VIRTUAL LEGAL CLINIC HELPS VICTIMS OF GENDERED VIOLENCE

Victims of Intimate Partner Abuse often struggle with the courts and legal systems as much as they do with their abusers. The cost, the availability, the misinformation and lack of understanding they face as they try to find lawyers and work their way through the maze of courts, laws and agencies can be staggering. In Chicago, however, some victims are finding relief thanks to a virtual legal clinic offered by area lawyers and the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The only one in the country, the clinic has been a resource for hundreds of women for the last two years.

Vickie Smith. Executive Director of the lCADV since 1993, is a founding board member of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, and has worked with other state and national advocates to draft the historic 1994 Violence Against Women Act.  Vickie has worked with a number of agencies and criminal justice and health care professionals to develop community responses to family violence. She joins us to talk about the Virtual Legal Clinic - how it operates, who it helps, and the good it has accomplished in the last two years.