For some, the two-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic surge in the United States arrived unceremoniously. Many have resumed activities that mirrored their lives prior to the onset. But for others, the fight for a meaningful safety social net, including access to unemployment insurance, clean water, and affordable healthcare, continues.
We bring you three stories, where individuals are still fighting for justice.
New Filing to Support Louisiana Residents' Ongoing Struggle to Access Unemployment Benefits
Many Louisiana residents continue to struggle to claim unemployment insurance, as a result of ongoing delays and failures by the Louisiana Workforce Commission to issue unemployment benefits and eligibility notices.
Last week, we filed a motion for class certification in our ongoing litigation against the Commission, with co-counsel from the Manard Firm and Winston & Strawn LLP. The case, filed in 2021, challenges problematic practices by the agency responsible for operating the unemployment programs for the State of Louisiana.
Attorney Saima Akhtar estimates that more than 100,000 Louisianans may have failed to receive proper notices about their unemployment benefits in the time since the onset of the pandemic.
“Courts need to work for everyone. This new filing is a critical step to making Louisiana’s unemployment compensation system more responsive and fairer for all eligible claimants,” says Akhtar.
Thousands of New Yorkers At Risk of Water Shutoffs, New Data Reveals
Thousands of New Yorkers risk having their water shut off because they simply can't afford it.
With our partner Western New York Law Center, we obtained data through Freedom of Information Law requests to water authorities in Monroe, Erie, Oneida, and Suffolk Counties, which together serve over 3 million New Yorkers. With the expiration of New York’s utility shut-off moratorium this past December, thousands of New Yorkers are now at risk of having their water shut off due to non-payment.
Kentucky kept collecting UK medical debt after acknowledging due process violations
"Tip Moody trusted the University of Kentucky. He worked there, and since 2001 he had visited UK’s Albert B Chandler hospital every three months for HIV treatment.
Even when the university sent him a bill for $5,604 for treatment in 2008 despite his income-eligibility for financial assistance, Moody thought things would work out.
But that trust dissipated by 2009, after the university sent his debt to the Kentucky Department of Revenue for collection. The state demanded payment for a bill he had been contesting for years, started withholding his tax returns, and in 2010 placed a lien on the house his mother lived in."
The National Center for Law and Economic Justice advances racial and economic justice through ground-breaking impact litigation, policy advocacy, and support for grassroots organizing. We have provided legal representation and support since 1965.
