BRIDGE TO JUSTICE
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Mission Statement
As an impact-oriented social enterprise, our mission is to bridge the gap between legal needs and legal access with affordable, high quality legal services.
About This Cause
Established in 2013, Bridge to Justice is a 501(c)(3) Colorado nonprofit organization that provides civil legal services to low- and moderate-income Coloradans who do not qualify for free legal aid. Without appropriate legal assistance, justice often cannot be achieved. We deliver customized legal advice and services at significantly reduced rates and in some cases on a pro bono basis. There is a large unmet need for our type of services throughout Colorado, and indeed nationwide. Our focus is in three main areas: 1. We represent and advise individuals throughout Colorado in a wide range of domestic relations matters, including: divorce and legal separation, civil protection orders, decision-making, child support, maintenance (spousal support), modification of child support and parenting time orders, and other post-decree issues. 2. We offer free legal assistance to tenants facing eviction in Boulder County and surrounding Denver metro areas. 3. We offer free legal assistance to City of Boulder residents with healthcare and food assistance matters, including Medicaid, food stamps (SNAP), health exchange plans and tax credits for health plans. B2J services include: one-time consultation: ongoing consultation; personalized coaching for court appearances and mediation; litigation support; limited scope representation; and full scope representation. The geographic service area includes Boulder County and the Denver metro area. We employ three full-time attorneys: Bruce Wiener serves as the Executive Director, and is a practicing attorney; Joel Hayes, Jr. is the Senior Staff Attorney; and Molly Jickling is a staff attorney. We also employ a part-time paralegal and intake coordinator, BreAnne Meyer, and four contract attorneys who assist with our domestic relations and eviction defense projects. Finally, we hire at least one law student intern per semester, typically from the University of Colorado and University of Denver Law School. We have a sustainable fee-for-service business model with approximately 50% of our funding from client fees. The remainder comes from grants from government agencies (the cities of Boulder and Longmont and the State of Colorado), foundations and individuals. Individuals qualify for services based on their household income and assets. Our income guidelines are based on the 2021 HUD Low Income Guidelines. The income cutoff for an individual is $56,300 and $80,400 for a family of four. 60% of our clients earn less than $24,550 per year for an individual and $35,050 per year for a family of four -- defined as "extremely low income" by HUD income guidelines. According to the 2017 Colorado Bar Association Economic Survey, our rates are one-half to one-third of the market rate for a Colorado attorney with comparable experience. The need for B2J’s services is validated by the fact that in fiscal year 2018, 66% of the 1,430 domestic relations cases filed in Boulder County had no attorney on the case and 71% of the 2,864 parties involved in these cases did not have representation. Low-cost legal services provided by B2J attorneys assist clients in navigating the highly emotional nature of their situations and the need for parents to maintain an ongoing relationship with their children, which often results in parents needing to maintain a relationship with each other as well. B2J services help parents establish parenting time with their children, assist the adults in communicating effectively with each other as appropriate, and protect clients’ physical and emotional safety by obtaining protection orders in cases involving domestic violence. Further, our services promote clients’ financial stability and self-sufficiency by obtaining and enforcing child and spousal support orders. This keeps many of our clients out of poverty and reduces their dependency on government benefits. B2J services also benefit clients’ children by reducing problems associated with parental conflict that may negatively impact the children’s emotional, physical, and cognitive well-being. Toxic stress response can occur when a child experiences strong and frequent adversity, such as exposure to domestic violence, child abuse/child neglect, substance abuse, or mental illness on the part of the caregiver. This stress response can impair the development of the brain and other organ systems and result in increased risk of physical and mental illness throughout life, with heart disease, diabetes, substance abuse, and depression being some of the likely outcomes. Supportive, responsive relationships with nurturing adults can prevent or reverse the damaging effects of toxic stress response. B2J services improve court administration because self-represented (pro se) litigants generally do not understand court procedures and the law and thus require a disproportionate amount of judicial resources. The Colorado Access to Justice Commission recently found that “[the presence of a lawyer for even a limited time in a case helps to clarify the legal issues and speed its resolution.” B2J’s focus on post-decree family law services is particularly important in this regard because of the high-conflict and ongoing nature of these cases. A May 2017 Social Impact Report commissioned by the Beanstalk Foundation and the Colorado Institute for Social Impact found that B2J has saved its clients and the local community over $3.7 million associated with the cost savings from reductions in attorney fees, public entitlements, health costs and domestic violence-related costs. The report found that B2J has returned $3.20 to the community for every $1 spent since formation in April 2013. In 2018, B2J won a unanimous Colorado Supreme Court decision expanding protections for Colorado-based victims of domestic violence fleeing abuse from another state. B2J represented the client pro bono on appeal. The ruling is now precedent throughout the state. Thank you for your support of our important work!