Not If I Can Help It: A Family Lawyer's Battles for Justice for Victims of Domestic Violence and the Poor

by Meg Groff

Overview

Moving tales from a legal career spent representing poor women battling to protect their families against a legal and economic system that is ruthlessly tilted against them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781953943484
Publisher:	Rivertowns Books
Publication date:	03/04/2025
Pages:	286
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Prior to opening her own law office in 1996, Meg Groff was a family law attorney at the Legal Aid program in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, for 12 years. A recognized authority on issues of child custody and domestic violence, Groff has focused on representing victims of abuse and the poor for more than three decades, handling huge caseloads and winning countless cases. Groff has been a legal consultant to three domestic violence organizations (two national, one local), and is a fierce advocate for social justice. She has taught thousands of people-lawyers, other professionals, and laypersons, in groups of all sizes-about domestic violence and family law, and has trained police departments in the dynamics of domestic violence and the proper handling of abuse calls. She assisted in the drafting of crucial amendments to Pennsylvania's Protection from Abuse Act and to Pennsylvania's Child Custody Act, and designed and implemented a project in Bucks County that ensures free representation, regardless of income, for all victims of domestic violence seeking Protection Orders. Since settling in Bucks County in 1984, Groff has been closely affiliated with A Woman's Place, the county's battered women's shelter, and has served on the boards of numerous nonprofit agencies that assist women, children, and/or the indigent. She has received many awards and accolades for her staunch advocacy and pro bono services. Since retiring from trial work a few years ago, she has concentrated on legal consulting, on hands-on mentoring of young attorneys and advocates, and on writing this memoir. Two of her children's stories have been published in Highlights for Children magazine. A short story about one of her legal cases appeared in the January 2024 edition of After Dinner Conversations.Groff lives with her husband, a retired carpenter and leather craftsman, and their two dogs. Their daughter Ruth Groff is a professor of political science and philosophy at Saint Louis University.