Community Justice and Legal Assistance Clinic Wraps Up Year of Helping Families in Distress

The RWU School of Law Community Justice and Legal Assistance Clinic (CJLA) had a great 2008-2009 academic year.  The clinic, in its final operating year, focused on family law cases where students were able to assist clients who could not obtain free legal counsel elsewhere.  Students helped clients with adoption, guardianship, visitation/custody, divorce, child support, and domestic violence protection order cases.  The students represented clients in Rhode Island Family Court, District Court, Probate Court and Superior Court, along with attending Family Court hearings in both Washington County and Kent County.  In addition to court time, the students had the opportunity to get a better understanding of domestic violence from the law enforcement perspective, spring semester students participated in ride-alongs with local police officers. 

During both semesters, students worked with clients who were referred by local agencies, such as the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Facility (ACI) and Rhode Island Parent Support Network, as well as Rhode Island Family Court.  By partnering with Rhode Island Legal Services (RILS) and Sojourner House Domestic Violence Advocates, the CJLA clinic assisted over 170 individual clients for help with protection orders in both Rhode Island Family and District Court, either through direct representation or brief advice and service. Students represented at least 20 low income clients in seeking a divorce, and gave advice and service to numerous others they were unable to represent. Clients were mostly low income or incarcerated at the ACI. 

All 20 students who participated in the CJLA clinic maintained an active caseload, conducted interviews, counseled clients (both at the clinic office and at the ACI), represented clients in court, gave brief advice and service, prepared pleadings and motions, and assisted clients who would not have been able to obtain free legal representation otherwise.  In the fall semester, two students, Omar Qadeer ‘09 and Andrea Harrison ’09, prepared a contested adoption case for trial in less than a week complete with depositions, an interpreter and an eventual hearing in front of Chief Justice Jeremiah Jeremiah Jr. of the R.I. Family Court.  In the spring semester, one student successfully argued an appeal for awarding a domestic violence protection order in Superior Court.

The successes of the clinic were due to the excellent supervision of the students by CJLA Director Carrie Hagan-Gray, who currently is a visiting professor, hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio where she served as the supervising attorney for Legal Aid of Southwest Ohio’s Domestic Violence Clinic.  She brought hands-on experience as a family law attorney, as well as a Guardian ad Litem for abuse, neglect, and dependency cases, to the clinic. Carrie is moving on to a clinical appointment at the University of Indiana-Indianapolis School of Law, and her service this year helped change lives, of both the students she supervised and the clients they served. 

Thanks, Carrie, and good luck!