Good news: a court has put a halt to the ABAWDs rule change. The rule will not be going into effect April 1. Please check back for more information. View the “Understanding the New SNAP Time Limit“ webinar for free! Starting April 1, 2020, over 35,000 Philadelphians – and over 90,000 Pennsylvanians — will be…
CLS attorney Montgomery Wilson, Esq, submitted testimony to the City Committee on Finance on November 13, 2019 in support of Bill # 190746 introduced by Councilman Allan Domb, Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez and Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell. The Bill seeks to increase the amount of the local wage tax refund available for low-income workers. Under the bill,…
Contact with the criminal legal system comes with a price tag that a growing number of Americans cannot afford to pay. With one in three Americans living with a criminal record, it is no surprise that an estimated ten million Americans owe a total of 50 billion dollars in court imposed fines and costs.
Right to Counsel passed unanimously in Philadelphia City Council on November 14! This bill guarantees low income tenants an attorney in eviction cases and is a critical step towards stabilizing communities, stemming the effects of gentrification, and addressing systemic racism & housing discrimination in Philadelphia. Read more about this legislation here and here. Read CLS…
Thousands of Pennsylvanians face legal barriers to occupational licenses based on their criminal records. With over two dozen professions requiring a license by the state, many people who are otherwise fully qualified to work in a licensed occupation nevertheless face possible denial of the license due to a conviction – often, for a crime which…
Expungements: Good or Bad? Discuss. Two quite different perspectives on the value of record clearing (which I will refer to here as “expungements” as a shorthand) are sometimes articulated. Here’s one. “Expungement is the best remedy for people with records. It really does provide a clean slate. It doesn’t require employers or landlords to follow…
CLS Deputy Director of Operations and Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer Brenda Marrero on what it means to belong.
The following testimony was delivered by CLS attorney Nadia Hewka to Philadelphia City Council on October 22, 2019. My name is Nadia Hewka, thank you to the committee for inviting me to testify today on behalf of Community Legal Services. I am here to wholeheartedly support the Philadelphia Domestic Workers Bill of Rights as it…
This toolkit was researched, written, and created by CLS attorney Kee Tobar, for her project as a Stoneleigh Foundation Emerging Leader Fellow. Legal aid organizations were created to help poor people access justice. This mission expanded during President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” The aim of the “War on Poverty” was to not only relieve…
The following post was written by CLS Litigation Director Sharon Dietrich. I sometimes am asked for authority for the proposition that the reporting of an expunged or sealed case by a commercial screener violates the FCRA. Unfortunately, the dearth of case law directly on point keeps me from just succinctly giving a citation, even though…
