To obtain a list of Attorneys and Consultants please visit the Community & Environmental Defense Services web site: www.ceds.org

Community & Environmental Defense Services (CEDS) strictly supports citizens and nonprofit groups concerned about a long list of threats to neighborhoods and the environment. This specialization has allowed CEDS to achieve the highest success rate in the nation when it comes to helping people protect their interests from the impact of sprawl and other issues, such as those listed along the right-hand column. We are a nationwide network of more than 135 attorneys and dozens of other professionals including planners, environmental scientists, traffic engineers, political strategists, and fundraisers, to name but a few. Our clients win 90% of the time, which is a far greater success rate than citizens usually experience. Our success rate is so unusually high because of the Politically Oriented Advocacy approach we developed.

CEDS is designed to serve as a bridge between nonprofits and for-profits. In other words, we provide a place to refer citizens who need more help then a nonprofit can provide. We help these citizens to determine the quickest, least expensive strategy for resolving their concerns (see Free Assistance below). When appropriate we then link folks up with an attorney and other professionals in their area with a good reputation for winning citizen cases. We also encourage citizens to fight battles in a way that not only maximizes success but strengthens public support for responsible growth management and sound environmental policies (for further detail see Politically Oriented Advocacy) .

Free Assistance To Citizens

If you are concerned about a threat to your home, neighborhood, or the environment then we would be delighted to provide you with the following assistance at no cost:

• First, contact us at 1-800-773-4571 or Help@ceds.org. After learning the specifics of your case we can usually suggest a winning strategy. About half the folks who contact us find that this free advice is all the help they need to win. We can also do a conference call if you'd like to include others who share your concerns.
• Our free 300-page book, How To Win Land Development Issues, contains 42 chapters of advice on winning a wide variety of issues. Chapter 1 - The Easy Solution provides step-by-step guidance which allows most of our clients to win their case without ever having to hire a lawyer or other professionals.
• Finally, we can do a no-cost quick initial review of project plans for potential impacts as well as possible equitable solutions . Just mail the plans to our contact address and include a cover letter describing your concerns. We'll then give you a call to discuss the results of our preliminary review.

About half the folks we help take our free assistance and manage their own campaign. A small portion of the remainder decide that there's either too much at risk, the case is too complicated, or too much time is required, so they hire CEDS to manage the campaign for them. This is how we stay in business and why we're able to offer so much free help to citizens.