Safeguarding Justice Resources

This selection of resources represents just some of the work that NLADA does to #SafeguardJustice. Explore the rest of our site for many more resources to support your work!

Webinars, presentations, speeches and slides

• Jeff Robinson, ACLU, Speaks on Racial Justice at NLADA Conference - At the NLADA Litigation and Advocacy Leaders Conference, which brought more than 200 advocates from across America together in Utah, this keynote address was delivered by Jeffery Robinson, who is American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Deputy Legal Director and Director of the ACLU Center for Justice. Coming less than a week after the shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, Robinson placed the racialized injustices of modern America within a historical perspective and he urged those in the audience to place racial justice at the heart of their advocacy.

• Advocacy to Combat Inequitable and Unconstitutional Imposition and Enforcement of Court Fines and Fees - A webinar by NLADA that discusses court fines and unlawful bail practices. This webinar illustrates one of the communications vehicles that the civil team utilizes to inform the civil legal aid community about technological developments, racial justice, strategic litigation, federal and state substantive and procedural issues, and other emerging topics. View the presentation here.

• NLADA Annual Conference 2016 Opening Plenary - Former Head of the Civil Rights Division, Vanita Gupta, delivers remarks at the National Legal Aid & Defender Association Annual Conference in Indianapolis, IN. Gupta is now president and chief executive of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, an umbrella organization founded  67 years ago that represents 200 national groups.

• Civil Legal Aid, Indigent Defense and the Flexibility, Efficiency, and Modernization in Child Support Programs Final Regulation - An NLADA webinar on child support regulations.

Clearinghouse:

• NLADA Defender Research Library - Our research library on indigent defense offers an interactive cadre of resources that range over the past 70 years in 23 categories including state court decisions, pro bono, ethics and community relations.

Toolkits:

• Effective Community Engagement: A toolkit for civil legal services programs - Developed by NLADA’s Program Enhancement Committee, this resource was created to give programs critical information and materials to help in the planning and implementation of community engagement strategies systematically and consistently. Intentional and sustained community engagement strengthens a legal service program’s capacity to understand and respond effectively to the needs of low income clients and communities. It is therefore one hallmark of high quality, high impact advocacy.

• SALR Toolkit - NLADA visited five organizations/regions which engaged in intentional strategic advocacy. With insights, tools and best practice gleaned from those visits, NLADA created this toolkit.

• Basic Data Every Defender Program Needs to Track - This toolkit highlights the importance of data collection for defender offices. It identifies key information for defender leaders to collect, tips on how to compile that material, and guidance on using it for self-evaluation and advocacy. Ultimately, better use of data can make defender programs stronger advocates for their clients.

• Rethinking Jails, Reframing Public Defense - Public defenders play a critical role in preventing unnecessary, unjust and expensive incarceration. NLADA developed this communications toolkit for defenders in the Safety and Justice Challenge so that they may articulate what effective public defense systems uniquely offer to pretrial reform.

Surveys:

• November 2012 Training and Communication Survey Results - Read the results of a survey disseminated by NLADA to the civil legal aid and indigent defense communities in November 2012 regarding current interests in, constraints on engaging with and desired methodologies of training and education that NLADA could provide.

• The Critical Role of Public Service Loan Forgiveness in Access To Counsel and Equal Justice - 2,007 public interest attorneys shared their stories with NLADA to demonstrate how important, for both attorneys and clients, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program is to access to justice. The survey results illustrate the damaging consequences that would follow capping or eliminating PSLF:  a steep reduction in the number of lawyers who could afford public service careers.  Their departure for jobs that allowed them to pay their law school debt would profoundly diminish access to justice for low-income people in the United States.

Other:

• Defender Standards - NLADA promulgates standards for quality indigent defense representation. Defenders use these standards to improve their own representation; policymakers use them to determine how to allocate criminal justice resources; and researchers use them to measure the quality and impact of defenders’ work.

• Legal Aid Resources Site - A website established to help civil legal aid programs and other equal justice advocates find additional funding to support their efforts to provide legal aid to families and individuals.