clip board and stethoscope in focus in the foreground, doctor holding a patient's hand out of focus in the background

Report: Preventing Wasteful and Inequitable Consultative Examinations in Social Security Disability Claims

Today, advocates from New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG), the Urban Justice Center (UJC), and Community Legal Services of Philadelphia (CLS) released a new report about wasteful and harmful Social Security policies, which discriminate against adults and children with disabilities. The report focuses on issues arising in New York State and Pennsylvania, but this is…

CLS logo, header reading The Clean Slate Screening Project: A Case Study in Scaling Up Record Clearing & Advocacy

The Clean Slate Screening Project: A Case Study

Legal services providers are frequently presented with the challenge of communicating complicated and evolving legal advice to large numbers of constituents. The Clean Slate Screening Project (CSSP), developed by Philadelphia-based Community Legal Services (CLS) in partnership with the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA), was conceived as a solution to that predicament when in 2018, the state…

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Report from CLS and PULP Reveals Energy Insecurity Among Black and Latinx Households in Pennsylvania

Today, Community Legal Services and the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project released a report that reveals that Black and Latinx households in Pennsylvania are more likely to experience unaffordable utility costs and fall behind on their utility bills at a much higher rate than white households. Many of these same communities were hardest hit by COVID-19…

Report: Debt Collection in Philadelphia

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…

COVID-19’s Impact on Race and Housing Security Across Philadelphia: Philadelphia Renters Report

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…

Women holding out their arms, text: "Help Us Help Outselves so we can help others get free!!

Report: Supporting Women in the Criminal Legal System Through Access to Diversionary Programs

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…