   
2012 News Coverage
2012 Press Releases
News Archive
State Budget Spotlight: Civil Legal Aid (WGBH)
1/26/2012 - Emily Rooney, host of the Emily Rooney Show, spoke with MLAC Executive Director Lonnie Powers about how legal aid programs help low-income Massachusetts residents, and how they are struggling to overcome critical funding shortages.
Lawyers Call on Beacon Hill to Increase Legal Aid (WBUR)
1/26/2012 - Hundreds of Massachusetts lawyers, including one Supreme Judicial Court justice, rallied at the State House on Jan. 26, urging legislators to increase legal aid funding.
Civic Legal Aid is a Sound Investment for All of Us (Boston Globe)
1/26/2012 - A column by Yvonne Abrahams highlights the funding crisis facing Massachusetts legal aid programs, who have lost a third of their staff in the last three years. Lonnie Powers, MLAC executive director, is quoted, along with Remon Jourdan, a former client of Greater Boston Legal Services
Disabled Patients' Wishes Ignored (Boston Globe)
1/23/2012 - This article quotes attorneys from the Center for Public Representation and Disability Law Center of Massachusetts following the recent family court ruling that a woman diagnosed with schizophrenia should undergo an abortion and be sterilized.
SJC: Watered Down Health Program for Legal Immigrants Violates Equal Protection (Boston Herald)
1/5/2012 - The Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a move by the state Legislature to strip 30,000 legal immigrants from a taxpayer-subsidized state-run insurance program in 2009 violated their constitutional rights. The Massachusetts Law Reform Institute in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in the case.
Advocates for Disabled: Criteria for Aid Need to be More Flexible (Sentinel & Enterprise)
1/3/2012 - This article discusses how Mass. determines elgibility for youth with developmental disabilities to receive adult services from the Department of Disability Services. The Disability Law Center is backing a bill that would change the way Disability Services determines eligibility. "We're not proposing that we don't draw lines -- we have scarce resources in state government," Rick Glassman told the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities in November.
Special-ed Advocates Sue Schools over Placement (Boston Globe)
1/3/2012 - Boston Public Schools is facing a class-action lawsuit in federal court asserting that the district routinely violates state and federal law by delaying evaluations and classroom placements for preschoolers with special needs. The lawsuit was brought by Massachusetts Advocates for Children on behalf of two families.
Brain-Injured Plaintiffs Living Fuller Lives after Class Action Lawsuit (Springfiled Republican)
1/1/2012 - This article profiles Raymond Puchalski, who has been living with a brain injury since 2003. The Center for Public Representation successfully settled a lawsuit in 2008 on behalf of Puchalski and three others with brain injuries for community-based, individual care. In the settlement, the state agreed to place 100 brain-injured residents in less restrictive environments each year for three years: 300 total.
New Report Shows Civil Legal Aid Generates Millions in New Revenue, Cost Savings for Mass.
1/17/2012 - A new report issued by MLAC shows Massachusetts civil aid programs generated an estimated $53.2 million in new revenue and cost savings to the Commonwealth last year.
2011 MLAC news archive
2010 MLAC news archive
2009 MLAC news archive
2008 MLAC news archive
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