Legal Aid Justice Center
The Legal Aid Justice Center is a Virginia based non-profit organization which provides legal services and advocacy to low income individuals. It was founded in 1967 when its Charlottesville office was opened. It has three other offices, in Falls Church, Petersburg, and Richmond.
History
The Legal Aid Justice Center grew out of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Legal Aid Society, which was founded in 1967 by a group of Charlottesville attorneys in response to a perceived need for legal services for disadvantaged members of the community. CALAS received federal funding from the Office of Economic Opportunity in 1970, and local funding from the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County in 1982. CALAS also began bringing in private attorneys to provide legal services for community members in 1984.In 1998, the board of CALAS assisted in the creation of Piedmont Legal Services, an organization that would exclusively provide services that were eligible for federal funding, but that would continue to share board members with CALAS. CALAS then turned its focus towards community needs that were ineligible for federal funding and began raising funds from private individuals and organizations.
In 2001, CALAS merged with Southside Virginia Legal Services in Petersburg, Virginia, to form the Legal Aid Justice Center. In the same year, Piedmont Legal Services merged with other legal aid offices in Falls Church, Virginia, and Richmond, Virginia, to create the Central [Virginia Legal Aid Society]. The LAJC followed its sister organization and expanded to provide its non-federally funded services in these areas.
Client services and advocacy programs
The Legal Aid Justice Center's programs focus primarily on legal services which are ineligible for federal funding, while the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society works exclusively on programs which are eligible for federal funds.Civil Advocacy Program
The Civil Advocacy Program serves low-income community members with a variety of non-criminal legal services. Civil Advocacy covers cases in consumer protection, employment discrimination, housing rights, mental health laws, and access to public benefits.JustChildren Program
The JustChildren program was established in 1998 to address issues in Virginia's public education, juvenile justice, and foster care systems. The program uses a variety of methods, including direct representation of clients, community education and organizing, and legislative advocacy.Immigrant Advocacy Program
The Immigrant Advocacy Program again uses a combination of legislative advocacy, public education, and representation of individual clients to improve the condition of immigrant workers in Virginia. Since its establishment in 1998, Immigrant Advocacy has settled cases for over $2 million to immigrant laborers in unpaid wages.Beginning in 2017, LAJC has expanded efforts to serve the thousands of immigrant farmworkers living in isolated areas throughout Virginia. LAJC meets workers at the labor camps, mobile home parks and motels where those who pick, pack and process Virginia’s crops reside, sometimes for only a few months each year. Physical isolation, language barriers and insecure immigration status make farmworkers particularly vulnerable to exploitation, through wage theft, labor trafficking and other offenses.