What is budget billing? Usually, gas and electric costs vary month by month based on usage. For example, if you have gas heating, your gas bill will be higher in the wintertime. With budget billing, you will pay a fixed amount every month, based on your average bill. How is the monthly bill calculated? The…
Community Legal Services commissioned the following study by the Reinvestment Fund to learn about the impact of debt collection cases filed in Philadelphia’s “small claims” Municipal Court against people across the City, with a particular focus on race. The report includes statistics and maps related to case filings and top filers, service of process, case…
CLS Litigation Director Sharon Dietrich submitted the following testimony before the Pennsylvania House Labor and Industry Committee on March 10, 2021. The testimony highlights problems with Pennsylvania’s Unemployment Compensation and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance programs that are preventing eligible applicants from receiving benefits, and proposes solutions to these problems. Download the full testimony with attachments Members…
Join the 2021 Philadelphia Water Rate Case Public Hearings by Zoom or Phone: Tuesday, March 16, 2021, at 1:00 pm Web: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88260160674 Phone: 929-205-6099 Meeting ID: 882 6016 0674 Thursday, March 18, 2021, at 1:00 pm Web: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87914683516 Phone: 929-205-6099 Meeting ID: 879 1468 3516 Tuesday, March 16, 2021, at 6:00 pm Web: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83121546904 Phone:…
PECO y PGW (las empresas de energía eléctrica y gas, respectivamente) deben ofrecer protecciones para los sobrevivientes de violencia doméstica. Para calificar a estas protecciones, un sobreviviente debe tener lo siguiente: Una Orden de Protección contra el Abuso (PFA); o Un orden judicial que proporcione evidencia clara de violencia doméstica en contra del solicitante o…
Información en Español. PECO (electric) and PGW (gas) must provide protections for survivors of domestic violence. To qualify for these protections, a survivor must have either: A Protection from Abuse Order (PFA); or A court order which provides clear evidence of domestic violence against the applicant or customer What protections are available? Survivors can only…
Read the full report Racial and economic disparities in affordable housing existed long before the COVID-19 pandemic, and yet, new data from the US Census Bureau suggest that the pandemic and the ensuing economic fallout are only widening these divides. When paired with a global pandemic, we anticipate a national wave of homelessness that will…
Today, Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, as part of Incarcerated Women’s Working Group (“Working Group”) released a report on increasing access to diversionary programs for women in the criminal legal system. Diversion programs divert individuals accused of crimes away from traditional court trial and sentencing proceedings, instead requiring participation in community service, treatment, and other…
The following post was written by Kee Tobar, Director of Race Equity & Inclusion at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia. Not too long ago I was asked for an elevator pitch concerning what Community Legal Services does within a racial justice context. At first it was hard to condense the many things we do into…
Para información en español What is a tangled title? If you live in a house that you think you own, that you treat and pay for as your own, or that you may have inherited, but your name is not on the deed, you may have a tangled title. This often happens if: one of your relatives owned…
