VLJ stands up for justice.

Volunteer Lawyers for Justice (VLJ) was founded on the premise of ensuring access and fairness for all in the justice system, regardless of how much money a person has.  VLJ staff and volunteers fight for justice every day for special needs children denied the education services to which they are entitled and deserve.  They fight for veterans who served our country only to find legal barriers standing in their way of a successful return to civilian life.  They fight for women who were victims of human trafficking to vacate criminal convictions from a time when they were victims of crime, which improves their employment and housing prospects and removes the stigma associated with their convictions.  And they fight for families on the verge of homelessness, by giving tenants a voice in Tenancy Court.

AND YOU CAN STILL HELP!

The JUST ONE campaign will run until Friday, June 30, 2017

A big THANK YOU to all those who have already donated!

While VLJ staff and volunteers provide much needed legal services to vulnerable client populations in New Jersey, we need your help! VLJ is asking you, the individual lawyer, to join the fight for equal access to justice, by making a financial contribution to VLJ through the 8-week JUST ONE campaign. VLJ cannot keep growing our services to help more people access the court system without your help. 

VLJ recognizes that no matter how much attorneys understand their professional responsibility to do pro bono work, sometimes it’s difficult to find the time. The JUST ONE campaign allows all lawyers to help VLJ clients, by donating the equivalent of a billable hour to VLJ. 

Even though we are asking lawyers to make an individual financial contribution equivalent to the amount of “just one” of your billable hours, we will gladly accept donations of all amounts.  Like giving an hour of time, by donating the equivalent of one hour of billable time you can enact powerful, real-life justice for the thousands of people VLJ serves each year through our 12 distinct legal programs.

• Your $250 donation helps a mother protect her child from bullying at school, by funding VLJ staff to build the case file and facilitate a referral to a pro bono attorney for full representation. 

• Your $500 donation assists 4 veterans receive advice at a VLJ legal clinic on the civil legal issues standing in their way of successfully re-entering civilian life, including driver’s license restoration, child support issues and criminal record expungement.

• Your $1,000 donation supports 30 people on the brink of financial disaster, so they can attend a VLJ legal seminar about bankruptcy and get started on the case placement process.

• Your $2,500 donation provides a victim of human trafficking with a legal team to represent her through vacatur of criminal convictions that not only improve her prospects for employment and housing, but also help her remove the stigma associated with her convictions.

If your firm is interested in participating in the Just One Campaign, please contact the Just One team at justone@vljnj.org or Diana Onuschak, at (973) 645-1951 ext. 104.

All individual donors, firms and corporate legal departments will be acknowledged on VLJ’s website, in VLJ’s newsletter and at VLJ’s annual dinner in November.  In addition to the above, the two firms or legal departments that raise the most money through the Just One campaign will also receive special recognition at VLJ’s annual dinner and the other mentioned platforms. 

We hope that you, your law firm or your corporate legal department will stand with VLJ this year to ensure that the principle our founding fathers envisioned remains alive today----justice is for all, and not just the few who can afford it.  Thank you for your support!