About Us
Our Mission
The Cooperative Restraining Order Clinic (CROC) is a legal services agency in San Francisco, California that upholds the legal rights and dignity of sexual assault, domestic violence, and stalking survivors. Committed to meeting the holistic legal needs of survivors through empowerment-based advocacy, CROC offers free legal advice and assistance in domestic violence restraining order, civil harassment restraining order, and criminal proceedings. Through effective legal assistance, institutional training, and policy advocacy, CROC works to build a community that protects the legal rights of survivors and helps them and their children obtain and maintain safety. As a leader in the community, CROC provides institutional training and technical assistance to other agencies and attorneys and participates in collaborative policy work to ensure that the needs of survivors and their children are met.
Empowering Survivors Since 1984
CROC has been the primary agency in San Francisco providing restraining order assistance for over three decades. Founded in 1984, CROC was created through collaboration between domestic violence and legal services agencies experiencing an overwhelming number of requests for emergency restraining order assistance.
In the 1990s, CROC expanded its services from domestic violence to sexual assault and stalking victims. In 2017, CROC began providing legal advice and representation to domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking survivors in campus-based Title IX administrative proceedings.
In 2022, we created the Marsy Project to provide information, advice, and representation to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking navigating the criminal legal system.
Empowerment-Driven Advocacy
Each year, CROC delivers direct services to 700-800 survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Through empowerment-driven advocacy, CROC arms survivors with information about their legal rights, remedies, and options, and provides free legal services to enforce and protect those rights.
A Community of Support
CROC is a member of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium, a network of 17 San Francisco agencies working together to provide high quality, coordinated, and comprehensive services to survivors of domestic abuse.
CROC is a model of collaboration, with continuing support from founding and newer cooperative member agencies Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, Bay Area Legal Aid, the Justice & Diversity Center of the Bar Association of San Francisco, and W.O.M.A.N., Inc.. By employing a collaborative model, CROC creates bridges between agencies and systems that help our clients take steps towards lasting peace and safety.