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Civil Practice

Last year, The Legal Aid Society's Civil Practice Program worked to improve the lives of low-income New Yorkers by helping vulnerable families and individuals to obtain and maintain the basic necessities of life - housing, health care, food and subsistence income or self-sufficiency as well as enhancing family and community stability and security by resolving a full range of legal problems, including domestic violence, family law, immigration, employment, and consumer law issues.

The Civil Practice operates out of a network of 10 neighborhood and courthouse-based offices in all five boroughs and 17 specialized units and projects.

  • Brooklyn Office for the Aging: Serves the senior community by preventing unlawful evictions, assisting with health care, and securing government benefits.
  • Community Development Project: Supports clients pursuing grassroots community economic development in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx.
  • Disability Advocacy Project: Assists adults and children in obtaining benefits under the Supplemental Security Income or Social Security programs.
  • Employment Law Project: Serves workers who have been denied unemployment insurance, whose back wages have been withheld, or who were unjustly fired.
  • Family/Domestic Violence Practice: Helps clients achieve stability, autonomy, and economic self-sufficiency in a safe environment.
  • Government Benefits Practice: Assists clients in obtaining and maintaining the government benefits to which they are entitled.
  • Health Law Unit: Helps clients navigate the health care system, reduce medical debt, and access health insurance.
  • HIV/AIDS Representation Project: Responds to the specific needs of persons living with HIV/AIDS by providing comprehensive legal services.
  • Homeless Rights Project: Works continually to establish and maintain the right to shelter, assistance, and services for homeless families and individuals in New York City.
  • Housing Practice: Prevents evictions and homelessness, corrects housing violations, obtains rent subsidies, and fights illegal overcharges.
  • Housing Development Unit: Helps tenants and tenant organizations preserve and expand the stock of affordable housing in Harlem, Washington Heights, and Inwood.
  • Immigration Law Unit: Provides the only free, comprehensive legal services available to immigrants in New York City.
  • Law Reform Unit: Represents clients to effect systemic changes through law reform and class action litigation and advocacy.
  • Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic: Advises clients on tax disputes and educating client communities about tax compliance and the Earned Income Tax Credit.
  • Predatory Lending Project: Assists and educates consumers about predatory lending practices.
  • Prisoners Rights Project: Protects the legal rights of prisoners through law reform and class action litigation and individual advice and representation.
  • Project FAIR: Serves low-income and homeless New Yorkers through its Legal Help Desk at the State's central fair hearing site in New York City.