Promoting Language Access during COVID-19

Legal Aid has long fought for equal language access for our limited English proficient (“LEP”) and non-English proficient (“NEP”) client community, but this access is especially important during this unprecedented global pandemic in which new information is arriving and evolving daily. The DC Council has passed emergency legislation related to issues that directly impact our client community such as rent freezes, mortgage deferrals, consumer protections from debt collectors, and expansions of unemployment benefits. The Superior Court issued an order postponing filing deadlines and non-emergency hearings until after May 15th. In these troubling times, there is an immense amount of untranslated information that is relevant to our client community. Read more →

Legal Aid’s New Foreclosure Prevention Project

I am very excited to have joined Legal Aid’s Consumer Law Unit as an Equal Justice Works Fellow last month.  My project, which is sponsored by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP, focuses on providing assistance to low-income homeowners facing foreclosure in the District of Columbia.

My project comes at a very opportune time.  In March 2014, new procedures were implemented affecting homeowners who have been sued for foreclosure in D.C. Superior Court.  Specifically, early mediation was added as an initial step in judicial foreclosure cases, offering homeowners the chance to sit down with their lenders and discuss the possibility of loan modifications or other alternatives to foreclosure.  Read more →