LatinoJustice Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund

Transcription

1 LatinoJustice Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund Overview of Achievements, LatinoJustice PRLDEF (LJP) provides legal support for Latinos whose rights have been violated and/or who are victims of discrimination or hate crimes on the basis of race and ethnicity. LJP aims to create a legal environment that puts all Latinos on an equal footing in the labor, political and cultural life of New York City, State and the nation, rather than allowing indifference to contribute to Latinos becoming a permanent underclass. During , through litigation, legal work and advocacy, LJP has defended the housing, employment, education and human rights of Latinos. LJP has also provided legal advice and referrals to more than 400 Latinos who have called our hotline, sent correspondence or walked into our offices needing assistance on issues ranging from housing and employment discrimination to hate crimes and racial profiling. Our achievements include significant success defending the rights of low-wage immigrant workers. With co-counsel, LJP brought a wage & hour case in August 2012 on behalf of a group of Korean and Latino low-wage immigrant restaurant workers seeking unpaid wages and overtime for their work at Kum Gang San Restaurant. The plaintiffs had worked hours per week as waiters and bussers for the restaurant without being paid the minimum wage or any overtime pay. A one-week trial was held in the Southern District of New York in June On March 19, 2015, the Court issued a decision awarding approximately $2.7 million in damages to nine Korean and two Latino workers against the restaurant and its owner for failing to pay minimum wages or overtime, and stealing tips from the workers in violation of federal and state labor laws. The lawsuit decision received substantial press attention including the New York Times, El Diario/La Prensa that will hopefully deter other restaurant businesses from seeking to profit by cheating their low-wage workers. In another important effort within our workers' rights platform, LJP's Employment Agency Abuse Project in a partnership with New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) with the establishment of a broad and diverse coalition to combat the exploitation of Latino immigrant workers by rogue and often unlicensed employment agencies in the greater metropolitan New York region. The resulting Justice 4 Job Seekers campaign culminated a tremendous year of advocacy with the introduction of significant employment agency reform legislation by leaders in both the New York State Assembly and Senate during the legislative session, and resulting enforcement activity by the State Attorney General's Labor Bureau, and New York City's Department of Consumer Affairs during the reporting period. It is difficult to quantify the exact savings to the workers who will not Service Area: Statewide This Provider At a Glance Population Served: Minorities and Ethnic Groups, Primarily the Latino Population Area Served: Statewide Total Funding: $1,131,012 Total IOLA Grant: $75,000 Staffing - Full Time Equivalents Total Staff: 9.50 Lawyers: 8.50 Other Staff: 1.00 Types of Services Provided Direct Civil Legal Representation Brief Services Extended Services Hotlines and Other Phone-Based Services Technology and Other Innovations Community Legal Education Pro Se Assistance Collaborations With Other Service Providers Major Cases or Other Advocacy Projects LatinoJustice Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund - 1

2 Outcomes 76 Individuals Benefited from 76 Closed Direct Civil Legal Cases Dollar Benefits Achieved for Clients* - Total $2,732,232 Affirmative Judgments: $2,732,232 *Total includes back awards and total monthly benefits, estimated over 12 months for affirmative judgments. Extended Representation Outcomes 9 People benefited from extended representation Brief Representation Benefits 30 People benefited from legal advice and counsel 37 People benefited by referral to other sources of help Examples... Outcomes for Clients n March of 2013, a property management company purchased 49 buildings in gentrifying neighborhoods in East I Harlem, the Bronx and Brooklyn. Following the purchase, the management company tried to intimidate hundreds of largely Mexican and Ecuadorian immigrant tenants to vacate those buildings. The landlord refused to renew their leases, threatened to evict them because of their immigration status; and requested that tenants provide documents proving income or Social Security numbers to determine citizenship status, all of which are illegal rental practices. It was later learned that the management company paid employees a commission fee ranging from $500 to $7000 for each surrender agreement they obtained from a tenant. Many of the conversations between residents and management company employees took place in front of the minor children of the families. The tension and stress was a heavy burden the families carried for months. The children witnessed the stress their parents were put under and feared losing their homes. One child asked her mother whether the police would come to take them out of their home. LJP met with a group of the tenants and an organizer from a community-based organization in East Harlem (Movement for Justice in El Barrio) in June Department of Housing and Community Renewal's (DHCR) new Tenant Protection Unit (TPU) had also learned of situation through various media reports and had opened a formal investigation and issued a subpoena to the landlord. We counseled the tenants to co-operate with DHCR investigation rather than pursue independent legal action. DHCR announced a settlement with the landlord in January The organizer contacted LJP again in May 2014 to assist several of the tenants in filing damages claims with the Special Monitor appointed by DHCR as part of the settlement. LJP legal interns (volunteers) and Legal Director met with the tenants and filed claims in July State Division of Housing & Community Renewal (DHCR) Special Monitor issued a final decision approving claims LJP prepared and submitted for 4 Latina tenant families (2 in Manhattan and 2 in the Bronx) and awarded damages ranging from $5,350 to $12,500 for a total of $32,232. These were the highest amounts awarded to tenants who benefitted from the expert legal counsel LJP was able to provide. LJP also followed-up to ensure the return of the identification documents that were illegally obtained by the property management company. The management company said they searched but could not find any of the documents. TPU secured affidavits stating that the documents had not been found, but would be returned if discovered. LJP requested that such documents be returned to all of the tenants even if we did not represent them and without having to request them in advance. This advocacy benefitted hundreds (possibly thousands) of residents. Breakdown of Cases by Legal Problem Area Immigration 30% People Cases Total Housing Immigration Education Employment LatinoJustice Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund - 2 Housing 36% Employment 16% Education 18%

3 Other Services Hotlines and Other Telephone Based Legal Services Our free bilingual telephone hotline service addresses the pressing and unmet need for individual legal services provided to low-income and indigent Latinos. LJP's legal referral service ensures that all who come to us can secure high quality legal services--even if we cannot provide it ourselves. Staffed by our Senior Legal Assistant, who is a native Spanish speaker, callers receive caring, attentive referral assistance. When necessary, our attorneys, fellows and legal interns also assist in making appropriate referrals. We also have a smaller number of walk-in visitors in need of similar services on site in our office. These free bilingual services are of crucial benefit to the Latinos we serve because they often experience barriers to obtaining legal services such as limited English proficiency, unfamiliarity with the legal system and limited economic resources. LJP's telephone service is toll-free and available to Latinos nationwide. It is integral to our program because it allows LJP to have a direct impact on Latino individuals, and establishes us as a resource for the Latino community as a whole. It raises our profile among organizations, individuals and communities that have experienced civil and human rights violations and racial or ethnic discrimination. The telephone service also alerts us to emerging issues in local communities that have potential to lead to impact litigation on behalf of groups of Latinos. Our telephone referral service handled 394 calls from March 2014 to April LJP's toll-free telephone number is listed in LawHelpNY. An additional 41 incarcerated individuals were provided with information. Technology and Other Innovations In anticipation of the opening of our regional office in Orlando, Florida, LJP switched to VoIP phones in order to meet our communication needs and to add phones lines in a cost effective way. It was important for individuals to be able to manage their conference calling, and with remote staff, introduce video conferencing. Similarly, with the development of our business continuity plan, we switched our service to a secure Microsoft cloud to guarantee uninterrupted communications, in case access to our server is compromised. The implementation of a secure and reliable network to safeguard communications, with a secure server where all organizational data resides, is the most significant technology upgrade LJP has implemented. The network and its ability for remote connections allows for growth and mobility, and the sustainability of all other software and applications, such as case management software. We have the ability to use legal case management software that enables our attorneys to categorize and classify files and access files remotely. We are able to continue to work even when access to our office location is restricted. Legal Services Other Than Direct Legal Representation Providing community legal education is an important part of our service delivery strategy. We partner with community-based organizations that provide an essential connection to individuals with whom they have established relationships of trust. Community partnerships enable us to reach isolated individuals and to provide know-your-rights workshops and legal clinics that potentially uncover issues we would not hear about otherwise. Our target population is Latinos whose rights have been violated and/or who are victims of discrimination or hate crimes on the basis of race and ethnicity. Our community education efforts served 1000 people during the grant period. Collaborations With Other Service Providers LJP works in collaboration with other civil rights litigation groups on an ongoing basis Some of our collaborators nationally include the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Law Center, Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. We also partner with community-based organizations. In the Suffolk County Police Department investigations, we partnered with a community organizer from Make the Road NY which has helped to identify victims who were too afraid to come forward and speak out against the SCPD officers. LJP is handling the legal work, but we are working collaboratively to devise strategies to advance our project goals. In this project we are also working with the New York Immigration Coalition, Suffolk County New York Civil Liberties Union, SEPA Mujer, and Long Island Jobs with Justice. Similarly, LJP served as counsel to the New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) on its employment agency work. In that capacity, we helped to form and Number of People Benefited by Legal Services Other Than Direct Legal Representation Total: 3,193 People Community Legal Education and Pro Se Assistance: 2,800 People Legal Hotline Services: 393 People LatinoJustice Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund - 3

4 Other Services, continued coordinate a statewide coalition to reform New York s employment agency laws. Collaborations are a critical in our ongoing work to defend Latina immigrant women who face pervasive workplace abuse and lack access to legal representation. During the grant period LJP received renewed funding from the New York Women's Foundation to assist us in our effort to extend our Latin s at Work (LAW) project into New York City's boroughs (the project was initiated on Long Island.) We have been working to strengthen our relationships with several organizations and develop new partnerships with Catholic Migration Services, the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights, the Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, La Fuente, Inc., the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, National Domestic Workers Alliance and Brandworkers International. Both NICE and the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights have agreed to work with us to distribute our LAW project surveys to their clients and members. Like our collaboration with community-based partners on Long Island, these collaborations in service of our LAW project help us identify clients and trends while raising awareness of issues affecting low-wage Latino/as. LJP continues to participate in the Post-Shelby County Voting Rights Litigation Working Group which was formed to undertake activities to prevent or deter as many discriminatory voting practices from being implemented or enacted as possible though litigation and pre-litigation investigation and advocacy in jurisdictions formerly covered under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Our partners in this effort include the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. LJP's work in this effort is centered on New York and Florida, both of which had several counties that were deemed covered jurisdictions under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act before it was struck down by the Supreme Court. LJP works in collaboration with law firms which serve as co-counsel on litigations. We are working with the law firm of Shearman & Sterling LLP in our effort to address the racially-biased practices of the SCPD. Some other collaborators include Nixon Peabody; Getman & Sweeney; and Outten & Golden. These firms often assign a partner to the case, co-counsel on strategy and brief-writing, take depositions, participate in discovery and trials, and in some cases, take responsibility for filing and serving. Partnering with firms is an innovative strategy that enables us to bring far more litigation than we would be able to do with our staff alone. Our work with co-counsel with Shearman & Sterling and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in the Kim v. Kum Gang Sun litigation is a case in point. Major Cases or Other Advocacy Projects Kim v. Kum Gang, Inc. In June 2014 we finished a one-week trial in the Southern District of New York. Kim v. Kum Gang, Inc. is a wage and hour case brought on behalf of a group of Korean and Latino low-wage immigrant restaurant workers seeking unpaid wages and overtime for their work at Kum Gang San Restaurant. The plaintiffs had worked extremely long hours as waiters and bussers for the restaurant without being paid the minimum wage or any overtime pay. A major milestone was reached on March 19, 2015 when the Court issued a decision awarding more than $2 million in damages to nine Korean and two Latino workers against the restaurant and its owner for failing to pay minimum wages or overtime, and stealing tips from the workers in violation of federal and state labor laws. Sources of Funding Total $1,131,012 IOLA Grant $75,000 Foundations $670,000 Income from Fundraising Events $258,469 State Funding $36,210 Other $91,333 Foundations 59% Income from Fundraising Events 23% IOLA Grant 7% State Funding 3% Other 8% LatinoJustice Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund - 4

5 Other Services, continued Pro Bono Volunteer Involvement LJP partners with dozens of private attorneys and law firms, as well as other legal and advocacy nonprofit groups to provide legal assistance and representation for Latinos represented in our impact cases. We partner to share legal and financial responsibilities, as well as to develop the most effective litigation team to handle a given case. During the grant period LJP continued to collaborate with multiple law firms including Fried Frank; Cleary Gottlieb; Nixon Peabody; Davis Polk; Milbank and Skadden Arps. LJP has become known for its competitive law student internships which are offered throughout the year. Law student legal interns provide substantive support to all of our work though legal and factual research memoranda, translation of documents and assisting in the preparation of legal briefs. A number of law student interns have returned to LJP as fellows and staff attorneys. From April 2013 to March 31, 2015, LJP hosted twenty-one law student interns in New York and our Southeast Regional Office in Orlando, Florida. LJP played an important role in partnering and supporting other organizations during the surge of Pro Bono Statistics During , the following volunteers provided services in our program: Attorneys: 19 Volunteers 400 Hours Law Students: 21 Volunteers 420 Hours Dollar Value of Attorney Services*: $0.10 million *estimated at $250 per hour unaccompanied minors from Central America. LJP recruited volunteers from MetroLALSA (the local (Latin American Law Student Association) to be in the courtrooms to assist unaccompanied minors who had no representation. LatinoJustice Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund - 5