Court Watch Request Form

En Español: https://nlgsf.ourpowerbase.net/node/41

NLG-SFBA and its coalition partners can send volunteer court observer-supporters to attend court, both to show community support for a person at an immigration hearing (i.e. your client, your loved one, or yourself) as well as to observe the court processes and practices themselves — to gather court watch data on any due process violations, judicial misconduct, etc.

Fill out the information below to request our presence at an immigration hearing. (We cannot confirm if or how many observer-supporters will attend the hearing, as it depends on individuals’ availability. The more advance notice we have, the sooner we can share with our volunteers.)

Hearing Information
Type of Hearing
Location or conference line:
Representation
Who is representing the individual in immigration proceedings? Who, if anyone, is your lawyer?
If you have a lawyer, please enter their contact information below:
If there is anyone else we should be in touch with regarding court watch coordination, e.g. a paralegal or a friend, please enter their information below
If the hearing offers the option to call in — as is the case during pandemic sheltering and distancing orders — how will you (the attorney) be appearing?
Respondent Information
If you would like to include a brief description of this person’s/your story to share with potential court observer-supporters, please do so here. You can find great tips on messaging to support everyone’s liberation in Community Justice Exchange’s valuable social media toolkit (https://bit.ly/3ag1pw1).
Debrief
To help volunteers understand and process what has happened in a hearing, we hold debrief sessions for the volunteer court observer-supporters. For in-person court watch, these can take place immediately following a hearing for ~5-20 minutes, or on a separate date, monthly or quarterly, and last 30-60 min. For remote (video/call-in) court watch, a debrief can take place immediately after the hearing or be scheduled separately and last 5-20 minutes.
Would you be willing to participate in a debrief with our court observer-supporters?