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ELIZABETH BIRT CENTER FOR AUTISM LAW AND ADVOCACY (EBCALA)
MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of the Elizabeth Birt Center for Autism Law and Advocacy is to address the legal and advocacy needs of the autism community. The Center seeks to provide:
- Legal education on autism issues
- Resources for legal practitioners and advocates
- A “think tank” to strategize about the legal and advocacy needs of the autism community
Autism affects children, parents and their communities with medical, legal, social and educational challenges. Serious unmet needs often begin before a formal diagnosis and extend throughout the lives of the affected individuals, families and communities.
Government leaders and agencies have failed to explore and identify autism’s causes, at-risk populations and impact.
Using legal and advocacy tools, the Center seeks to identify and address these systemic failures and to achieve greater justice for the injured and their communities.
Specifically, the Center seeks to educate lawyers, parent advocates and others in state-of-the-art legal and medical aspects of autism. Leading attorneys, scientists and advocates will review the most current and critical issues affecting the autism community at periodic conferences. The Center also seeks to make resources available to assist lawyers and advocates in their work on autism. The Center already offers a skeletal referral service and facilitates pro bono legal services for the autism community; it seeks to expand these efforts.
2009-10 Achievements
Since its inauguration in May 2009, the Center has organized three continuing legal education seminars for lawyers and parent advocates on autism and law; it has submitted amicus briefs in two critical cases related to vaccine injury, one to the Supreme Court in Bruesewitz v. Wyeth, one to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Cedillo v. HHS. In addition, the Center has partnered with Pace Law School to undertake a study of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The Center has fielded many requests from parents looking for attorneys or expert witnesses for ASD children in cases in the criminal justice, family law and educational systems. The Center was a key player in forming the Coalition for Vaccine Safety, an alliance of autism and informed consent organizations, that spoke with a single voice to the media in response to the March 2010 Omnibus Autism Proceeding decisions. Board members from the Center have also given lectures, presentations and testimony and have written articles on the legal issues of greatest importance to the autism community [File].
The Center has worked for the last year on an exclusively volunteer basis. The Center has given voice to the autism community before the most important legal tribunals in the country. Based on its record and on its commitment to continue to address the legal needs of the autism community, the Center asks for your generous financial support.
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