Law Students Extend Legal Support to Domestic Abuse Victims

 

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“I didn’t think my life would end this way.”

 

These are words Rachel Reames, president of ASU’s Advocacy Program for Battered Women, remembers hearing over and over again from an elderly woman who called the program’s resource hotline seeking legal help.

 

As she listened, Reames discovered the woman’s estranged husband was trying to keep her from living off of part of his pension. Using the hotline’s resource manual, Reames referred her to an attorney and protective services that could give her the help she needed. Weeks later, the woman called back to say the resources had helped – and thanked Reames for being the first person to acknowledge she was a victim of domestic abuse.

 

“It’s truly alarming how prevalent domestic violence is,” states Reames, an ASU student in her third year of law school. “One in five women will be a victim of domestic violence at some point in her life regardless of race, religion, education, or income. This violence is shown by exercising control over your partner in an unhealthy way – some people exercise that power physically, some emotionally, some sexually, some financially.”

 

Equally alarming is the fact that many domestic abuse victims do not know how to escape their harmful situations. Because of this, the Advocacy Program for Battered Women was formed by students in ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law to work with victims of domestic violence by visiting shelters and maintaining a resource hotline.

 

Currently, the program works with four domestic violence shelters in the Valley, including two Chrysalis Shelters, the Faith House, and the Autumn House. Each shelter is also aided by an attorney who provides domestic abuse victims with pro bono legal consultations and works with law students during shelter visits.

 

While law students cannot represent domestic abuse victims, they can interview shelter residents and inform the attorney about each victim’s legal issues. The attorney then uses this information to provide victims with appropriate legal advice. Depending on the nature of the issues raised, law students can also occasionally advise the victims.

 

“The law students provide domestic abuse victims with very valuable information,” says Tere Dillard, Client Advocate Supervisor at the Chrysalis Shelter. “A lot of times, our women don’t have the resources to hire an attorney, so the legal advice they get from ASU law students and our lawyer is the only information they can get.”

 

Law students also find that visiting shelters helps them develop practical legal abilities, including client counseling and interviewing that enable them to be sensitive to the emotional issues of domestic abuse victims while guiding victims through the legal issues of their situation.

 

“Volunteering for the program gives you a practical perspective,” states Reames who has worked with the program for three years. “Law school teaches you rules about the legal system, but the program helps you see how these rules are applied in the real world.”

 

Victims of domestic violence are also encouraged to contact the program through its 24/7 resource hotline, where they can leave messages for volunteers and receive legal help from an ASU law student within twenty-four hours. Law students can also refer victims to resources that help with housing, food, medical care, and counseling.

 

“The resource hotline lets us extend the same resources we give to people in shelters to people who haven’t been able to leave their home or people who are out of the shelter and facing a divorce or child custody proceeding,” says Reames. “A victim may not be able to come and meet with us in person, but may be able to call us by pay phone.”

 

Notably, several people who use the resource hotline are male victims of domestic abuse.

 

“We handle a lot of calls from men who need to find out how to get counseling, file for divorce, or get an order of protection,” states Amanda Hudson, a second year law student who volunteers as the hotline’s coordinator. “Some are literally scared to death of their wives and girlfriends but feel uncomfortable talking about it.”

 

Although most of the program’s volunteers are female law students, the program welcomes and thrives from volunteers of different genders and educational backgrounds.

 

“We’re actively looking for any students who are bilingual in Spanish and English,” says Reames. “Many of the people we visit in shelters prefer communicating in Spanish, so having volunteers who can function as translators would be very helpful.”

 

Reames also finds that getting men to volunteer in the program can be a challenge – but notes the male volunteers who go to the shelters perform a valuable function.

 

“The male volunteers are extremely effective because they give women who have been abused by men the opportunity to see a man who will respect and help her, which aids in the recovery process,” she states.

 

For many of the volunteers, being a part of the program has been a rewarding experience both professionally and personally.

 

“You gain more from the hands-on experience of this program than you would from just reading law book after law book,” says Hudson, who emphasizes she gets a lot of pleasure out of helping people. “I’ve learned how to talk with clients and appreciate the emotional issues they’re having while addressing their legal issues.  

 

For helpful referrals to legal and community resources for domestic violence victims, please call the Advocacy Program for Battered Women’s 24/7 hotline at 480-965-0059. Domestic violence victims are also encouraged to call CONTACS, a 24-hour, bilingual, hotline that provides up-to-the-minute shelter bed availability for victims of domestic violence, at 1-800-799-7739.

 

During the fall 2006 semester, the program’s 140 student volunteers aided over 300 domestic abuse victims. The program is always seeking new volunteers and students who have questions about or are interested in volunteering for the Advocacy Program for Battered Women should email the program’s president Rachel Reames at Rachel.Reames@asu.edu

 

ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law offers a number of pro bono programs that help students gain legal experience in a variety of areas. Find more information on these programs at their web site.

 

Michael Jung, ASU in the Community feature writer
Michael.Jung@asu.edu
(480) 965-0335