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Please read the below information about how the ACLU of Kansas accepts cases before submitting a complaint at the bottom of this page. 

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Will I receive a response?

We receive a very high volume of requests for assistance and therefore are unable to respond to all requests. All letters, emails, and submissions to our online intake form will be reviewed and tracked. However, due to limited capacity, we are unable to respond to all inquiries.

You should not expect to receive a response. However, if we think we may be able to assist with your case or need to request additional information, we will reach out. Please do not wait on a response from the ACLU of Kansas before exploring other assistance, especially if there are deadlines that may apply in your case.

How do I file a legal complaint with the ACLU of Kansas?

The ACLU of Kansas does not accept requests for legal assistance in person or by telephone. If you leave a voicemail asking for legal assistance or to discuss your case, we will not be able to return your call.

If you would like to ask the ACLU of Kansas for legal assistance, you must complete and submit a complaint form. You can submit a complaint either online or by mail by writing to: ACLU of Kansas Legal Department; PO Box 13048; Overland Park, KS 66282

Can the ACLU of Kansas advise me about my case?

The ACLU of Kansas cannot advise you about your case or provide other types of assistance (for example, reviewing your papers or conducting legal research) if we have not accepted your case and have an active agreement with you. This policy allows us to direct the necessary resources to those cases that we do accept and the clients to whom we are committed.

What cases does the ACLU of Kansas accept?

The ACLU of Kansas is a private, non-profit organization with limited resources; therefore, we must be very selective in choosing our cases. Only very few cases meet our criteria for selection. Our cases exclusively deal with state and federal constitutional matters. And, even among those cases, we can take only a small percentage of the complaints we receive. There are many types of cases that we do not take because we do not have experience in that area of the law. See below for a list of cases we do not take.

Additionally, the ACLU of Kansas focuses on impact litigation, or cases in which a favorable result would have an impact beyond a single situation and would change a pattern or practice for future individuals in similar situations. This means that we are unable to assist in many cases, even if you might have a strong claim. To understand the types of cases we have previously taken, please visit our cases page.

What types of cases does the ACLU of Kansas not accept?

  • Generally, the ACLU does not accept the following types of cases: family law, denial of governmental benefits, landlord-tenant disputes, criminal defense, complaints about attorneys or judges, or employment matters.
  • The ACLU does not ordinarily handle cases in which the primary purpose is to obtain monetary damages.
  • We generally do not take third party complaints, meaning the complaint needs to be filed by the person directly impacted by the issue.
  • The ACLU of Kansas is limited to addressing constitutional violations that occurred within the State of Kansas, and therefore we do not accept cases that occur outside of the state of Kansas.
  • While we continue to support better immigration policy in Kansas, we unfortunately do not handle individual immigration cases, such as ICE detainer cases. You may find an immigration attorney at https://www.justia.com/lawyers/immigration-law/kansas.
  • The ACLU does not handle complaints about lawyers. You should speak to the judge in your case about such a complaint. If your lawyer is a public defender, you can also write to the head of the public defender office in your area. If you wish to file a formal bar complaint against your lawyer, you should direct such complaints to the Office of the Disciplinary Administrator, 701 SW Jackson Street, 1st Floor, Topeka Kansas 66603-3729.
  • The ACLU does not represent defendants in individual criminal matters, specifically in trials, sentencing proceedings or modification filings, direct appeals, post-conviction remedies such as habeas corpus or 1507 proceedings, parole hearings, or probation or parole revocation proceedings.

Important note about deadlines

All legal claims have time deadlines. The deadlines may be different depending on who violated your rights and depending on what rights were violated. For some kinds of violations, you may need to file a claim with a government agency before you can sue, and these agencies usually have their own deadlines. The ACLU of Kansas cannot advise you about the deadlines that apply to your case. To protect your rights, please consult with an attorney promptly to find out what deadlines apply in your case.

Where else can I go for help? 

You may seek legal advice and assistance from a private lawyer with experience handling your issues. You may be able to find such lawyers on www.lawyers.com and other similar websites. In addition, you could also contact the Kansas Bar Association's lawyer referral service here.

If you cannot afford to hire an attorney, you could contact the legal aid office that covers your county or city, but understand they also have a limited scope of cases for which they can provide representation. You can locate the appropriate office by visiting the website of Kansas Legal Services.

  • If you have an employment discrimination complaint and wish to bring such a claim, you must file a charge of discrimination with either the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or, assuming that you worked in Kansas, the Kansas Human Rights Commission (KHRC). In order to protect yourself, you should file a charge of discrimination with one of those agencies within 180 days of the last act of discrimination. If you fail to file a timely charge of discrimination, any lawsuit you file might be dismissed. In order to file a charge of discrimination, you may contact the EEOC’s National Contact Center toll-free at 1-800-669-4000 or 1-800-669-6820 (TTY). You may also write the EEOC’s Kansas City Area Office at Gateway Tower II, 400 State Ave., Suite 905, Kansas City, KS 66101. You may contact the KHRC at (785) 296-3206. You can contact the Kansas Human Rights Commission (KHRC) at (785) 296-3206. If you are represented by a union, it is advisable to initially speak to your union representative. You can also contact the Kansas Bar Association for an employment lawyer.
  • If you have a complaint about law enforcement conduct, you may be able to file a complaint with the head of the involved law enforcement agency or its Internal Affairs Dept. If you believe you were a victim of racial profiling and discrimination, you may consider filing a complaint through the Commission on Peace Officers' Standards and Training (CPOST), an oversight agency with the Kansas Attorney General's Office, or 316-832-9906. You may also wish to seek representation by a lawyer with experience in police misconduct cases. You may be able to find such lawyers on www.lawyers.com or with the Kansas Bar Association's referral service at 785-861-8838 or here.
  • If you have a complaint about an individual incident of discrimination in healthcare, you may file a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Additionally, many hospital systems have their own internal reporting avenue.
  • If you have a complaint related to an individual criminal matter, please be advised that the ACLU does not represent criminal defendants in trials, sentencing proceedings or modification filings, direct appeals, post-conviction remedies such as habeas corpus or 1507 proceedings, parole hearings, or probation or parole revocation proceedings. You are entitled to an appointed lawyer at trial and on your first direct appeal if you are indigent and cannot afford a lawyer. You should ask the court to appoint a lawyer to represent you. If the court will not appoint a lawyer for you, you should try to find a private lawyer to assist you. You can find criminal defense lawyers on the website of the Kansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers or with the Kansas Bar Association at 785-861-8838 or completing their form here. If you are seeking to bring a challenge based on your claims of innocence, you may consider submitting an application to the Midwest Innocence Project (MIP). You may be able to get free assistance with an expungement with Kansas Legal Services.
  • If you have a complaint related to conditions or treatment inside of a prison, jail, or other facility, please ensure you or the affected person/s exhausts all internal remedies and to save all responses you receive. Any claim you would try to bring later would depend on you exhausting all internal grievance procedures, such as filing grievances, appealing decisions or disciplinary actions, and submitting form-9 or other requests for remedies you are seeking. Please see our resource here on the Prison Litigation Reform Act. You may consider contacting Legal Services for Prisoners, Inc. at P.O. Box 12438; Overland Park, KS 66282.
  • If you have a complaint related to sexual assault inside of a prison or other facility, please know that you do have the right to be free from rape and sexual assault while incarcerated. The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), passed by Congress in 2003, applies to all detention facilities, including federal and state prisons, jails, police lock-ups, private facilities, and immigration detention centers, and specifically recognizes that sexual assault in detention can constitute a violation of the Eighth Amendment. PREA requires that facilities adopt a zero-tolerance approach to this form of abuse. The failure to protect prisoners from sexual assault by other inmates may also amount to a violation of the Eighth Amendment, if you can show that the prison staff was deliberately indifferent to a serious risk of harm. If a guard or another prisoner has assaulted you in prison, you may be able to make a (1) federal constitutional law claim (that is, a claim that your constitutional rights were violated) and/or (2) a state law claim (that is, a claim that a state law was violated).

    You may consider contacting a trusted staff person, dialing #50 from any offender phone in the Kansas Department of Corrections, or sending a letter or form-9 to the PREA coordinator: PREA coordinator; Kansas Department of Corrections; 714 SW Jackson Street; Topeka, KS 66603. If you have other general concerns about your safety, please consider submitting a request to your counselor, unit manager, or other staff member detailing your concerns and request to be moved or have your situation rectified. Additionally, we suggest documenting in detail these attempts to receive a solution and possibly reporting to: U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division; Special Litigation, Corrections; 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW; Washington, DC 20530.

  • We do not provide direct representation or legal advice in family law cases. You may be able to locate a lawyer by calling the Kansas Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service at 785-861-8838 or completing their form here. If you cannot afford to hire an attorney, you should contact the legal aid office that covers your county or city. You can locate the appropriate office by visiting Kansas Legal Services. If the State is seeking to terminate your parental rights and you cannot afford an attorney, you may ask the court to appoint a lawyer for you.
  • The ACLU does not handle landlord-tenant issues. You may wish to contact Kansas Legal Services (Legal Aid) at 1-800-723-6953. That organization may be able to help you. KLS also has a Tenant’s Handbook that you may find helpful. If you believe you have been the victim of discrimination prohibited by federal fair housing laws, you can obtain information about filing a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. You may also be able to file a complaint with the Kansas Human Rights Commission (KHRC), which you may contact at (785) 296-3206.
  • While we continue to advocate for better immigration policy in Kansas, we unfortunately do not handle individual immigration cases, such as ICE detainer cases. You may find an immigration attorney at https://www.justia.com/lawyers/immigration-law/kansas.
  • For disability rights issues, you may consider contacting the Disability Rights Center of Kansas.
  • The ACLU does not handle lawyer complaints – you should speak to the judge in your case about that complaint. If your lawyer is a public defender, you can also write to the head of the public defender office in your area. If you wish to file a formal bar complaint against your lawyer, you should direct such complaints to the Office of the Disciplinary Administrator, 701 SW Jackson Street, 1st Floor, Topeka Kansas 66603-3729.
  • For individual incidents of discrimination in education, you may file a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, Educational Opportunities and Disability Rights Section as well as the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.
  • If you have an issue in a state that is not Kansas, please contact your local ACLU affiliate. Find them here.
  • For other information on your rights, see our Know Your Rights Resources here.

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