the university of oregon's domestic violence clinic

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10 Reasons Why the Stop Violence Against Women Clinic Project Deserves the Support of All Oregonians

1. Legal services are the best way to end violence against women and children.

Economists have documented that access to legal services is one of the primary factors that caused a 21 percent decrease nationally in the reported incidence of domestic violence between 1993 and 1998. The researchers concluded, "the provision of legal services significantly lowers the incidence of domestic violence." Amy Farmer & Jill Tiefenthaler, Explaining the Recent Decline in Domestic Violence, 21 Contemp. Econ. Pol'y. 158-72 (April 2003). The other factors important to the decline were improvements in women’s economic status and demographic factors like the aging of the population.

The economists explained that access to legal services is the only service that decreased the likelihood that women will be battered. Shelters, hotlines and counseling programs for battered women had no significant impact on the likelihood of domestic abuse, although they are vitally important crisis-intervention services. However, "the availability of legal services in the county of residence has a significant, negative effect" on the overall incidence of domestic violence.

Legal services decrease the likelihood of abuse because lawyers help domestic violence survivors obtain protective orders, custody of their children, child support, divorce, and sometimes public assistance, thereby helping women achieve physical safety and economic power so that they can leave their abusers. The economists said that legal services were a good place to invest resources since “legal services are the most expensive support service, the service to which the fewest women have access, and ….[it is] the only service that decreases the likelihood women will be battered.”


2. The SVAWCP helps approximately five hundred women each year achieve safety.

Over its relatively short lifetime, the SVAWCP has helped over 3000 individuals be safe. The services offered are effective, measured both by outcome as well as by client satisfaction. For example, students in the Clinic have won over ninety percent (90%) of their cases, thereby providing needed safety and successful advocacy to women and children throughout Lane county. In addition, according to the client satisfaction surveys from 2002 – 2004, ninety-eight percent (98%) of clients were very pleased with their civil legal services.


3. The SVAWCP helps protect over a thousand children each year.

The vast majority of our clients are mothers, and helping these mothers achieve safety has long-term benefits for the children as well. Domestic violence has potentially devastating effects on children.

A 2004 report by the Oregon Department of Human Services indicated that a child or children witness 1 in 3 intimate partner physical assaults and 1 of 5 sexual assaults. See Oregon Department of Human Services, Office of Disease Preventon and Epidemiology, Intimate Partner Violence in Oregon: Findings from the Oregon Women’s Health and Safety Survey 15 (2004). The same report states, “Children can be profoundly affected by their exposure to IPV [interpersonal violence]. Studies have described a host of problems experienced by children who have witnessed IPV, including cognitive and emotional responses (anxiety, depression, fewer interests and social activities, preoccupation with physical aggression, suicidal thoughts), behavioral problems (aggressiveness, excessive screaming, clinging, school problems) and physical symptoms (headaches, bed wetting, disturbed sleep, vomiting, diarrhea).” It is also well-known that physical violence against a parent can physically endanger the children who are present.

Moreover, credible social science literature establishes that serial domestic violence perpetrators are also likely to be child abusers. See, e.g., Jeffrey L. Edleson, The Overlap Between Child Maltreatment and Woman Battering, 5 Violence Against Women 134 (1999); Anne E. Appel & George W. Holden, The Co-Occurrence of Spouse and Physical Child Abuse: A Review and Appraisal, 12 J. Fam. Psychol. 578 (1998). By helping the mothers of these children, we protect the children as well.


4. The SVAWCP is the ONLY program exclusively offering legal assistance for low-income women and children in Lane County, Oregon.

No one else in Lane County offers free legal services exclusively to low-income victims of domestic violence, stalking and sexual assault. Many community organizations have recognized the essential service that the Domestic Violence Clinic provides and support its continued existence. These organizations include Lane County Bar Association, Lane County Circuit Court, Lane County law enforcement agencies, Lane County District Attorney’s Office and its Victim Services Program, Centro Latino Americano, Christians Addressing Family Abuse, Temple Beth Israel, and the Lane County Domestic Violence Council. These efforts have also been recognized by Senator Smith, Senator Wyden and Representative DeFazio, all of whom have called the Clinic “invaluable to low-income victims of domestic violence, stalking and sexual assault in Lane County, Oregon.”


5. The SVAWCP is oversubscribed and cannot fulfill the demand for legal services.

There is a tremendous unmet need for civil legal assistance for low-income individuals. A recent 2005 report by the Legal Service Corporation, which looked at nine states including Oregon, stated that “roughly one-half the people who seek help from LSC-funded legal aid providers are being denied service because of insufficient program resources.” Legal Services Corporation, Documenting the Justice Gap: The Current Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Low-Income Americans 8 (2005).

Legal services for low-income victims of interpersonal violence is no exception. The spring 2005 issue of the Family Law Quarterly, the American Bar Association’s scholarly journal devoted to family law issues, included an article which stated: “Delivery of services--the actual representation of victims--continues to be an area of critical need for victims of domestic violence.” Lisae C. Jordan, Introduction: Special Issue on Domestic Violence, 39 Fam. L. Q. 1 (2005). At the Stop Violence Against Women Project, we are unable to serve all of the victims who seek our help, and we do not even advertise our services.


6. The SVAWCP seeks to address the needs of all low-income victims of intimate partner and sexual violence in Lane County.

The core of our service provision occurs through representation by law students, under the supervision of an attorney, and through the services of another attorney who handles more complicated family law matters. This core primarily serves Caucasian women from the urban area. According to the 2000 census, close to 80% of the county’s population lives in the Eugene/Springfield metro area and 91% of the population is Caucasian. However, 20% of the population lives in rural Lane County and 5% of the population is Hispanic. We have adopted programs to reach these segments of our community too.

Rural Outreach Project: An attorney works with rural survivors on protective order and family law matters. The Rural Outreach Attorney holds office hours in Florence and Cottage Grove, and travels to remote parts of the county to meet with clients who lack the resources to come to Eugene. The State of Oregon Department of Justice and the Coquille Indian Tribe funds all of this program.

Latina Outreach Project: The Latina Outreach Attorney and Latina Outreach Advocate (funded by the DOJ and a federal VAWA grant) work with Spanish-speaking and English-speaking Latina survivors on protective order, family law matters, and immigration issues.


7. The Domestic Violence Clinic is a critical program for educating students about domestic violence, stalking and sexual assault, and instructing them how to be excellent lawyers.

The Domestic Violence Clinic provides an important educational opportunity for University of Oregon law students. Because the restraining order cases have a short timeline, they are a particularly good avenue for educating students about the practical skills necessary to be a lawyer. Students get to interview clients, draft legal documents, negotiate with opposing counsel, and represent clients at trial. The Domestic Violence Clinic is the only clinical experience available for law students that deals with family law issues. Students with an interest in practicing family law frequently enter legal practice as solo practitioners. The hands-on training offered by the Clinic is particularly important for these students. Last semester, students rated the Clinic class and its instructor, Ann Kneeland, a 10.0 on a scale of ten. Last semester, students rated the Clinic class and its instructor, Pat Vallerand, a 10.0 on a scale of ten.


8. The Domestic Violence Clinic helps keep the University of Oregon School of Law competitive.

The Domestic Violence Clinic helps make the University of Oregon’s Law School competitive. The American Bar Association issued a report in 2001 discussing the importance of educating to end domestic violence. It identified the vast number of law schools offering such clinical opportunities for their students, including Harvard, Yale, Cornell and Georgetown. It also mentioned some of University of Oregon’s comparators, such as University of Arizona, University of Iowa, and University of California, Boalt Hall. Every year students who are considering what law school to attend assess the clinical offerings at a school. Many students ask specifically about our Domestic Violence Clinic.

The Domestic Violence Clinic is an important program at the law school. The Dean of the Law School, in correspondence with Dean Linton, described the Clinic as an “important part of our program here at the law school as well as an important service for the community.” The law school gives significant in-kind support to the entire Project. Three law school professors helped found it, serve on its Steering Committee, and supervise the clinician who teaches the students. One faculty member teachers a substantive law course on domestic violence. The Project provides an important source of practical information for at least one faculty member whose legal scholarship focuses on issues related to domestic violence.


9. The Domestic Violence Clinic has educated over 90 students who are multiplying the impact of dollars spent on ending intimate partner violence.

Almost ninety students have received training in domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault issues through the Clinic. Many have said it was their most valuable law school experience and have continued to help victims of domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault after law school. Many of our graduates have become prosecutors of perpetrators, public interest lawyers for low-income victims, and private attorneys who offer pro bono legal representation to victims. In this way, the impact of the clinical experience is much larger than the numbers of clients served by these students when they are in the Clinic.


10. The Domestic Violence Clinic contributes to the public welfare of all Oregonians.

In August 2005, the Oregon Department of Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Epidemiology, published Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Oregon Women. It indicated that apart from the “inordinate social burden that IPV places on Oregon communities, the economic costs of IPV in Oregon are conservatively estimated at over $50 million each year. . . .Oregonians as a whole pay most of the bill – at $35 million each year – for health care services, whether directly through the government-funded Oregon Health Plan or through increased health insurance premiums. Oregonians also bear the burden of most of the costs that we were unable to estimate here: specifically, law enforcement, criminal justice services, and social services to adult victims, children and families.” The report comments how decreasing domestic violence would free “over $50 million each year that could be for funding health, education, law enforcement recreation, social services or a host of other activities that would benefit the social good.”

We conclude this list by coming full circle. As mentioned in point one, legal services are the only service that decreases the likelihood that women will be battered. It is the best hope for decreasing the tremendous toll domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault takes on its immediate victims, its indirect victims (children), and the community. The Clinic is an integral part of the solution to intimate partner violence in Oregon.