Justice At Last is a proud member of the Freedom Network USA! And, we are delighted that some of our team members and esteemed fellow #FNUSA members will be presenting together at this year’s Virtual Conference on March 26-27, 2025.
Reclaiming Power Through Survivor Narratives as Evidence.
Join Justice At Last Staff Attorney and Legal Fellow Helen Song and Legal Services Attorney Ashleigh Pelto of Legal Aid of Western Michigan for a presentation on Reclaiming Power Through Survivor Narratives as Evidence.
When seeking justice from trafficking, survivors often have to prove their victimization to get access to services or legal relief. This process can be an empowering opportunity for survivors to reclaim power by voicing their victimization in their own words. However, it can create barriers for survivors from accessing services or legal relief due to unfair and often inconsistent evidentiary requirements placed on survivors to prove their victimhood.
This roundtable will delve into how heightened evidentiary standards in the immigration and criminal justice system can impede survivors’ access to justice, and how restructuring power to be inclusive of all survivors means advocating for the acceptance of all survivor voices and experiences. Participants should come prepared to discuss challenges around evidentiary standards and be willing to collaborate on advocacy practices.
Navigating Complexities of Multi-Victim Human Trafficking Cases.
Additionally, our Founder, CEO and Principal Attorney, Rose Mukhar along with Dr. Suamhirs Piraino-Guzman and Executive Director and Lead Attorney Erika Petty of Lotus Legal Clinic, will be presenting on Navigating Complexities of Multi-Victim Human Trafficking Cases.
The purpose of this session is to identify the unique considerations, challenges, and best practices when working with clients involved in multi-victim human trafficking cases. By applying a mental health lens this session will highlight both the unique human aspects of groups cases such as trauma bonding and group hierarchy of roles which are created through the trafficking experience and how these dynamics shape the nuances of joint legal representation on behalf of the identified victims.
Specifically, this session will address the bonding that occurs with shared victimhood by providing lived experience expertise of working with adult and youth survivors of CSEC, sex trafficking, and labor trafficking It will explore the best practices of how to support youth in group, individual, and family settings or subgroups of victimization, and how to address the trauma bonds that impact youth and how acknowledging the community within which they were trafficked better informs the advocacy. Further, this session will address the unique issues that arise in joint representation of victims of all ages and the best practices we have learned from our own experiences in multi-victim cases. We will explore the ethical considerations of joint representation and how best to protect each client from conflicts and how best to meet the varied legal needs of each individual client and their unique experience.
To learn more about the confernece and to register please see the link below.