By: Danielle Wong
The law is meant to protect individuals, but sometimes, it can cause innocent people to suffer. When human trafficking survivors gain criminal records as a result of being trafficked, the law often does not protect them from the consequences of someone else’s manipulative and coercive actions. The survivors are the ones caught and prosecuted, and often, no one knows that they are trafficking victims. However, Virginia sought to change that and provide better protections for survivors through vacatur and expungement laws. And, that is where the Human Trafficking Clinic enters the picture to help survivors.
As a student at the Human Trafficking Clinic, I have had the opportunity to help survivors express their voices and begin the process to get their criminal records vacated or expunged. Many times, these survivors cannot find jobs or get good housing because of negative background checks. Thus, even though they are free from trafficking, survivors still find it difficult to truly move forward with life.
Through my work at the Clinic and talking with clients, I began to realize just how important it is to not just help survivors find justice through prosecutions against their perpetrators but also help them with everything that happens after they are free. So often, they want to get on with life and put their past behind them, but frequently, they are stopped because of crimes they were forced to commit while being trafficked.
Helping advocate for these individuals in the legal system and providing them hope for a better future was easily one of the best parts of law school. It brought me so much joy to see a client smile at the thought that they could get their criminal record vacated because of the work of the Clinic. Legal fees can get expensive, and the Clinic helps survivors for free, thus removing a serious burden survivors carry in trying to move forward.
As a future attorney, I plan to help trafficking survivors find justice against their perpetrators. I also want to help them on the back end too. Because of my work at the Clinic, I have become more highly aware of just how much work needs to be done in the legal system to help survivors. I hope to maybe provide pro bono legal services to survivors, much in the same way as the Clinic, and help survivors in the state I plan on practicing in.
This post was written by a student at Regent University School of Law. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect those of Regent University, Regent Law School, or the Center for Global Justice.