Legal Assistance for Victims Program FAQs
A legal advocate provides legal advocacy to victims/survivors. An example of a legal advocate is a court-based advocate who assists with protection orders. A victim advocate provides services such as safety planning, victim advocacy and crisis intervention.
Please note that FTEs are reported by job function, not job title. To report a staff that has more than one job function, first calculate the total FTE of that staff person based on how many grant-funded hours they work each reporting period. Then split up their FTE into the staff categories by estimating the percent of their time performing each job function.
Yes, this attorney’s grant-funded time is reported as an FTE.
Yes, all contracted staff that receive grant funds to conduct grant-funded activities are converted to an FTE value. Report the FTE value that reflects the percentage of the attorney’s time or salary that is grant-funded, and report the attorney’s grant-funded activities in Section D.
Please check with your program specialist.
If the law students are receiving grant-funded training, report the students in the training section as pre-professional law students. In addition, if the students are volunteering in the clinic, report their activities in q.33 located in Section D Victim Services.
Section C1 only reflects the training of professionals or volunteers acting as professionals. Do not report community members, community groups, congregation members, parents, or victims/survivors. Additionally, do not report students unless they are pre-professional, such as medical, legal, nursing, MSW students or police cadets. In this case, pre-professional students can be reported in the appropriate professional category.
Yes, this purpose area was removed from the LAV Program in the 2013 Reauthorization of VAWA. All grants funded in 2014 and later should skip section C1.
Yes!
Report these activities in q.26.
If both the parent and child are victims, and separate POs are requested, report both in q.27 and both outcomes in q.30.
If one PO was requested for both the parent and child, then report only one in q.27 and report the outcome(s) in q.30.
In this example, report the victim as served if they received all of the LAV-funded services they requested during the reporting period, even if their case is ongoing.
Report those victims in the age 13-17 category and use q.29 narrative to detail the number of victims aged 11-12 that were served.
The parent needs to be a victim/survivor of domestic/dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking to be served using LAV grant funds.
In this example, the victim is receiving grant-funded legal advice and not receiving the additional grant-funded services they are requesting because your agency decided the victim does not qualify. Report this victim as partially served in q.21 and report the reason(s) this victim is not fully served in q.22
Report an immigration case in each reporting period that you use grant funds to provide assistance. So if a case is inactive during a reporting period and you do not use grant funds to provide other services to the victim, then do not report that victim or that inactive case for that period.
Report the victim/survivor as partially served or not served (depending on if they received some or none of the grant-funded services they requested) in q. 21. In q.22, report the reason for not serving or partially serving the victim as “Program unable to provide service due to limited resources/priority-setting”.
“Mentored” usually implies a level of support and guidance provided to attorneys and law students to ensure competent representation. This is normally provided by a more experienced attorney.
“Coordinated” usually means, for example, that someone is maintaining a database, communicating with potential pro bono attorneys, making referrals, following up regarding case status, etc. This might be done by an attorney or by support staff.
If you receive LAV funds to recruit, train, mentor and coordinate pro bono attorneys, then report these activities in q.32. If LAV-funded staff are integrally involved in the activities of pro-bono attorneys, you may report cases in q.27 and their outcomes in q.30. Otherwise, you may report the outcomes of cases handled by pro-bono attorneys in q.35.