There are many barriers to receiving decent legal services, and unfortunately, money is one of them. Community member, Michelle, chose to fight her custody battle without representation for this reason. However, after a few months, she felt the case remained stagnant; that’s when she was referred to Beyond Legal Aid by a friend. She called our hotline, and we scheduled an intake through our community partner, Blocks Together. Michelle was frustrated with her children’s father at this point because their custody arrangement for their two kids lacked structure. He was irresponsible during his parenting time, did not pay child support, and the situation wasn’t getting any better.

Michelle’s goals working with Blocks Together and Beyond were to keep full custody but with an agreed-upon visitation schedule, consistent payment of child support and arrearage, and to be able to relocate if employment opportunities came up. She said everything changed once she started working with her Beyond attorney, Deborah Garrigus. She said, “once Deb came along, it was smooth as ice. She knows her craft, she’s a beast, and she could do this in her sleep.” Michelle was very thankful that she decided to seek out legal aid at Block’s Torrence Shorter Memorial Legal Clinic because, before, she said, “I felt my case wasn’t getting noticed. I wasn’t being heard as a woman. I felt overlooked.” After partnering with Blocks and Beyond, she said, “I felt I had a chance.”

As it turns out, she was correct: in less than a month, Michelle won her case, and all her goals were achieved! Please consider making a donation to Beyond so that we can continue to keep families safe this holiday season and beyond.