Partners for Justice was created to transform and empower public defense, helping defenders secure better outcomes for the 80% of accused people they represent.
Our mission is to transform public defense — at scale. We do this by practicing collaborative defense, a method to help public defenders be more client-led and secure better outcomes.
Partners for Justice trains non-attorney Advocates to provide clients with case navigation and wraparound support, while helping public defenders protect people from incarceration and other criminal penalties.
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Partners for Justice offers customizable training for public defense leadership, attorneys, social workers, advocates, navigators, investigators, and other staff and allies on how to transition to client-led, collaborative practices—both as individual practitioners and as an office.
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Partners for Justice is available to work with individual offices to assess their current practices and implement Collaborative Defense. We understand that no two offices are alike and tailor our assistance to your local context.
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Collaborative Defense is a framework for client-led representation that confronts the underlying causes and prevents many of the most dire consequences of criminal legal involvement.
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Have Vision: An office has a clear vision for holistic, collaborative representation that is communicated internally and externally.
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Ask the Right Questions: An office has an intake process that screens for client needs, and conveys that information to the appropriate staff.
3
Empower the Client: Clients are treated professionally and with respect and their representation works in service of their expressed goals and priorities.
4
Connect with Social Services: Clients are systematically assisted in accessing community-based social services.
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Access Legal Expertise: Clients have access to civil, family, and immigration legal expertise to address concerns caused by criminal legal system involvement.
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Change the Narrative: The office systematically creates and documents persuasive mitigation, drawing on both the client’s personal history and the office’s Collaborative Defense work.
It is adaptable, flexible and individually applicable. Collaborative Defense is unique in that it meets defender offices where they are, acknowledging that offices can take many paths to more holistic representation and that jurisdictions face different challenges and constraints. There is no one size fits all approach to representation.
Through working closely with public defenders throughout the country, we recognized the commonalities offices encountered. There is the constant struggle of being uniquely positioned to understand our clients needs, while being unequipped to provide additional services. The creation of the Collaborative Defense framework seeks to give every office a roadmap to provide universal services that prioritize client experience, are locally relevant and create better outcomes.
