If your landlord is evicting you but you have a strong defense or counterclaim, you’ll get your day in court, right?

WRONG – unless you properly raised that defense or counterclaim in your written answer.

For the last year, I’ve had the unique opportunity to take part in the domestic violence trainings for the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation. In each training, we would address the many barriers that survivors of domestic violence face in finding safety and stability. Throughout this process, I often felt a twinge knowing that our domestic […]

When I started as an intern at the AVLF/PADV Safe Families Office in the Fulton County Courthouse, I thought I knew it all. I went to an all-women’s high school, and I even graduated from Agnes Scott College, a women’s college. I organized a benefit for an international battered women’s shelter as my senior project, and I thought I was prepared for whatever came my way at the Safe Families Office. I was even prepared for the ever-present question, “Why does she stay?” But I was not prepared for how emotionally involved I would become in AVLF’s Safe and Stable Families Project.

Quick snapshot: Ashley Prebula Frazier Heintz. I went to The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where I received a B.A. in Political Science and minors in Social & Economic Justice and Spanish. I attended The University of Georgia School Law, and thereafter clerked for Judge Clay Land in the Middle District of Georgia. […]

AVLF is bringing its signature Saturday Lawyer Program into Fulton County’s highest-poverty neighborhoods.

On April 1, 2016, AVLF officially launched its Family Law Program for survivors of intimate partner violence. Adding such a program has been a goal of AVLF for years.

Please join us in welcoming Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation’s two newest staff members, Katie King and Camille Millar. We’re thrilled that they’ve joined our ranks. Katie King, Administrative Assistant: When you call AVLF, you’ll probably speak with me, as I provide the first line of contact for all of our clients. A native of Georgia, […]

Give us your best elevator pitch – what does AVLF mean to you? Safe and stable homes and families. Easier said than done. What do you do when a friend calls and says her spouse has been abusing her for years? How do you respond when you find out her hand had not been cut in an accident at the house (as you previously understood) but had been cut to the bone holding the blade of a knife to prevent it from being pushed into her sternum by her husband? What is your reaction when you find out how many times her life had been threatened with a gun and how many times she had feared for the safety of her children because of her husband’s abuse? How do you process the range of emotions when you learn the physical abuse was just the tip of the iceberg and the emotional and mental abuse was far worse? I got that call.

Jenni Stolarski, Safe Families Office alum and DeKalb County Chief Assistant Solicitor-General, posted the following text on her Facebook page following the recent Amber Alert, and she was kind enough to let us share it with you. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we did!

Thank you, Michael. Unless perhaps you are Donald Trump, it is hard to listen to someone overstate your virtues, but thank you for believing at least some of what you just shared. Thank you for making my job so easy and so much fun. And please know that I learn as much from you as you claim you do from me. For example, because of you, I know the difference between Run The Jewels and Run DMC, and between Killer Mike and Mike Tyson. Thank you for pumping up my street creds!  You are a great lawyer and a great friend.

Rick Deane, it is an honor to share the day with you. Congratulations on all that you and your firm have accomplished, and I thank you for joining with Walt Davis and Ashley Heintz and Ken Smith and others who make Jones Day and AVLF such a strong partnership.

Give us your best elevator pitch – what does AVLF mean to you? Our nation’s most serious gap in professional services is providing legal advice and representation to people just above the poverty line. They do not usually qualify for public assistance but they cannot afford an attorney’s services, even for crises such as domestic violence and evictions. AVLF is one of the key organizations bridging that gap in Fulton and Clayton Counties.

Whenever anyone asks me what I do for a living, I have a standard answer: “I work for a non-profit that provides pro bono legal services to low-income Atlantans.” If it seems like the person is still listening, I’ll throw in, “We do civil work – typically landlord-tenant and domestic violence issues.”

That’s not really what I do, though.