Utah Bar Foundation

• Jurisdiction: Utah,United States
• Citation: Vol. 11 No. 4 Pg. 44
• Pages: 44
• Publication year: 1998

Utah Bar Foundation Vol. 11 No. 4 Pg. 44 Utah Bar Journal May, 1998

Legal Aid Society Offers Hope to Domestic Violence Victims

Legal Aid Society is a nonprofit organization that has been serving the legal needs of our community since 1922. In recent years, Legal Aid Society has narrowed the scope of service to providing legal representation to low-income individuals with family law cases.

Specifically, Legal Aid Society assists individuals with divorce, child custody and support, visitation, guardianship and modification of orders. There is a two month waiting list for these services. Legal Aid Society also assists adults and children who are victims of domestic violence in obtaining protective orders from the court, regardless of the victims' income.

A new program that was just recently started is our Bridge the Gap Program. This program allows victims of domestic violence in a crisis situation to bypass the Domestic Relations waiting list and have their case opened immediately. This allows the two programs to work together closely and provide top quality representation for the victim.

We recently assisted a 22-year-old female, named Cindy. She had been married for two years and had no children. Just shortly after their wedding, her husband changed into a controlling and abusive man. She realized that the escalating abuse and manipulation were not part of a loving and mutually rewarding marriage. She gathered the courage to tell her husband that she wanted out of the relationship. Unfortunately, that was when the violence really began. Her husband responded by holding her hostage with a shotgun for 12 hours. She was finally able to get out and go to a neighbor's house to contact police. After filing a police report, the officer advised Cindy to contact Legal Aid Society to obtain a Protective Order while they conducted their investigation.

She came to Legal Aid Society and filed the necessary legal documents through the Domestic Violence Victim Assistance Program for a Protective Order. A hearing was set for two...