In ACLU cases, the attorneys represent the clients free of charge. ACLU cases are handled by a staff attorney who works with attorneys in private practice who volunteer their time for ACLU cases. The ACLU generally files cases that affect the civil liberties of large numbers of people, rather than those involving a dispute between two parties. It is difficult to generalize about the types of cases the ACLU handles, but most of our cases focus on instances where government has infringed upon a person's privacy, religion, or speech or where the government has not followed proper procedures. We also handle cases involving discrimination on the basis of such things as a person's race, gender, disability, or sexual orientation.
Lawsuits can affect a large number of people in two ways.
First, we sometimes challenge a policy or practice which directly affects many people. Second, a lawsuit brought on behalf of one person can affect others in the long-run when it establishes or expands legal protections. For example, a lawsuit challenging drug testing of one employee, if successful, could set a precedent for thousands of workers in the future. Why we prefer cases without serious factual disputes We tend to take cases which do not involve complicated disputes of fact, but prefer to take cases where the issue is a question of law. An example of a factual dispute is an employment discrimination case where the employer claims he fired the employee because of poor job performance and has credible evidence to support that claim.