Survivors Deserve The Best and Brightest Lawyers Defending Them.
While the scope of this problem is enormous, we will not be deterred by the size of this epidemic. That’s why Human Trafficking Justice and Freedom International, a not-for-profit organization, has set our sights on a bold goal. By partnering with others both nationally and internationally, we will eradicate human trafficking in all its forms and ensure those who have been affected and abused receive justice against those who wronged them. This will not be easy, but with your help, it is possible.
At HTJFI, there is a role for every attorney; you can change a survivor’s life.
We ask you to be prayerful and consider joining in our efforts in one of the following ways.
Pro Bono Attorneys
We need lawyers who are willing, on a pro bono or low bono basis, to represent sex and labor trafficking survivors in a variety of legal areas, including prosecuting petitions to vacate criminal records related to their abuse; obtaining protective orders and/or helping international survivors with getting a T-Visa or suing their perpetrator for the injuries inflicted upon the survivor.
Here are some significant areas of the law that your expertise may help supply the critical representation that a survivor needs to obtain justice.
Family Law
Survivors may need protection or restraining orders that will direct their traffickers and or buyers to stay away from them and return the survivor’s property or possessions. These orders may be necessary during a criminal proceeding or while a divorce or child custody case is pending.
Survivors may also need assistance filing for a divorce against their abuser or regaining custody of their children. Often, survivors have a child in state custody or with a family, friend, or their trafficker. Even the most vital families can be damaged through such a traumatic experience as human trafficking, for which they may need legal resolution.
Criminal Defense Attorney:
It is not uncommon for criminal charges to be brought against a victim who has been trafficked. While they may receive court-appointed counsel to defend themselves, such counsel may lack the training and unique understanding of working with a trafficking survivor to defend them fully. We need criminal defense pro bono attorneys who can raise an affirmative defense on behalf of the survivor to show the courts or jury and/or the prosecutor in the case of forced or coerced nature of the criminal activity in which the woman or child in question was forced to engage and move for dismissal.
Immigration Attorneys
Under federal law, where there is sex and labor trafficking, there are three forms of immigration relief available to victims, including the T visa, U Visa, or continued presence. Attorneys are needed to assist victims in completing and submitting their application for a visa to the USCIC to ensure their application has the best chance of being approved and help connect them with resources that will minimize the possibility of them being re-trafficked. In labor trafficking, victims are often charged with immigration violations or other crimes associated with their being trafficked. Trained counsel can help bring a survivor’s plight to light in defending against such charges and allow the survivor to obtain help instead.
Tax Law
Attorneys are needed to assist victims in completing and submitting their application for a visa to the USCIC to ensure Survivors whose traffickers are their spouses may face significant tax consequences because their trafficker fails to file tax returns and from the filing of fraudulent returns. Tax lawyers willing to take up the survivor’s cause can help them from being saddled with an unjust tax obligation. In addition, when a survivor receives a settlement or restitution, they may need guidance and financial management. If a survivor has also been a victim of identity theft, a tax attorney may represent a survivor in filing a claim to seek relief.
Personal Injury
Under the trafficking victims reauthorization act of 2003, those who have been enslaved have the right to recover civil damages for their injuries, pain, and suffering by filing a claim against traffickers and companies that knew sex trafficking or labor trafficking was occurring on their property. This may include hotels, nightclubs, restaurants, bars, sporting events and venues, advertisers, banks, and casinos. Many states have made special carve-outs for trafficking survivors, and attorneys can help them receive redress for their injuries both physically, psychologically, and monetarily.
From law students to thriving law firms, retired attorneys, and paralegals, HTJFI wants you, and survivors need you.
From law students to thriving law firms, retired attorneys, and paralegals, HTJFI wants you, and survivors need you.
What Human Trafficking Justice and Freedom International Provides?
You will not be alone in seeking to undertake this representation. HTJFT will be there to partner with you to provide:
Case Referral: Survivors are connected to HTJFI, from other human trafficking NGOs to jail outreach programs, media outreach, and website inquiries. When they do, we connect them with an attorney that can help.
Tools & Resources: Some ways we help are providing paralegal assistance, private investigator, and process server assistance. We offer database access that can aid in case law, sample complaints and briefs, critical orders, and applicant decisions and/or connect you with other attorneys willing to share guidance and expertise as you prosecute the survivor’s matter.
In addition, we will help provide connections to valuable resources that will help survivors rebuild their lives, including housing, funding, medical care, and job training through our networking partnerships and connection to other survivors who can lend emotional and rehabilitative support.
Training & Other Benefits: HTJFI provided training to develop skills, opportunities to network with other lawyers, and our seal to use on your website and publications as a proud supporter. We will also provide an annual dinner to recognize all volunteers donating 50 plus hours.
Get Involved In Changing A Survivor’s Life
With your help, we can comprehensively address the unmet legal needs of human trafficking survivors across our country and around the world. Survivors can heal and live whole and healthy lives when they receive supportive services. When you help a survivor you:
-
Give clients a voice in the legal system
-
Advocate For solutions that are in the survivor’s best interest
-
Ensure their rights are protected, and justice is served
No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his neck. Frederick Douglas