This week Legal Aid was thrilled to present our Making Justice Real Pro Bono Award to Arnold & Porter’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) Project Team for their outstanding pro bono service during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dan Cantor, Chair of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee, and Rebecca Gordon were on hand to accept the award on behalf of the team consisting of dozens of attorneys and staff from across the firm’s practice areas.

In early 2020, shortly after the start of the pandemic, Dan spearheaded a firm-wide initiative to help restaurant workers who had lost jobs or had hours reduced due to the public health emergency.

“Working families who were living week to week, paycheck to paycheck, lost their income overnight,” noted Dan. “Helping workers secure the enhanced UI benefits that were available meant the difference between people being able to feed their families and keep roofs over their heads.” Read more →

Yesterday, the D.C. Council voted unanimously to pass new emergency debt collection legislation —  introduced by Chairman Mendelson and DC Attorney General Racine — implementing much-needed updates to the District’s debt collection law to protect DC consumers. 

Among other changes, the Protecting Consumers from Unjust Debt Collection Practices Emergency Amendment Act of 2021 updates and strengthens the District’s existing law by: 

• Expanding its scope to apply broadly to consumer debts, including finally applying to credit card debt and medical debt (the law was initially drafted fifty years ago and had become largely obsolete, failing to cover most modern-day forms of consumer debt) 
• Protecting broadly against unfairness and harassment of consumers in the debt collection process, both in and out of court 
• Requiring collectors to have adequate information and documentation to substantiate the debts they collect 
• Creating a universal three-year statute of limitations for all covered debts, and protecting consumers from the harms of “zombie” debt collection (revival of old debt obligations) 
• Building in enforcement mechanisms like a private right of action, and subjecting debt collectors’ lawsuits to dismissal for failure to comply 

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As the D.C. Council prepares for its first vote on the District’s Fiscal Year 2022 budget next week, Legal Aid urges Councilmembers to fund long-overdue permanent reforms to the D.C. Healthcare Alliance’s renewal policies.

The Alliance provides health coverage for immigrants living in the District with low incomes. However, for nearly a decade, the program has had application and renewal policies that make it unnecessarily hard for people to access and maintain coverage.  These policies, which went into effect in 2011, have included the requirements that Alliance participants recertify their eligibility for the program every six months and participate in an in-person interview as part of the recertification process. Read more →

Today the DC Council will consider emergency legislation to wind down eviction protections that have been in place throughout the pandemic.  The proposal, drafted by Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, would allow actual evictions to move forward immediately, following a 30-day notice to tenants; allow landlords to serve past due rent notices on tenants immediately and to serve pre-court notices for other eviction grounds starting on September 26; and allow landlords to file new eviction cases for nonpayment of rent on October 12 and other types of eviction cases on January 1.

The backdrop for this legislation is Mayor Muriel Bowser’s announcement that she will not extend the public health emergency declaration, meaning eviction protections tied to that declaration will expire sooner if the Council does not act.  While we appreciate the difficult position that the Mayor’s announcement puts the Council in, we urge Councilmembers to pass amendments to the bill to make sure that tenants are not evicted unnecessarily during the transition out of emergency protections.  Yesterday, Legal Aid and several of our advocacy partners sent a sign-on letter to the Council outlining our request to provide for more time and include other technical amendments.   Read more →

The Family Law Assistance Network (FLAN)–a partnership between Legal Aid, The D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center, and the D.C. Affordable Law Firm– has reached a milestone of 1,000 referrals since its start in March 2020.  

The FLAN was first conceptualized in early 2019, when attorneys from the partner organizations collaborated to create a court-based program to provide same-day advice and representation for litigants with cases in the Domestic Relations Branch (DRB) of D.C. Superior Court. Many other branches, like the Parentage and Child Support Branch and the Domestic Violence Division, already offered similar services, so the attorneys saw a need that was not being met. 

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