CCJ Supports Delaware’s Three Nonprofit Legal Services Organizations
Across Delaware, more than a hundred thousand people are living in poverty and need help with legal issues they can’t resolve on their own. An abused mother needs safety for herself and her children. A family threatened with wrongful eviction or foreclosure faces homelessness. A child with a disability may lose access to health care or food benefits.
The Combined Campaign for Justice (CCJ) raises funds each year to provide operating support for Delaware’s three civil legal aid organizations:
- Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (CLASI)
- Delaware Volunteer Legal Services, Inc. (DVLS)
- Legal Services Corporation of Delaware (LSCD)
Together these organizations provide free legal services to Delaware’s most vulnerable residents- people who are poor, people with disabilities, and people who are over the age of sixty. There is a significant justice gap in the United States—and in Delaware—more than eighty percent of the civil legal needs of poor people are going unmet. The goal of CCJ is to help bridge that gap and make sure legal aid is available to more people when it matters most.
Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (CLASI) has offices in Wilmington, Dover and Georgetown, and provides free legal assistance to children and adults living at or below poverty level, people with disabilities, and senior citizens. CLASI’s priorities include cases helping families:
- Maintain and retain safe and decent housing (specifically in public and subsidized housing);
- Secure adequate income and food to meet their basic needs;
- Obtain protection from domestic violence (Kent and Sussex Counties)
Delaware Volunteer Legal Services, Inc. (DVLS), the pro bono arm of the Delaware State Bar Association (DSBA), coordinates and assists the efforts of volunteer attorneys to assist poverty-level clients in civil legal matters. Over 700 attorneys currently volunteer through DVLS to represent clients with matters including:
- Obtain protection from domestic violence (New Castle County)
- Secure adequate income and food to meet their basic needs;
- Housing
- Consumer Law
- Wills
- Guardianships
- Personal injury defense
DVLS also operates the Legal Help Link, a system staffed by Widener University Delaware Law School students that centralizes and coordinates the client intake process for Delaware’s three legal services agencies.
Legal Services Corporation of Delaware, Inc. (LSCD) provides free legal services statewide to low-income Delawareans in matters of day-to-day survival. LSCD focuses on:
- Private landlord/tenant and consumer disputes
- Mortgage foreclosure
- Bankruptcy
- Unemployment compensation
- Disability claims
- Non-Family Court matters for victims of domestic violence
