LSC Opioid Task Force Report
Summary
In April 2018, the Legal Services Corporation created an Opioid Task Force to identify the civil legal issues faced by individuals and families affected by OUD and the role that civil legal aid providers can play — in collaboration with treatment and other service providers, the judiciary, and federal and state government agencies — in assisting those individuals and families. Judges, legal aid attorneys, clinicians, leaders of public health and public policy organizations, access to justice professionals, individuals in recovery, business leaders, and members of LSC’s Leaders Council comprised the Task Force. The Task Force spent eleven months holding in-person meetings and conference calls that brought together Task Force members with subject matter experts to investigate and analyze the intersection between the opioid epidemic and civil legal aid.
The LSC Opioid Task Force strongly encourages LSC to embrace a leadership role in promoting civil legal aid as a critical component of the nation’s response to the opioid epidemic.
This Report organizes its recommendations according to audience. Part II addresses civil legal aid providers and the Legal Services Corporation; Part III addresses the judiciary and law enforcement; and Part IV addresses treatment providers and public health officials. In making its recommendations in Part III, the LSC Opioid Task Force draws heavily on the National Judicial Opioid Task Force’s work to facilitate education for the broader judicial community around the opioid epidemic.8 From the beginning, the LSC Opioid Task Force engaged representatives of the National Judicial Opioid Task Force, received regular updates on their progress, and heard from judges and other members of the judicial community about best and promising practices for addressing the opioid epidemic.
Click here to download a PDF version of the Opioid Task Force Report.