Indigent people who cannot afford counsel in civil rights claims against the federal government will receive legal help through a new program that begins this fall at the University of California, Davis, School of Law. Through the civil rights clinic at the law school, plaintiffs, the majority of whom will be prisoners unable to afford legal representation, may gain access to legal services. Federal judges in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California will refer cases to law students participating in the clinic. The civil rights clinic is funded in part by an $89,510 Title IX grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the first installment of a minimum three-year cycle of grants for the program. The clinic further broadens the law school's outreach to the community, which includes an immigration law clinic, advocacy work on behalf of prisoners and tax return preparation services. The UC Davis students will work on every aspect of litigating the civil rights cases, including interviewing clients and witnesses, drafting pleadings and motions and going to trial. A practicing civil rights attorney will be hired to supervise the students participating in the clinic. Law students who work with the civil rights cases will be required to enroll in a civil rights course and to participate in a skills seminar that includes advocacy training by experienced civil rights attorneys and judges. Students will receive academic credit for their clinical work. The clinic will provide students with necessary litigation experience and provide clients with representation, said Margaret Johns, a law school professor who developed the clinic's concept. She worked closely with Rex Perschbacher, law school associate dean and director of clinical education, in establishing the clinic. Additionally, the clinic will "relieve the court of the burden of people representing and trying cases themselves," Johns said. Cases that might wind up at the civil rights clinic will likely deal with Eighth Amendment issues such as cruel and unusual punishment and denial of medical care. The cases are filed either by the victims, or the victims' families. In applying for the Department of Education funds, the law school had the support of several northern California congressmen, Rep. Robert Matsui and Rep. Vic Fazio, and the Eastern District federal court. "We needed their support to show the need for such legal representation" on the part of indigents in the district, Johns said. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Emeritus Lawrence K. Karlton says such a partnership between the court and the law school is "critical to this court's work because most of the prison beds in the state are in the Eastern District and the bulk of civil rights claims in the state under Section 1983 are filed here." Karlton said the program could turn out to be a prototype for the country. "To my knowledge, this is the first time that the program is being offered as formal education" to law school students.