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 & Freedom International, dba Just Free International, has set our sights on a bold goal. By partnering with others both nationally and internationally, our goal is to eradicate human trafficking in all its forms and ensure survivors who've been harmed receive justice against those who wronged them. This will not be easy, but with your help, it is possible.
At Just Free International, every attorney has a role; you can help change a survivor’s life.
We ask you to be prayerful and consider joining our efforts in any 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 protective orders against their traffickers. 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, because the system has failed to recognize they have been trafficked. The survivors themselves, because of their victimization, may fail to recognize that they have been trafficked. Survivors may receive court-appointed counsel who lack the training and unique understanding needed to work with someone who has been trafficked. We need criminal defense attorneys who have been or are willing to be trained on how to represent survivors in a trauma-responsive, victim-centered manner, so that the survivor may fully participate in their defense, and bring awareness to the court and prosecution of the forced or coerced nature of the criminal activity in which the survivor was forced to engage.
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
Survivors whose traffickers are their spouses may face significant tax consequences because their trafficker failed to file tax returns and or filed 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, Just Free International wants you, and survivors need you.
What Just Free International Provides?
You will not be alone in seeking to undertake this representation. Just Free International will be there to partner with you to provide:
Case Referral: Survivors are connected to Just Free International 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 by providing case law, sample complaints and briefs, orders, and applicant decisions and/or by connecting you with other attorneys willing to share materials, 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 connections to other survivors who can lend emotional and rehabilitative support.
Training & Other Benefits: Just Free International provides training to develop skills, opportunities to network with other lawyers, and our seal to use on your website and publications as a proud supporter.
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:
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Give clients a voice in the legal system
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Advocate For solutions that are in the survivor’s best interest
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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