Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC) is a grassroots, membership organization run by Returning Citizens (formerly convicted persons) who are dedicated to ending the disenfranchisement and discrimination against people with convictions.

FRRC believes that returning citizens can play an essential role in strengthening our communities and increasing public safety, especially when barriers to voting and civic participation are removed. We also believe people who are closest to the pain are closest to the solution.

Therefore, to foster the highest levels of civic engagement possible in Florida's returning citizen population, we are using our Attorney Assistance Program to break down the barriers to voting for people with previous felony convictions.

In 2018, Florida voters passed Amendment 4 to restore voting rights to people who had been convicted of certain felonies. However, financial obligations (e.g. fines, fees, or court costs) still block many people from reinstating and exercising their right to vote.

Florida has created a mechanism for courts to terminate these outstanding fines and fees or convert them to community service hours, which can remove barriers to Returning Citizens restoring their voting rights.

FRRC is recruiting passionate pro bono volunteers who are willing to assist Returning Citizens throughout the modification process to remove these financial hurdles and to advocate for relief as needed on a case-by-case basis. We have already worked with volunteers to develop research needed to support thousands of modification cases. We are now recruiting volunteer lawyers to turn that research into the specific packages of documents needed to pursue modifications in court.

Volunteer lawyers will assist returning citizens by their felony convictions and drafting motions and exhibits for modifications. This work may be done by attorneys licensed in any state and will play an essential role in preparing cases for filing and hearings, which will be handled by attorneys licensed in Florida.

Volunteers for this project will review case history research prepared by other volunteers, prepare modification research packages, and draft motions, exhibits, and orders.

Once volunteers have learned to prepare the packages, we estimate that they will spend approximately one hour on each package they prepare. We hope that volunteers will prepare multiple modification packages.