Recent Accomplishments in the Clinic

Community Development Law Clinic

Non-profit Drug Rehabilitation Center

CDL students have provided hundreds of hours of legal services to a North Carolina drug rehabilitation center. Before coming to the CDL Clinic, this entrepreneurial nonprofit client had established itself as a national model and had experienced extremely rapid growth. Students first performed a legal audit for the organization and determined that the organization's corporate documents required redrafting to remain in compliance with state and federal law. CDL students also determined that the organization, which maintained several for-profit enterprises and owned a large and expanding real estate portfolio, was exposing all of its assets to judgment creditors by conducting its affairs within a single legal entity. After briefing the organization's board of directors and obtaining its consent, the students created a plan to restructure the single corporation into a holding corporation with numerous subsidiaries. The plan will be completed during the 06-07 academic year.

International Relief and Development Organizations

CDL students successfully formed and obtained tax exempt status for three different North Carolina based international relief and development organizations that address the health care needs of the world's poorest people. One of the organizations takes an entrepreneurial approach to assisting those afflicted with HIV/AIDS in Eastern Africa. It does so by helping to form and sustain artisans' cooperatives in poor countries to provide jobs and hope for those with HIV/AIDS. It will also establish boutiques in North Carolina that will market and sell the artisans' goods, with the profits being returned to the cooperatives. This organization faced significant hurdles in obtaining tax exemption from the IRS, both because of its entrepreneurial, market driven approach to charity, and because it operated overseas and was subject to national security scrutiny. CDL students performed exhaustive legal research and counseled the organization to amend its business plan without changing its core mission to make it more acceptable to US legal authorities. With that new, carefully tailored approach the organization obtained its US tax exemption.

Community Development and Housing

CDL Students counseled a North Carolina Community Development Corporation regarding its participation in "workforce housing" development. Students looked carefully at whether the organization - a 501(c)(3) public charity that spends most of its time developing housing for low income individuals - could participate in the development of workforce housing to benefit people who are at or near the area median income; i.e., people who do not necessarily qualify as "low income." The students were able to suggest alternative strategies to permit the CDC to go forward with its plans without jeopardizing its tax exempt status.

Juvenile Criminal Defense

In re A.P.

This juvenile client was arrested with five small bags of marijuana in his possession. He insisted that he had purchased the drugs for himself and had no plans to distribute or sell them. When the State charged him with possession with intent to distribute, the clinic student surveyed North Carolina case law on the indicia of simple possession versus distribution and concluded that the State lacked sufficient evidence to prove intent to distribute. She wrote a memorandum summarizing her findings and successfully argued the point in court. The judge dismissed so much of the petition that alleged intent to distribute, and the juvenile was placed on probation with drug treatment counseling.

In re L.B.

This client was alleged to have broken into someone's home and stolen personal property, and he was charged with felony breaking and entering and larceny. The State's only evidence was a single fingerprint found on the exterior of a window that was alleged to match the juvenile's fingerprints. After consulting with forensic experts in fingerprint analysis and familiarizing herself with literature challenging the reliability of such evidence, the student advocate skillfully cross-examined the state's expert at trial. After the student delivered a persuasive closing argument, presenting the supporting case law on the topic, the judge found the child not delinquent and the case was dismissed.

In re G.S.

This case required the clinic student to prepare extensively for a dispositional hearing in which the State and the court counselors were recommending that the juvenile be placed in juvenile incarceration (also known as "training school"). The student worked closely with the client's family and his treatment providers and amassed numerous reports and records that contained mitigating information. Ultimately, the court agreed with the student's assessment that training school was not warranted, and the juvenile was released from custody and placed in a therapeutic foster home.

In re R.H.

This case involved a young man charged with possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine. After speaking at length with the client, his mother and teachers, the clinic student had serious questions about the client's competence. She drafted an extremely detailed motion requesting both a competency evaluation and hearing. The motion was allowed, and after the hearing, during which the student effectively cross-examined the state's doctor who had evaluated the juvenile, the judge found the child not competent to proceed. The charges were then dismissed.

Civil Litigation

Housing

Clinic students represented an elderly woman in Durham whose only source of income is SSI and a small amount of Social Security (total income just over $600 per month). She owns her own home and had participated in a city loan/grant program to rehabilitate her house. Due to her income, according to the terms of the program, no payments were due for ten years. At the end of ten years, payments would start unless a review of her income showed she was unable to make them. At the end of the ten years, she received notice that she was required to begin making payments, which were over half of her total income. The demand for payment by the city was made without any review of her financial circumstances. As a result of student representation, the city agreed that she should not have to make payments.

Consumer

Students represented a woman who had purchased a used car. She had numerous mechanical problems and to make matters worse, her car was wrongfully repossessed. At the time the car was repossessed, the client had $1,000 in the glove compartment, funds that she was using to pay bills - including the payment on the repossessed car. Students brought suit on behalf of the woman for wrongful repossession and unfair and deceptive trade practices. They obtained a judgment for all payments made on the car plus the money in the glove box. This amount was trebled and the clinic was awarded attorneys fees. The clinic attorney fee funds are used to assist clients with expenses of litigation that they are unable to pay.

Domestic Violence

Students represented a battered woman in a domestic violence protective order matter against an abusive husband. At the hearing, the students successfully proved a long history of domestic violence including harsh physical attacks, social isolation, and financial control. During a two-day trial, the student provided evidence of the abuse including a 911 tape of a phone call made by one of the minor children during the incident. Additionally, the students examined witnesses who testified about an elaborate system designed by the client and a neighbor whereby she had different colored flags she would put in her window if she needed her neighbor to either call law enforcement or simply send her own husband by to diffuse the situation. The client was awarded the protective order, full temporary custody of her 2 children with no visitation to the defendant, and possession and ownership a family car which Defendant had claimed he sold. Client is now working for the first time in many years and her children are in counseling and doing well. The same student subsequently filed a complaint for permanent custody, child support, and property distribution on behalf of this client.

Family

Clinic students provided representation in a complicated custody battle on behalf of a battered immigrant client who had lost custody of her child over a year prior to seeking clinic assistance. The client's ex-husband brought allegations that the client had abused their child. At that time, the Department of Social Services substantiated that the client had inappropriately disciplined the minor child but did not recommend removal of the child from the home. The ex-husband, however, used that allegation to secure custody in civil court where the client had limited legal assistance. The client was supposed to have weekly supervised visits with her daughter but her ex-husband denied her all contact. Without legal assistance, our client had been unable to enforce the order. In the meanwhile, there was new evidence that the father was abusing the minor child. The student filed motions for emergency custody and for a modification of custody. After several hearings, our client was awarded primary physical custody of the minor child.In this particular case, the student worked with several agencies, including mental health workers, domestic violence advocates, and the local supervised visitation center. Additionally, the client was Spanish-speaking so that the student also worked closely with an interpreter.

Immigration and Human Rights

Immigration Cases

Political Asylum

Clinic students successfully represented a young woman in her claim for political asylum. The client was from an African country and had entered the United States as a student. After she arrived, she learned that she was pregnant and subsequently gave birth to a baby girl. The client feared that she would suffer persecution if she returned to her home country as an unwed mother and that her daughter would have been harmed because she would have been subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice which the client opposed. The case was particularly challenging because the client's daughter, having been born in the United States, was a U.S. citizen and could have remained in the United States indefinitely thereby avoiding the harm. The students successfully articulated the client's claim by explaining, among other factors, that even if she returned home without her daughter, she would suffer persecution for being an unwed mother and for leaving the child in the U.S. The students demonstrated that if she returned with the child, she would not be able to protect her, and that the baby could be kidnaped at any time. They also demonstrated that she would be totally marginalized economically, socially, and culturally, and would face the threat of physical assault livingthe rest of her life in fear for the safety of her baby and herself. The client was granted asylum and is completing her undergraduate studies in North Carolina with her daughter.

VAWA Cases

Students successfully represented a woman in obtaining lawful permanent residency under the immigration provisions of the Violence Against Women Act. The client, who was from Mexico, was married to a U.S. citizen who physically and emotionally abused her. As a means of maintaining control over her, he refused to complete the necessary immigration applications so that she could apply for lawful permanent residency. The students prepared detailed applications along with affidavits and other documentation demonstrating their client's eligibility for relief. They researched the provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act and prepared persuasive briefs, marshaled the evidence and argued the legal points in behalf of the clients. They obtained a work authorization for the client so that she would no longer suffer exploitation in the underground economy. They also prepared the necessary immigration applications to allow the client's two daughters who resided in Mexico to join their mother as lawful permanent residents. In addition to successfully developing their clients' claims to lawful permanent residency status, the students obtained a domestic violence protection order to prohibit the client's husband from harming or threatening her.

U-Visa Cases

Clinic students filed the first U-Visa (crime victim visa) case in North Carolina on behalf of a young girl brought into the United States by an older boyfriend who raped and stabbed her. After her release from the hospital, the client had been temporarily placed with a foster mother in Durham; however, within a short time after the assault, the NC Department of Social Services were making plans to send her back to Mexico. The client no longer had family ties in Mexico and was still recuperating with her foster mother who was providing much needed help with her physical and emotional recovery. As a result of the clinic's representation, the young woman has been able to stay in the U.S., and has obtained employment authorization and deferred status until the Department of Homeland Security issues U-Visa regulations at which time she'll be eligible to apply for lawful permanent residency.

A clinic student recently represented a young woman who had been shot through her knees by a former boyfriend. After dumping her off at a hospital, he threatened to kill her if she told anyone that he had assaulted her. The client was initially too afraid to tell anyone how she had been hurt and made up a story about what had happened to her but then changed her mind and identified her former boyfriend as the assailant. The student worked with police and prosecutors to obtain certification demonstrating that the client had cooperated with law enforcement in the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrator. On that basis, the student was successful in filing a U-visa petition and obtained employment authorization for the client who will be eligible to apply for aU-Visa once the regulations are issued.

Human Rights

ICCPR Shadow Report Project

Students worked with Global Rights and the Bringing Human Rights Home National Network to coordinate the writing, distribution, and lobbying of Shadow Reports to the U.S. State Dept. Report on the U.S. obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). UNC clinical students authored the report that was submitted to the UN regarding the plight of domestic workers in the United States. They were invited to attend various sessions of the Human Rights Committee (oversight committee to the ICCPR) at the UN.As a result of the clinic's report and lobbying efforts, the UN Human Rights Committee listed domestic workers as one of their priority issues for review with U.S. officials.

Gender Violence in Latin America Project

Domestic Violence in Mexico and Guatemala

Students worked on a project with the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) on police reform and gender violence. They compiled research on U.S. and Latin American policies, and drafted a comprehensive memorandum identifying and critiquing police, prosecutorial, and court practices regarding domestic violence. The memorandum is being used primarily by WOLA specialists and human rights groups working in Mexico and Guatemala. The document is the basis for lobbying efforts by WOLA and NGOs in Mexico to assist the Mexican federal government which is considering federalizing certain domestic violence offenses and enacting legislation similar to the federal Violence Against Women Act. As part of the project, students were invited to attend hearings on femicide in Latin America at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, DC.

Cd. Juarez Reparations Project

Students worked with the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) and prepared a comprehensive proposal to establish a reparations project for the families of women murdered in Cd. Juarez .The students outlined administrative, procedural, and substantive measures for the Mexican government to implement on behalf of the families. They researched the problem of femicide in Cd. Juarez, and the complaints of impunity with regard to the response of the Mexican government. The students drafted their proposal after researching the structures of various Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, Victim Rights Compensation statutes in the United States and Europe, and the reparations jurisprudence of the Inter-American Commission and Inter-American Court on Human Rights.WOLA presented the report to the Special Commissioner on violence against women in Cd. Juarez who had been appointed by Pres. Vicente Fox to investigate the murders of women and who has been given a broad mandate to coordinate federal programs to prevent violence against women.The clinic's report was also submitted to a federal legislative commission in Mexico City where it is being debated.

Trafficking Project

Students worked with advocates at Legal Aid of North Carolina and the NC Justice Center to develop a model protocol to assist attorneys interested in representing victims of human trafficking in North Carolina. As part of their project, students participated in a statewide coalition with state and federal law enforcement agencies, social services providers, and legislators. The model protocol they developed sets forth key issues for identifying victims of trafficking, and proposed strategies for a coordinatedresponses to allow immigration attorneys access to victims after trafficking arrests. Students prepared guidance for using the new civil remedy under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. The students also collaborated with a NC state senator who is planning to introduce state legislation that would supplement existing federal remedies and provide protection and benefits to trafficking victims. Students identified key elements and drafted proposed terms to include in state statute.