Did you provide 50 hours or more of pro bono service in 2018? If so, the District of Columbia Courts want to honor you for your contribution. Applications to be included on the 2018 Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll are due Friday, March 1, 2019, so submit your application today! Read more →

The Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia is pleased to announce that we will be honoring Anthony T. Pierce and Judith L. Lichtman with the Servant of Justice Award at the 30th Annual Servant of Justice Awards Dinner taking place on April 25 at the J.W. Marriott in DC. Read more →

Legal Aid was saddened to learn of the passing of Judge Patricia Wald on January 12, 2019. Judge Wald became the first woman to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and became the D.C. Circuit’s first female Chief Judge in 1986. Read more →

Tomorrow, the DC Council will vote for a final time on the Wage Garnishment Fairness Act of 2017, a bill that would reform District law governing garnishment of employees’ wages for collection on civil judgments. Introduced in November of last year, the bill would protect low and moderate-income District residents by placing reasonable limits on this often-debilitating debt collection method. We urge the Council to vote for the bill one final time and resist any efforts by the debt collection industry to weaken the bill via last-minute amendments. Read more →

Today, the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security stating our strong opposition to proposed regulations governing the “public charge determination” for immigrants and their families. The proposed rule would treat receipt of essential public benefits (such as Medicaid, SNAP and Section 8 housing subsidies), low income, poor health, being young or elderly and lack of English proficiency (among other factors) as negative factors in assessing an immigrant’s application for lawful permanent resident status.
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