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Students assume responsibility for individual cases, which proceed start-to-finish within a semester from initial interview through counseling, fact investigation, and case planning to a negotiated settlement, final administrative hearing, or court trial. Students work in pairs, usually in two different subject matter clinics. Each faculty member supervises no more than 6 students. The practice areas are:

Employment Law

Certified by the State Bar to practice under the supervision of the Civil Justice Clinic attorney-professors, students represent workers whose successful rulings from the Labor Commissioner are being challenged by the employers. On appeal, these wage-and-hour cases, unless settled, must be tried de novo in superior court.

Disability Benefits

Students represent claimants who have applied for Social Security benefits, have been denied, and who have the right to a hearing on their claim before a Social Security Administration Administrative Law Judge.

Unemployment Insurance Benefits

Students represent claimants who have been denied unemployment insurance benefits before a California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board Administrative Law Judge.

Restoration of Civil Rights

Students represent clients with criminal convictions and arrest records who are trying to dismiss past charges, reduce felony convictions to misdemeanors, or seal and destroy arrest records upon a showing of factual innocence.  These cases involve appearances and mini-trials or hearings in superior court.