New Pro Bono Effort to Represent Tenants Suing for Needed Repairs

South Brooklyn Legal Services (a program of Legal Services NYC) has teamed up with the office of New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio to recruit law firms willing to
represent tenants in Brooklyn Housing Court who are in disputes with
their landlords over repairs.

From a November 29th New York Law Journal article:

Last week, approximately 30 associates from Debevoise & Plimpton, Hogan Lovells and Hughes Hubbard & Reed took part in a training session at Debevoise to prepare them to represent clients who are living without heat or hot water, or have apartments with toxic mold, broken pipes and other damages. Attorneys from Kirkland & Ellis also have taken on a case.

"We began this partnership with South Brooklyn Legal Services and law firms to help level the playing field, and make sure vulnerable tenants who have the law on their side actually get results," Mr. de Blasio said in a statement, noting that while most landlords go into court with legal representation, tenants often do not.

According to Housing Court Answers, which provides information about the city's seven housing courts, more than 11,000 housing part actions for repairs were filed citywide last year by tenants and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

Brent Meltzer, co-director of the housing unit at South Brooklyn Legal Services, said the partnership means that counsel will be provided to individuals who are often turned away by organizations like his, which gives higher priority to clients facing eviction.

"It is about to get cold and every year during this season South Brooklyn Legal Services is inundated with calls from people with no heat," Mr. Meltzer said. "It's nice now to have attorneys who can focus on this and make sure families aren't cold over the holidays."

Attorneys will be assigned cases that have been vetted by both South Brooklyn Legal Services and the Public Advocate's Office, which will focus first on tenants who face serious threats to their health and safety because landlords have not completed needed repairs.

Read the full article on the New York Law Journal website.

The initiative is part of the Public Advocate's 8-point
housing plan to hold the city’s worst landlords accountable for
repairing their buildings. Read more about the plan, which was launched last April, by clicking here.