As reported in several news outlets last week (including the Washington Post, the City Paper, and DCist), the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia recently approved a significant settlement for tenants at a property that was formerly owned by Sanford Capital. Legal Aid represented thirty-two tenants who will receive substantial compensation, totaling over $407,000, for having to endure severe housing code violations and security risks when Sanford Capital owned the property. Read more →

As Domestic Violence Awareness Month comes to a close, Legal Aid continues our discussion of “coercive control” – an often unseen, but critical, aspect in many domestic violence cases. Specifically, abusers may exploit external forms of oppression – such as racism, homophobia, patriarchal norms, and xenophobia – to assert and maintain control over victims. These forces contribute to the vast under-reporting of domestic violence in the LGBT community, communities of color, and immigrant communities. Read more →

Last week marked the beginning of this year’s Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which has been observed every October for over thirty years. Legal Aid is proud to stand by domestic violence survivors and bring attention to this very important issue.

Legal Aid’s Domestic Violence/Family Law Unit represents domestic violence and sexual assault survivors in civil protection order cases and various family law matters. However, in order to get a civil protection order here in DC, a domestic violence survivor must show that their abuser committed a crime – usually an assault, a threat to do bodily harm, or a sexual assault. Read more →

It is National Expungement Week. In honor of this week, Legal Aid wants to celebrate the power that criminal record sealing has to expand economic opportunities for DC residents. Criminal records place obstacles in the way of DC residents who are searching for work and homes. Fortunately, DC’s criminal record sealing laws are an invaluable tool to allow some individuals with criminal records to move forward with their lives. In the future, Legal Aid encourages the DC Council to continue to look for ways to responsibly expand access to criminal record sealing. Read more →

For many, September 21 is a memorable day because it marks the beginning of fall, but here at Legal Aid, this date marked the beginning of National Expungement Week!

As part of the efforts to raise awareness about expungement and other remedies available to the roughly one in eight DC residents with a criminal conviction, Legal Aid has planned a two part blog series. Part one will highlight the services provided by Legal Aid’s Reentry Justice Project, on an individual and systemic level, and part two will focus on the remedy of record sealing. Read more →

The D.C. Council recently passed the “Standby Guardian Emergency Amendment Act of 2019,” which amends D.C. Code § 16-4801 to add adverse immigration action as a triggering event. We support any tool that will enhance the stability and dignity of our neighbors who hail from other countries and look forward to working with the Council on making this emergency amendment permanent. Read more →

This week, Legal Aid honored Daniel Wolf, an associate with Gilbert LLP, with our Making Justice Real Pro Bono Award in recognition of Dan’s outstanding pro bono service to his clients and exemplary pro bono leadership at his firm. Legal Aid’s Executive Director Eric Angel and Jodi Feldman, who manages Legal Aid’s Pro Bono Program, presented the award at a reception with many of Dan’s colleagues in attendance. Read more →

It takes tremendous courage for any domestic violence survivor to make the daunting decision to seek legal recourse against their abuser. Pursuing a domestic violence Civil Protection Order (CPO) case means rearranging your personal, work, and childcare schedule to spend hours in court waiting to see a judge; it means summoning the emotional strength to testify against your abuser at trial; it means revealing, recounting, and reliving the worst moments of your life in a public courtroom, at the risk of not being believed. These reasons alone dissuade many survivors of violence from seeking justice, safety, and independence through the court system.

However, for undocumented immigrant survivors of abuse, a unique set of fears compounds the many reasons why victims of violence choose not to pursue legal protection from abuse. As the Washington Post recently reported, immigrant victims of violence are increasingly concerned that reporting their abuse to the police or the courts will expose their immigration status, lead to their arrest, and result in deportation. Such fears are understandable in the context of the nation’s current political climate, which is overtly hostile towards immigrants who lack legal status. According to U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in 2018, the rate of immigration-related arrests grew by 11%, while the rate of deportation increased by 13%. Read more →

Last week, Legal Aid honored Groom Law Group with our Making Justice Real Pro Bono Award, recognizing the firm for its outstanding pro bono collaboration and service. Legal Aid’s Executive Director Eric Angel and Jodi Feldman, who manages Legal Aid’s Pro Bono Program, presented the award to Ed Meehan, Groom’s Pro Bono Committee Chair, at a reception hosted by the firm. Read more →

Yesterday, Legal Aid, the DC Fiscal Policy Institute and the Washington Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs submitted comments opposing a new approach to measuring poverty under consideration by the Trump Administration that could significantly reduce the number of families eligible for a wide range of safety net benefit programs. This “request for information,” which relates to how the federal poverty guidelines are updated each year, may appear quite technical at first glance. But adoption of the measure the Administration is contemplating could ultimately result in the denial of access to essential benefits like Medicaid and SNAP to millions of low-income individuals and families. As organizations dedicated to justice for low-income communities and communities of color, we oppose the adoption of a poverty measure that would artificially lower the poverty threshold and make countless vulnerable individuals and families ineligible for essential benefits. Read more →