When the pandemic closed businesses and schools and changed our way of life, Community Legal Aid quickly adapted and expanded the work we do to meet the needs of our clients.
- Our benefits unit pivoted to assist the increased number of workers filing claims for unemployment insurance. In one of many such cases, our advocacy successfully helped a single mother reverse an incorrect denial of her benefits, working around technical glitches that occurred during the virtual appeal hearing with the Department of Unemployment Assistance.
- Our housing attorneys adjusted their work on behalf of tenants facing emergency housing issues by representing clients in telephonic or virtual hearings with the Housing Court. As an example, our advocacy stopped an eviction for an elderly tenant who was paying her rent and would have likely become homeless but for our intervention.
- As the incidence of domestic violence has increased in our service area, our family law unit has focused on helping survivors secure protection orders from courts operating remotely. This included successfully obtaining a one-year extension of an abuse protection order for a teenage client abused by a family member.
- With schools providing remote instruction, our education attorneys turned their attention to helping families get school services in place for their children at home. In one typical case, our advocates assisted a family in obtaining tailored services for a student with special needs for whom the virtual classroom posed unique challenges.
Michelle's Story
A single mother of two children, “Michelle” worked as a personal care assistant, a job that gave her flexibility to work around her children’s school and daycare schedules. In early March, the school and daycare her children attended closed due to the pandemic. With no one to watch her children, Michelle was forced to stop working. After her employer, incorrectly, told the Department of Unemployment Assistance that Michelle had stopped working without reason, she was denied unemployment benefits.
She contacted Community Legal Aid for help. Staff Attorney Daniel Bahls assisted Michelle with her appeal at the Department of Unemployment Assistance, and Michelle was able to demonstrate that she had been forced to leave her job due to the necessity of caring for her children during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Hearing Officer reversed her denial and awarded her benefits dating back to early March.