American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa

If a decision is made to include your complaint as a case in our legal program, you will be formally notified in writing. Pending that acceptance and the actual assignment of an attorney to your complaint, any correspondence that you receive from us should not be relied upon as legal advice or as creating any ongoing lawyer-client relationship.

DETAILS: Although our staff attorney oversees the operation of our Legal Program, the staff member or volunteer who actually responds to your inquiry may not be a lawyer and might not have any legal expertise at all! Our rejection or failure to accept a case and the reasons given therefore are not a reliable indication of legal merit. Such information may only reflect our decision to employ our resources elsewhere in view of many factors (including difficulties of proof, our budget, and existing caseload).

FOR PROMPT, RELIABLE, LEGAL ADVICE YOU MUST CONSULT A COMPETENT LICENSED ATTORNEY.

Keep in mind that we may be able to work with the attorney you select while you are awaiting our response particularly if your selected attorney is already a member of the ACLU. We welcome contacts and inquiries from outside counsel.

LEGAL DEADLINES AND REQUIREMENTS ARE YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!

If your claim arises from facts that are not very recent it is possible that your claim could expire even before you hear from us! EVEN IF YOU DO HEAR FROM US WE MAY FAIL TO MENTION WHAT YOU SHOULD DO TO PRESERVE YOUR RIGHTS OR YOUR CLAIMS. Your only protection against the expiration or loss of your right to bring suit is prompt consultation with an attorney of your own choosing.

BE CONCISE.

We receive dozens of requests every week. Bulky complaints may be ignored. To be effective a complaint should be short and to the point. Tell us what personal right is being interfered with how you are being affected and what you want us to do. Describe the arguments on both sides of the dispute in a few words and include the primary facts favoring each side. A successful email complaint should be no more than 3 paragraphs long. When contacting us by mail, be equally succinct and legible.

CONFIDENTIALITY:

We treat your correspondence and our response to you as both privileged and confidential under the ethical guidelines governing the conduct of attorneys and law firms. The personal information you provide us cannot be shared or acknowledged to those outside the organization unless you direct otherwise.

If you inform the media or opposing parties that you have contacted the ACLU-IA in regard to your problem, we will not confirm this fact unless the staff member involved is aware of your specific instructions and has agreed to the disclosure.

In the event your complaint is deemed to have sufficient merit, the facts and perhaps even your identity may be confidentially shared with a case screening committee composed of lawyers and board members who are active within our organization. If you object to this process, you may contact us to withdraw your case from screening or to make alternative arrangements.

Unless you are requesting us to do so, your e-mail address and other personal identifying information will not be added to any database or contact list that we might maintain, and we will certainly not share it with any other person or organization. Of course, such information may be individually maintained within the header or body of any email or document you send to us. We may choose to keep a copy of your correspondence to us on file for reference.

KEEP Y0UR IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS

Please avoid sending lengthy documents or originals unless we have specifically requested you to do so. We do not have the resources to store or return unsolicited documents and materials. We reserve the right to destroy and dispose of all correspondence and materials sent as the need for space and elimination of clutter arises.

Due to concerns about macro viruses and time constraints we are reluctant to open and view attachments to e-mail from persons previously unknown to us, particularly if they are lengthy. We only want to know the basics of your complaint. We can always inquire into the details later.

EMAIL SECURITY:

If you wish to contact us by e-mail services please be advised that your message will travel through and reside in the memory of outside computers for brief but significant periods of time. It could be intercepted particularly if you are originating the message from within a proprietary network such as one owned by your employer. We advise you to use discretion. If you wish to contact us using encryption for security, we can supply you with a public Key using PGP encoding.

We will assume that anyone contacting us by e-mail accepts the security risks involved, and has given us permission to reply by the same means.

MEMBERHIPS AND DONATIONS:

A Reminder: Memberships and Donations Enable us to Perform our Mission: If you would like to become a member or make a tax deductible contribution to the ACLU-IA Foundation you may contact us at joinACLU or contributeACLU-IA Or, write to us at: ACLU-IA Foundation; 901 Insurance Exchange Bldg.; Des Moines, IA 50309-2321. Deductible contributions support our litigation and education programs. Non-deductible contributions to our sister organization (the ACLU-IA, Inc.) support its critical role in protecting your rights against new laws and policies proposed by politicians and officials in the legislature and other government arenas.

IMPORTANT: Do NOT contribute or join if you are not truly motivated to do so. There is absolutely no connection between membership or donations and the acceptance practices of our legal program. These matters are handled by entirely different staff.

Thank you for your attention!

Or write to us at:

ACLU Foundation, Inc.
Legal Program Intake
901 Insurance Exchange Bldg.
Des Moines, IA 50309-2316

For more information about the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa or the ACLU, go to the national website www.aclu.org