Legal assistance the ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation provides

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin Foundation works through the courts as one of many strategies to protect liberty and equality. Along with public education and the legislative advocacy of the ACLU of Wisconsin, we can advance civil liberties and protect our rights in ways that don’t always involve litigation. The ACLU has defended the rights of people across the political spectrum. The principled stance the ACLU takes on defending the Bill of Rights is neither liberal nor conservative.

Please read this information carefully to find out the kinds of cases we accept and how to have the ACLU consider your problem.

Our office handles civil liberties and civil rights matters arising in the state of Wisconsin only. If your issue arises elsewhere, find your local affiliate here.

We do not take walk-ins. If you feel your case falls within the guidelines as listed below, please either fill out our online form or print a copy and mail it to us at this address:

ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation – Legal Department
207 E. Buffalo St. #325
Milwaukee, WI 53202-5774

What kinds of cases we generally do not accept:

• A situation where a person has been fired from a job without a good reason or just cause;
• A situation where a person is being denied benefits, such as workers’ compensation or unemployment benefits;
• Criminal cases, or complaints about a person’s attorney in a criminal case. We consider accepting criminal cases only in limited instances, such as, for example, when a person is being prosecuted for engaging in activity protected by the Constitution – such as participating in a political demonstration.
• Cases with 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.

There are many cases of unfairness and injustice that the ACLU is simply unable to handle. We receive thousands of requests for help each year at this office alone. Therefore, we cannot accept many of the cases that fall within the guidelines discussed above.

Types of cases we consider

The ACLU generally files cases that affect the civil liberties or rights of large numbers of people, rather than those that involve a dispute between individual parties. Basic questions we ask when reviewing a potential case:

Is this a significant civil liberties or civil rights issue?
What effect will this case have on people in addition to our client?
Do we have the necessary resources to take this case?

Examples of the kinds of cases we might take include:

Police practices and prisoners’ rights – clients may include a coalition of minority residents impacted by racial profiling by local police, a group of incarcerated people in a jail or prison who are regularly denied adequate treatment for mental or physical health conditions.

Free speech and association – clients may include demonstrators who experience unreasonable force by police, student journalists who are disciplined for writing a critical article about their school, or protesters who are arrested or issued citations for participating in constitutionally protected activity.

Immigrants’ rights – clients may include individuals who experience discrimination by local police who threaten immigration raids.

LGBT rights – clients may include couples on the statewide domestic partner registry, students denied the right to organize a Gay Straight Alliance at their public school.

Racial justice – clients may include minority residents of a neighborhood who experience health problems related to pollution from public utilities like coal plants or people of color who are denied affordable housing or public transit in a government’s development planning.

Freedom of religion – clients may include students who are denied their right to pray in school, individuals who experience discrimination at airports due to their perceived race or religion, or students who object to school-sponsored religious events.

Reproductive freedom – clients may include women who are denied equal access to contraception through their insurance plan or a government agency that refuses to hire pregnant women.

Voting rights – clients may include individuals who are denied their right to vote based on discriminatory laws like Voter ID or voters who are denied their right to vote based on a disability or language barrier.

Youth rights and equal education – clients may include students with disabilities, who are systematically denied equal access to voucher schools, students who wear controversial buttons or t-shirts to school with a political message, or young people who are affected by racial profiling.

Important information about deadlines

All legal claims have time deadlines. These deadlines may be different depending on the nature of the legal claim, the persons who violate your rights, and which particular rights were violated. For some kinds of violations, you may need to file a notice or pursue other administrative remedies with a government agency before you can file suit in court. These administrative procedures also have their own time deadlines. If you do not comply with the applicable time deadlines, you could be legally barred from pursuing your claim in court. Contacting the ACLU to describe your problem does not mean that ACLU attorneys represent you, and contacting the ACLU does not stop these time deadlines from running. The ACLU cannot provide you with advice about which time deadlines might apply to your particular situation. To ensure that your rights are protected, you may need to consult an attorney promptly to find out what time deadlines may apply in your case.

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.

How to request help from the ACLU of Wisconsin

Again: We do not take walk-ins. If you feel your case falls within the guidelines as listed below, please either fill out our online form or print a copy and mail it to us at the address below. If you cannot fill out the written form for any reason, or if you would like the form mailed to you, please only then call our intake line at (414) 272-4032 x 216

ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation – Legal Department
207 E. Buffalo St. #325
Milwaukee, WI 53202-5774 Online Form