Impact Litigation
Patterns of injustice and broad institutional failures can deprive thousands of people of their rights. NYLAG seeks systemic reform for these individuals through class actions and other impact litigation.
Wrongful denial of public benefits, fraudulent debt collection, disability discrimination, and predatory for-profit colleges can harm tens of thousands of vulnerable people. Yet those dealing with these challenges often feel like they are in the battle alone. Many do not realize that they have rights that can be enforced. This is where we come in.
Our Approach
Our Special Litigation Unit (SLU) collaborates with NYLAG attorneys across practice areas to identify broad institutional failures. Alone, or in partnership with private firms and other not-for-profit organizations, we initiate class actions and other impact lawsuits to bring about systemic change for thousands of people in need.
What is a class action? It is a lawsuit in which a group of people who suffer similar harm caused by the same conduct sue a defendant together—seeking redress for all those who are injured, even those who cannot find their own lawyers or appear in court.
Cases and Advocacy
Below is a list of our class action cases and advocacy work. Click on the relevant case below to learn more and how to contact us if you believe that you’ve been affected.
Our Recent Wins
We secured a settlement worth nearly $6 million for 61,000 New Yorkers victimized by fraudulent debt collection litigation [Mayfied v. Asta, settlement Apr. 2018]
We challenged New York’s denial of critical subsistence benefits to certain asylum applicants, prompting New York to change the policy and extend benefits to those immigrants [Colaj v. Roberts, filed Aug. 2017, policy change Nov. 2017]
We reached a settlement requiring the United States Department of Education to notify 60,000 student loan borrowers harmed by Wilfred Beauty Academy, a chain of abusive for-profit schools, of their right to seek valuable loan discharge [Salazar v. DeVos, settlement approved Aug. 2017, administered through the present]
We reached a settlement forcing NY State to better protect Medicaid home health care recipients whose managed long-term care providers unlawfully stopped or reduced their care [Caballero v. Senior Health Partners, settlement approved Dec. 2018]
We entered an unprecedented settlement requiring a charter school network to make far-reaching changes to protect students with disabilities entitled to special education supports [Achievement First, settlement approved Dec. 2017]
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NYLAG to part of the solution to end broad institutional failures.
NYLAG Brings “Secret Laws” Governing NYCHA Residents Out from the Shadows
The New York Legal Assistance Group fought for and secured the publication of the nation’s largest public housing authority’s Admissions and Continued Occupancy Plan—and it’s finally here.
NYLAG OBTAINS FOIA RESPONSE ABOUT IMMIGRATION JUDGE COMPLAINTS IN NEW YORK CITY
On March 24, 2023, NYLAG’s Special Litigation Unit (“SLU”) and Immigrant Protection Unit (“IPU”) submitted a Freedom of Information (“FOIA”) request to EOIR, seeking records relating to how EOIR, the Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility (“OPR”), and the immigration courts in New York City receive and process complaints submitted against immigration judges.
City Limits: New Yorkers See Uneven Improvement in Food Stamp, Cash Assistance Delays
NYLAG’s Deborah Berkman spoke to City Limits for this piece about how tens of thousands of New Yorkers have faced delays to their benefits applications, despite some strides made by the Human Resources Administration after NYLAG’s class action lawsuit in January 2023.
