The pandemic has not reduced the number of cases involving domestic violence, the number of children who are abandoned or abused by parents or other relatives, or those who have been laid off, furloughed, injured, or looking to secure benefits (such as a veteran). For the more than 100,000 Delawareans who live below the poverty line, the lawyers who take on these cases are often the only lifeboat they have when it comes to taking on an abusive spouse, a predatory lender, an unscrupulous landlord, or resistant government agency. COVID-19 has made the need for these civil (non-criminal) legal services more important than ever. The Combined Campaign for Justice (CCJ) and the three legal aid nonprofits it supports – Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (CLASI), Delaware Volunteer Legal Services (DVLS), and Legal Services Corp of Delaware (LSCD) can still use all of the support you can give!
The Young Lawyers Section (YLS) of the Delaware State Bar Association provides newly admitted attorneys the opportunity to become acclimated to the practice of law in Delaware, meet their new colleagues, learn about the activities of the Delaware State Bar Association, and volunteer in the community. The YLS also pursues several community service projects a year, including supporting fundraisers like this one.
All donations on this page are 100% tax deductible and will go to support CCJ. Thanks to the Do More 24 Delaware prizes, your donation to Combined Campaign for Justice will be stretched even further!
In 1946— decades before there was a national legal aid movement— four of Delaware’s legal titans, Collins J. Seitz, William Poole, Clarence A. Southerland and J. Caleb Boggs, recognized the urgent need to provide free legal services for those who could not afford representation. In post-World War II America, they were particularly concerned for the welfare of war widows and their children, which led to the creation of one of the oldest civil legal aid agencies in the country: the Legal Aid Society of Delaware, now Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (CLASI). In the first year, Legal Aid served 204 clients with criminal and civil cases involving family law and GI Bill eligibility.
Since then, Delaware's civil legal aid ecosystem has continued to expand, helping more people in a wide variety of civil matters where legal representation is typically only available to those who can afford it. In 1981, due to shifting political tides nationally regarding legal services for the poor, Delaware Volunteer Legal Services, Inc. (DVLS) was established to best position the pro bono arm of legal aid: connecting private volunteer attorneys to civil cases. Legal Services Corporation of Delaware, Inc. (LSCD) was founded in 1996, taking over the work funded by the federal Legal Services Corporation—mostly in the areas of consumer law and private housing matters.
Today, CLASI, DVLS, and LSCD divvy up the work across problem type and client populations to represent as many individuals and families as possible, whether helping them avoid homelessness, ensuring safety from domestic violence, or safeguarding access to critical food and health benefits. Legal aid also creates broader change benefiting communities statewide through impact litigation and advocacy to improve laws and policies, such as recent efforts that increased school funding for vulnerable students and secured a right to representation in eviction cases.
