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What Are Civil Liberties and Rights?
Civil liberties include freedom of speech, press, religion, and association; due process; equal protection; and privacy. Civil rights include, for example, voting rights; discrimination based on disability, race, sex, sexual orientation, religion or national origin; and police reform.
How Do We Choose Cases?
The ACLU of North Dakota generally files cases that affect the civil liberties or civil rights of large numbers of people, rather than those involving a dispute between individual parties. Almost all of our cases involve constitutional issues and because the United States Constitution protect only against unlawful government action, we rarely take on disputes involving private companies. The basic questions we ask when reviewing a potential case are: (1) Is this a significant civil liberties or civil rights issue? (2) What effect will this case have on people in addition to our client? (3) Do we have the necessary resources to take this case?
What Cases Affect Others?
Lawsuits can affect a large number of people in two ways. First, we sometimes challenge a policy or practice that directly impacts many people. Usually this involves challenging a legislative statute or mandate. Second, a lawsuit brought on behalf of one person can have a larger impact on others when it establishes or expands legal protections. For example, a lawsuit challenging the denial of health care at a clinic to one HIV positive person, if successful, could set a precedent for thousands of patients in the future.
What Does It Cost?
Attorneys represent ACLU clients free of charge. Our cases are handled by staff counsel, sometimes working together with attorneys in private practice who volunteer their time for ACLU cases. The ACLU is not a general legal aid provider, such as the public defender's office or a legal services office that is specifically funded to aid low income people.
We Prefer Cases Without Serious Factual Disputes
We tend to take cases that do not involve complicated disputes of fact, and prefer cases that involve questions of law only. An example of a factual dispute is an employment discrimination case in which the employer claims he fired the employee because of poor job performance and has credible evidence to support that claim, but the employee disputes the evidence.
We often decide not to accept cases involving factual disputes because: (1) if a court resolves the facts against the client, it may never reach the civil liberties or civil rights issues; (2) if the decision rests upon the specific facts of a case, the case is less likely to have broad impact on many people; and (3) we have so few staff attorneys that it is difficult for us to devote attorney time to resolving factual disputes.
Types of Cases the ACLU Generally
Does Not Accept
The ACLU does not generally accept these
types of cases:
- Employment law: firings or dismissals without good reason or just cause.
- Workers' Compensation cases: denial of benefits, such as workers' compensation or unemployment benefits;
- Criminal cases: complaints about private criminal defense attorneys, length of sentence, or probation and parole issues. We rarely accept cases involving criminal matters.
- Post-conviction appeals
- Complaints about lawyers or judges
- Tax problems
- Family law cases including child custody cases and divorces.
- Landlord-tenant or housing disputes
Why the ACLU Turns Down Cases Which Fall Within Our Guidelines
There are many cases of unfairness and injustice that the ACLU of SD is simply unable to handle. We receive countless requests for help each year. Yet the ACLU of SD has a limited budget and staff, and it is impossible to represent every person whose civil liberties have been violated. Instead, we try to select cases that will impact the greatest number of people — those cases that have the most potential to break new ground or establish new precedents to strengthen the freedoms we all enjoy.
Can the ACLU Advise Me About My Case?
If we do not accept your case, the ACLU is unable to give you advice about your case, answer questions, or provide other types of assistance -- for example, reviewing papers or conducting legal research to assist you. This policy allows us to direct the necessary resources to those cases we do accept. We also will not give legal advice prior to receiving your written request for assistance. If you call our office, you will not be able to speak to an attorney about an issue unless your case has already been reviewed and accepted.
Additionally, if you are presently represented by an attorney, North Dakota court rules prohibit us from talking about your case with you without the permission of your attorney. If you believe there are issues that merit ACLU attention, you should discuss them with your attorney and have the attorney contact us to either (1) discuss the case directly with the ACLU, or (2) give the ACLU permission to discuss the case with you.
Important Note About Deadlines
All legal claims have time deadlines. The deadlines may be different depending on who violated your rights and which rights were violated. For some kinds of violations, you may need to file a claim with a government agency before you can sue, and these agencies have their own time deadlines. If you do not comply with the applicable statute of limitations, you may be legally barred from pursuing your claim in court. Contacting the ACLU to describe your problem does not mean that the ACLU represents you, and will not stop the statute of limitations from running.
The ACLU cannot give you advice about the deadlines that apply to your case. To protect your rights, please consult a private attorney promptly to find out what deadline may apply in your case. The phone number for the State Bar Association's Lawyer Information and Referral Service is (800) 952-2333.
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