Loyola Law students have classes from Monday to Thursday. Not having a classroom commitment on Fridays works well for everyone. It allows professors to guest lecture or attend conferences. It gives 1Ls an extra day to catch up on our work. Then the experienced 2 and 3Ls use their Fridays to intern/extern, write for the journals, work in the clinics, or prepare for their moot court or mock trial teams.
Loyola recommends that first year students should not take on much more commitment beyond our schoolwork, allowing us to properly adjust to the new academic system. To help and encourage us to focus on our studies, we are not allowed to join any journals, clinics, or teams. However, I really missed direct-client interaction. Only doing schoolwork all the time was distancing me too far from my motivation for going to law school, serving others.
So this semester, I decided to fill my Friday’s with an internship at the Domestic Violence Legal Clinic (DVLC) housed in the Circuit Court of Cook County of Domestic Violence. This courthouse opened in 2005 to help resolve issues of domestic violence and provide services to survivors* all under one roof. DVLC provides free legal services to low-income Cook county residents to help keep them safe and healthy.
A lot of what we do is represent clients in filing for Orders of Protection. It can be complicated because survivors have to file for Emergency Orders of Protection (EOPs) and a Petition for a Plenary Order of Protection. Then judge can grant both and the survivor will have to return three weeks later with a Plenary Order of Protection hearing. Succeeding requires a decent amount of paperwork and some special knowledge. Though complicated, the current system is necessary to protected everyone’s rights.
Because of due process rights, it is unconstitutional to have legal judgments against people without allowing them to defend themselves. For example, no one can charge me with murder, not tell me, have a trial and convict me. I must be told I am being charged with a crime, what that crime is and who is accusing me of that crime. So in the case of orders of protection, people can’t take out orders without allowing the other person to share their side of the story. While sometimes this can be frustrating to have to wait and have another step, this system benefits survivors because sometimes the abusers try to take out orders of protection as another form of control and abuse.
However, often people need protection immediately and can’t wait weeks for all of the due process laws to be followed. Illinois’s domestic violence laws recognize this need and allow for Emergency Orders of Protection, which give survivors protection until the court rules on a more permanent order of protection.
The interns and volunteer attorneys run the DVLC intake. It is our job to interview all the potential clients and record their stories. We take the information to the attorneys and they assess the cases. They decide if we are the best place to help survivors or if we will refer them to other options that would more appropriately suit their case.
If we take someone on as a client, I get to work with the attorneys to write the affidavit and fill out the EOP and Petition for Plenary Order of Protection paperwork. After I draft everything, I bring it to the attorneys and they edit it and I make the appropriate changes. Then we explain all the paperwork to the client and make sure the information is accurate and have them sign. Next, I take the paperwork to the Clerk’s Office to file it and get a courtroom and time. Finally, we all go upstairs to the courtroom and go before a judge for a ruling.
It is a really gratifying place to work because I get to do so much and I get to really help. Though survivors have a long road to health and safety, I hear their problem and get to contribute to the solution and be a step in their process. I have also gotten to learn so much about how to write legal documents, how the civil courts work, and about domestic violence. Some days the work is really hard emotionally, but I am really glad I have this experience and opportunity to work with clients. It helps keep me motivated and reminds me why I am in law school.
*Survivor is a more favorable term than victim to refer to someone who has undergone abuse because it empowers people by acknowledging their resilience instead of characterizing them as broken.
Questions for Amie? Email law-admissions [at] luc [dot] edu with the subject “Ask Amie” and she will make sure to answer them.