Legal Aid Society of Cleveland – Voices for Civil Justice

Founded in 1905, Legal Aid is the fifth oldest legal aid organization in the US. Legal Aid has four offices and serves clients in Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake and Lorain counties.
Organization website

Primary geographic focus: Ohio
Organization type(s): Provider
Lists: LSC

CONTENT MENTIONING/INVOLVING THIS SOURCE

News Story

Legal Aid, Collaborative call Cleveland police consent decree “comprehensive”

Mary Kilpatrick
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
May 27, 2015
Article covering the reactions in the wake of the consent decree between the U.S. Department of Justice and the city of Cleveland.

Op-Ed

We don’t need fewer lawyers. We need cheaper ones.

Martha Bergmark
Washington Post
June 2, 2015
Unable to afford representation, more Americans are going to court alone, and they're losing. An opinion piece by Voices for Civil Justice Executive Director Martha Bergmark.

Feature

The Justice Gap: How Big Law Is Failing Legal Aid

Susan Beck
ALM
June 29, 2015
An in-depth examination of law firms' lack of financial contributions to civil legal aid.

News Story

$45 Billion Zuckerberg-Chan Pledge Has Charities Excited — and Wary

Chronicle of Philanthropy
December 4, 2015
Leaders at grant-seeking charities say they are excited to see what Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his spouse have in mind for the $45 billion they pledged to doing good in the world — and wary of the broader impact it may have on philanthropy.

News Story

Judge orders notorious Cleveland landlords to pay $4 million to female tenants

Rachel Dissell, Brie Zeltner
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
January 15, 2016
Two brothers are accused dozens of times over the past decade of mistreating tenants.

Other

The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland helps low-income tenants and homeowners facing foreclosures and evictions

Jill Sell
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
January 17, 2016
The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland is an important resource for helping low-income residents secure and retain decent affordable housing.

News Story

Not enough low-income housing is being built in better neighborhoods, report finds

Rachel Dissell
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
August 17, 2016
Not enough is being done to help build low-income housing in neighborhoods with betters schools and safer streets, according to a report commissioned on behalf of state legal aid programs.

Op-Ed

Cleveland to Donald Trump – the rule of law is worth the fight: Steve Dettelbach

Steve Dettelbach
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
November 20, 2016
With a small staff, Legal Aid secures economic and social justice for our most vulnerable neighbors -- who too often struggle to get a fair shake.

Op-Ed

Mayor Jackson’s take on Cleveland lead inspections wrongly puts landlord interests over children’s health

Abigail Staudt
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
February 26, 2017
His view elevates the property interest of landlords at the expense of the health of our children, which is unacceptable.

News Story

Cutting legal aid is major concern in NEO

Jeremy Nobile
Crain’s Cleveland Business
April 2, 2017
Eliminating the Legal Services Corp., one of 19 agencies slated for federal defunding in President Donald Trump's 2018 budget proposal, would cut budgets for Northeast Ohio's legal aid groups by about 30% each.

News Story

Legal Aid Society sues Cleveland on behalf of toddler, asks court to make city follow lead poisoning laws

Rachel Dissell, Brie Zeltner
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
May 18, 2017
The city has, for more than six months, failed to protect a toddler it knew was harmed by lead hazards in her West Side rental home, according to the lawsuit.

Feature

Lead poisoning lawsuit highlights Cleveland family’s plight to find safe, affordable housing

Rachel Dissell, Brie Zeltner
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
May 29, 2017
The Legal Aid Society sued Cleveland on her behalf last week, in hopes the court will force city officials to follow state lead laws designed to protect children exposed to the brain damaging toxin, often in their homes.

News Story

Law would require nearly all older Cleveland homes to be ‘lead safe’

Rachel Dissell, Brie Zeltner
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
July 23, 2017
Cleveland homes, childcare centers and schools built before 1978 would have to be certified as safe from lead hazards by 2021 under legislation City Councilman Jeff Johnson will introduce next month.

News Story

Ohio budget bill ended cash assistance program for people with disabilities

Jackie Borchardt
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
August 7, 2017
The state stopped accepting new applications for the Disability Financial Assistance program July 1 -- a change buried in the 3,300-page state budget bill.

Op-Ed

The Legal Services Corporation’s meeting in Cleveland reminds us that access to justice is worth fighting for

Lea Kayali
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
August 27, 2017
The truth is, due process is growing harder to come by for many Americans.

Column

Cleveland Group Helps Tenants Fight Lead Poisoning in Housing Court

Spencer Wells
Nonprofit Quarterly (NPQ)
January 2, 2018
As a practical matter, when a tenant ends up in housing court, the summons dissipates the family’s fear of retaliation. The choice is resist or become homeless.

Feature

Battling bad landlords just got tougher

Mark Naymik
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
February 9, 2018
For 40 years, the Cleveland Tenants Organization was one of their few allies, guiding them on how to legally withhold rent from bad landlords and advising them of their rights during the eviction process.

News Story

Defunding Legal Services Corp., per Trump’s wishes, would cut almost $4 million from local legal aid groups

Jeremy Nobile
Crain’s Cleveland Business
February 14, 2018
Legal aid groups once again face a potential budget slashing as part of a recent proposal by President Donald Trump at a time when their resources are already stretched thin.

Op-Ed

Provide right to counsel in housing cases to reduce evictions, tackle poverty

Hazel Remesch
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
March 2, 2018
When families lack safe, stable housing, many aspects of their lives fall apart. Eviction is a cause, not just a condition, of poverty.

News Story , Video

How legal representation for tenants in housing court can affect eviction outcomes in Cleveland

Katie Ussin
WEWS-TV (Cleveland)
March 20, 2018
Failure to pay it could land you in eviction court, and the consequences can have a ripple effect in our community.

News Story

Court orders Cleveland to post signs warning of lead hazards in homes

Rachel Dissell
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
May 24, 2018
The court's ruling comes a year after The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland asked the court to compel Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Public Health Director Merle Gordon to comply with state laws and rules.

News Story

CLE Legal Aid: city’s lead paint poisoning response not fast enough to keep children safe

Joe Pagonakis
WEWS-TV (Cleveland)
September 25, 2018
Legal aid believes 60,000 to 80,000 pre-1978 homes and rental units may have some form of lead paint contamination, potentially putting thousands of young children at risk for brain damage.

Audio , Interview

Michigan Cities Face Eviction Crisis — Here Are Some Solutions

WDET (Detroit)
November 12, 2018
In other places across the country, there are efforts afoot in cities such as Cleveland meant to tackle housing issues through the court system.

News Story

Cleveland Housing Court sets new rules to make requests to seal evictions easier

Rachel Dissell
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
December 30, 2018
Once sealed, eviction record will no longer appear online or be available from the clerk’s office, limiting what landlords can find out about potential renters.

News Story

Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley to pursue plan to provide lawyers for impoverished tenants fighting eviction

Robert Higgs
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
May 29, 2019
City Council President Kevin Kelley expects within weeks to introduce legislation that would provide lawyers free of charge to impoverished tenants facing eviction.

Interview

Cleveland seeks to fight poverty by balancing the scales of justice in evictions

Chris Quinn
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
June 1, 2019
Cleveland City Council and the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland are is the verge of providing the kind of help to people in poverty that can be life altering: free lawyers to help people fight evictions.

News Story

Legal Aid ‘securing stability’ for low-income clients, report shows

Rachel Dissell
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
June 16, 2019
The report, the first of its kind measuring the impact of civil legal services, bolsters anecdotal evidence that removing even a single legal obstacle can be transformational for a client, Steven McGarrity, executive director of Community Legal Aid, said.

News Story

Study Shows Lasting Impact of Legal Aid Services in Northeast Ohio

Ella Abbott
WKSU (Kent, OH)
June 17, 2019
A new study released today looks at the lasting effect of legal aid services in certain Northeast Ohio counties.

News Story

A housing lifeline for low-income residents

Jeremy Nobile
Crain’s Cleveland Business
July 7, 2019
What you may not learn on television is that when it comes to civil cases, including housing and eviction disputes, there is no right to counsel in a system that favors landlords.

News Story

Cleveland May Join Crusade To Increase Eviction Atty Access

Kevin Penton
Law360
August 25, 2019
Cleveland is the latest in a series of municipalities across the country that are considering — or have already created — a right to counsel for certain individuals who face eviction, a move that advocates hope will prevent housing problems from spawning other economic and health woes for families.

News Story

Cleveland inches closer to right to counsel for citizens in need facing eviction

Jeremy Nobile
Crain’s Cleveland Business
September 5, 2019
The city is one step closer to legislating a right to counsel in housing court for low-income individuals, thanks to Cleveland City Council legislation introduced on Aug. 21.

News Story

Cleveland City Council would establish program to provide lawyers for impoverished families facing eviction

Robert Higgs
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH)
September 30, 2019
Cleveland’s legislation does not identify a source of funding for the legal advice, though Council President Kevin Kelley said he expects the city would need to pick up some of the cost.

News Story

Is Tenants’ Right to Counsel On Its Way to Becoming Standard Practice?

Jared Brey
NextCity.org
December 10, 2019
Eviction is a deeply disruptive and destructive event in a tenant’s life that, in the words of Matt Desmond, director of Princeton University's Eviction Lab, “is not just a condition of poverty, it is a cause of it.” Research shows that most of the time in housing court landlords have lawyers but tenants do not. The good news is that there is a growing national movement to provide all renters facing eviction the legal help they need to ensure a fair outcome in eviction proceedings. So far, five cities have passed such bills, and more are considering it.

News Story

As Rents Rise, Cities Strengthen Tenants’ Ability to Fight Eviction

Laura Kusisto
Wall Street Journal (WSJ)
December 26, 2019
Half-a-dozen cities from San Francisco to Cleveland are promising tenants the right to an attorney in eviction cases, a costly and logistically daunting initiative that advocates say is a necessary response to rising housing costs and homelessness.

News Story