Tribal Civil Legal Assistance Program

The Montana Legal Services Association (MLSA) and the National Association of Indian Legal Services (NAILS) propose to enhance tribal civil justice systems and improve meaningful access to justice within the service areas of 20 participating NAILS member programs, with the technical support of the National American Indian Court Judges Association (NAICJA), under the Tribal Civil Legal Assistance Grant. To meet this goal, MLSA, the NAILS member programs, and NAICJA will take a fourfold approach: (1) providing direct civil legal assistance to tribal member clients, (2) engaging with tribes to provide capacity-building services, (3) providing technical assistance to tribes and other NAILS member programs, and (4) providing assistance with other projects designed to meet the needs of local tribal communities. Primary activities and objectives include making subawards to 20 NAILS member programs and NAICJA, who will provide direct civil legal assistance to at least 800 tribal member clients; engage with four tribes with capacity-building services; and provide at least five training and technical assistance events for NAILS programs and tribes. MLSA will administer and coordinate the grant, including monitoring grant compliance among the subgrantees. Project deliverables include signed memorandum of understanding (MOUs) from subgrantees and a NAICJA distance learning modality course or training module. MLSA, the NAILS programs, and NAICJA will submit data and reports to BJA on a regular basis.