May an applicant propose to represent crime victims in civil matters?
No. This grant is designed to fund the direct legal representation of crime victims in the criminal justice system. Once a project is funded, however, case-by-case exceptions may be made in certain pre-approved cases where the civil matter at hand is intimately related to a criminal matter for a victim the clinic is already representing. For example, if the proposed clinic is representing a rape victim during the criminal prosecution of her offender, yet the victim is required to go to civil court to obtain a protective order, the clinic may be allowed to represent that same victim in the civil court matter for the limited purpose of obtaining the necessary protections.
