Certified Advocate Partners Program

Timpanogos Legal Center’s Legacy of Innovation
‍Susan Griffith, Executive Director of Timpanogos Legal Center (TLC) has spent her entire career serving individuals who need the most assistance in our civil legal system. Susan spent significant time working with victims of abuse, both children and adults, advocating for orders that would afford victims the safety promised to them under the law.

Acknowledging that traditional full-service legal aid agencies are unable to help all those who need help, Susan worked alongside other attorneys in Utah County and founded TLC in 2010. TLC provides critical legal help to individuals who could not afford an attorney and who didn’t qualify for a pro bono attorney. Under the TLC model of limited-scope legal help, Utahns can receive legal services via a legal advice hotline, legal advice clinics, and a document preparation clinic. Clients can receive help with their family law, housing law, and protective order cases.

TLC’s innovative model of providing limited-scope legal help has been critical in ensuring thousands of Utahns each year have the information they need to advocate for themselves and succeed in their cases. Over the past 15 years, TLC has grown immensely to meet the expanding need for help; the agency now serves clients statewide, facilitates an in-person and online weekly legal advice clinic, provides legal education to attorneys through Continuing Legal Education courses, and now serves over 7,000 clients every year.

‍Collaborating with Communities Statewide
‍TLC has a rich history of collaborating with service providers throughout the state, acknowledging that “Utahns” are not a monolith, and relying on local organizations to understand the specific needs of an area and to tailor local clinics to meet those needs. 

This collaboration has extensively involved working with and learning from Victim Advocates. Victim Advocates are individuals employed at organizations throughout the state like domestic violence shelters and law enforcement offices; they work to support victims of crime as they navigate the various legal and social services systems that can offer victims support in the wake of abuse. Victim Advocates often assist clients with the civil protective order process by connecting clients with legal aid providers, providing them court forms to request an order, collecting evidence, and attending hearings with clients. In many cases, the Victim Advocate is the only individual a victim of abuse receives help from during the protective order process.

Victim Advocates are often incredibly knowledgeable about the entire civil protective order and stalking injunction process because of their proximity to victims of abuse and their practice of attending court with clients. They are familiar with local judiciary practices and expectations, but are often unable to communicate this knowledge to clients, as it can violate the unauthorized practice of law rules.

‍Creation of the Certified Advocate Partners Program
‍In 2020, when the Utah Supreme Court created a first-in-the-nation Legal Regulatory Sandbox in an effort to foster innovative solutions to address the access to justice gap, Susan had a program idea that would fit squarely into the new regulatory framework: train Victim Advocates to provide legal services to victims of abuse who wanted to request a civil protective order or stalking injunction. Victim Advocates were engaging in this work already, but had to restrict their help to providing only legal information. Their clients were at times making mistakes–such as requesting the wrong order or including the wrong information in the request–that could have been avoided with the provision of brief legal assistance.

TLC was in the process of hiring two new staff attorneys. One of the attorneys, Hayley Cousin, was tasked with working closely with Susan to develop an application for this program. In February 2021, their application to administer the Certified Advocate Partners Program was approved by the Utah Supreme Court. By June of 2021, they had created training materials, recruited an initial cohort of six victim advocates, and trained those advocates in providing legal advice, document preparation services, and hearing preparation services.

From that date through April 2025, their staff trained 34 victim advocates in how to provide these services. Hayley provided post-training support in the form of collecting, reviewing, and reporting data; responding to advocate questions; and providing ongoing training. Through the end of 2024, these Certified Advocates served 402 unique clients, and assisted with 301 protective order and stalking injunction requests. 

When comparing outcomes of the cases handled by Certified Advocates to information provided by the Utah State Courts, individuals who work with a Certified Advocate are roughly twice as likely to receive an order than the statewide average, a number that includes cases handled by attorneys. Access to a Certified Advocate can be a critical factor in securing the legal protections afforded to victims of crime under Utah law.

‍Partnership with Community Justice Advocates of Utah
‍In January 2025, CJAU took over the responsibility of overseeing Certified Advocates. In August 2025, TLC and CJAU entered into an agreement to transfer management of the program to CJAU, fully integrating the program into CJAU’s network of CJA programs.

‍Without TLC’s many years of dedication to supporting CAPP, this critical program would not exist. CJAU is grateful to be entrusted with supporting and growing the program.

‍While at TLC, CAPP was generously supported by Intermountain Healthcare, Victims of Crime Act funding through the Utah Office for Victims of Crime, and the Utah Bar Foundation.