encounter…

A month after the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001, an advisory group met in Little Rock, Arkansas, to begin the development of the Law, Public Safety, Corrections and Security (LPSCS) career cluster. At that time there were five pathways of what was then called the Law and Public Safety cluster--fire and emergency services, law enforcement,…

Each night, around 20,000 people--both adults and children--make the streets of Dhaka (the capital city of Bangladesh) their home. Living amongst the noise, rubbish, and traffic, thousands of families walk down the streets of Dhaka, looking for a safe place to rest for just a few hours each night. Trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, the…

Throughout the election year 2009, the Association for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ) asked the question: What about the kids? This annual report discusses how ACNJ placed New Jersey's children first by: (1) Building its state-wide support base--ACNJ's Make Kids Count NJ E-Advocacy network engaged a distribution list of nearly six thousand members…

The objective of the study is to assess the impact of emergency department (ED) intimate partner violence (IPV) counseling and resource referrals on patient-perceived safety and safety planning. ED patients with risk factors were offered consultation with trained IPV advocacy counselors who completed safety assessments, provided resource…

Given the extent to which our society values education, it is perplexing to learn that we continue to struggle to provide all children, especially homeless children, an adequate education. This troubling issue is the focus of this paper. Specifically, this paper will center around two basic questions; 1) what has the legal system done to ensure…

This article describes the Model Standards Project (MSP), a collaboration of Legal Services for Children and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. The MSP developed a set of model professional standards governing the care of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth in out-of-home care. This article provides an overview of the…

The booklet discusses the legal rights of the retarded focusing on the question of advocacy. A number of issues relating to setting priorities in legal services programs are examined with respect to the retarded. Resources for legal advocacy for the retarded are listed and described, including community legal services programs, state advocacy…

Lack of consensus in literature of advocacy is demonstrated in the dichotomy between the "best interest" and "pure advocacy" approaches. This lack has resulted in differential interpretations of how practitioners should implement the advocacy role in legal settings and has created ethical problems for practitioners. (Author)