Philadelphia’s Fair Workweek Law turns five years old on April 1st! As we celebrate this important milestone, CLS is thrilled to see how this law has made a real difference in the lives of Philly’s frontline service, hospitality, and retail workers. As legal aid attorneys who represent low-wage workers, CLS repeatedly heard from clients who…
Currently, the Pennsylvania Unemployment Compensation (UC) benefit system is experiencing long delays in handling appeals from denials of UC benefits. People are waiting for their UC referee hearings and decisions for 2 to 6 months, depending on their location in the state. Most people who must wait that long suffer severe financial hardship. If you…
Our homes provide the foundation for safe, healthy, and joyful lives. When families live in affordable homes, parents are more likely to find and keep a job, and children come to school ready to learn. However, landlords in Pennsylvania have filed to evict more than 357,000 tenants and their families since the start of the…
Community Legal Services and Philadelphia Legal Assistance (PLA) are thrilled to welcome three new members to our overlapping Boards of Directors. Diana Cortes, a partner at Morgan Lewis, is a longtime trial lawyer and former Philadelphia city solicitor/general counsel. Diana represents clients in crisis and complex litigation matters, including class actions and large group…
“Language justice goes beyond simply providing interpretation or translation. Language justice is about centering the dignity of those impacted,” writes Chi-Ser Tran, Supervising Attorney in the SSI Unit and Language Access Project at CLS. In this article, written for MIE, Chi-Ser shares her experience of caring for her father through an illness, describing how the…
Philadelphia just released new property assessments, which are used to calculate property tax bills. If your assessed value went up, your property taxes will, too. If you think your home’s assessment is too high, you should appeal right away. You can do that by requesting a “First Level Review” with the Office of Property Assessment…
New Report Shows Unintentional, Systemic Bias in Philadelphia Property Assessments Today, Community Legal Services of Philadelphia (CLS) announced the publication of a new report, “Examining the Accuracy, Uniformity & Equity of Philadelphia’s 2023 Real Estate Tax Assessments.” The report, commissioned by CLS, and researched and authored by the Reinvestment Fund, in partnership with CLS and…
This year ushers in the 35th anniversary for Community Legal Services’ Bar Campaign. That’s 35 years where Philadelphia area law firms have stood together to advance access to justice for our neighbors who are struggling to get by. 35 years is more than just a number; it’s an important milestone that demonstrates that Philadelphia’s entire…
“It makes you feel defeated and hopeless. It’s like you feel stuck. You have no help and nowhere to turn to all because of something that happened years ago,” said Jennifer Lee, a mother of two who was evicted in 2015. Since the start of the pandemic, Pennsylvania landlords have filed more than 280,000 evictions.…
None of us can afford climate change, but the costs are even higher for Black and Brown people, cities, rural communities, and low-income families. PA must allocate permanent state supplemental funding to make LIHEAP available year round. Summer of 2022 was one of the hottest summers on record in Pennsylvania’s history, and temperatures will only…
