Our Services
A HOLISTIC APPROACH
Who We Serve
The HTPP primarily serves anyone across the gender spectrum who has:
- Experienced sex and/or labor trafficking; or,
- Traded sex for any reason, including those who trade sex by choice, out of circumstance, or due to coercion.
For clients who meet the above parameters, the HTPP offers legal representation in criminal and civil record relief matters, such as assistance with expungement, shielding, and vacatur, DBRA claims, and name/gender marker changes, as well as the range of services that MVLS provides, such as family law, consumer debt matters, tax disputes, among other other civil legal matters.
As a program that also focuses on trafficking prevention, we alsoprovide criminal and civil record relief services to individuals who have been subjected to a combination of violence, trauma, and/or other systemic inequities that put them at increased risk of exploitation, including interpersonal violence, sexual assault, housing instability, substance use, past involvement in the criminal legal or immigration systems, and/or discrimination based on race, sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
HOW WE SERVE
Criminal Record Relief
Our team of attorneys and legal advocates provide non-judgmental, trauma-informed legal services focused on addressing the harmful effects of criminalization on our clients’ lives.
We provide assistance expunging or shielding our clients’ criminal records, and, for those clients who have convictions related to having been trafficked, we can assist in vacating, or, setting aside, certain criminal convictions under Maryland’s trafficking-specific criminal record relief law. We also have funds available to pay for fingerprinting services to ensure that our attorneys are addressing the entirety of our clients’ criminal records, including arrests that may have taken place in another state.
Clients with Maryland criminal records may receive legal assistance from HTPP staff attorneys or our partners at Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service. For HTPP clients with criminal records in states other than Maryland, we coordinate with numerous trusted partners across the country, such as the Survivor Reentry Project.
Claims Under the Debt Bondage Relief Act of 2021
For clients who have experienced financial coercion at the hands of a trafficker, the HTPP/MVLS partnership also provides assistance with credit repair services under the federal Debt Bondage Repair Act (DBRA) of 2021, which forbids consumer reporting agencies from including negative information related to sex and/or labor trafficking in consumer reports.*
*Please Note: Only clients currently located in Maryland and/or those who are already receiving assistance with other Maryland-based legal matters may receive assistance with their DBRA claim from the HTPP. For clients located in other states, HTPP staff will work to identify service providers in that state. Additionally, the HTPP does not provide independent victim determination letters; instead, we encourage trafficking survivors seeking DBRA assistance to partner with social service organizations in the state where they are located.
Name & Gender Marker Changes
The HTPP also provides assistance with name and/or gender marker changes, as this is often crucial to our clients’ safety and privacy, especially if they have recently escaped a trafficking situation. HTPP clients who are transgender may also be seeking to ensure their identity documents match their gender identity, which reduces the risk of initial or additional exploitation given that transgender individuals, like other members of the LGBTQIA+ community, often face discrimination in employment and housing, harassment by law enforcement, and other hurdles that put them at increased risk of exploitation.
Other Civil Legal Needs
The HTPP screens for additional civil legal issues as part of our holistic services approach, and through our partnership with Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service, HTPP clients can also receive free legal assistance with divorce/custody cases, consumer debt matters, credit repair, and tax controversies, among other civil legal needs, through MVLS staff or volunteer attorneys.
Services for All
Services are provided regardless of race, nationality, ethnicity, age, religion, disability status, sex assigned at birth, gender identity, gender presentation, immigration status, and/or sexual orientation.
Training and Technical Assistance for Service Providers
The HTPP also provides training and technical assistance to service providers on the collateral consequences of criminalization on trafficking survivors and people in the sex trades, the availability of criminal record relief in Maryland, as well as on working with people who have experienced trauma.