Economic Justice Case

After enduring five years of a mentally and physically abusive marriage, Abhita left her husband in order to protect herself and her two young daughters. BayLegal represented Abhita in her divorce and obtained spousal support, child support and a permanent restraining order against her abuser with limited supervised visitation.

Abhita made all the right steps to start a new life. She enrolled in a night-program to earn an associates degree in accounting and was working to support her family; she was even able to open her first bank account – saving up the initial $500 deposit required to open an account at her local bank. All was going well until she deposited a child support check from her ex-husband. It turned out the check had been written on a closed account. The bank’s response was to immediately close her account and report her to ChechSystems for suspicion of fraud, which would prevent her from opening another bank account for seven years. To make matters worse, the bank refused to return her initial $500 deposit.

She tried to get help from local programs that give people in this situation a second chance, she tried opening an account at other banks, but everywhere she went she was denied for this same issue. It was then that Abhita returned to Bay Area Legal Aid.

Abhita’s was referred to Fellow Claire Johnson, who understood her predicament and helped Abhita through the difficult situation. Claire sent a dispute letter to get her name removed from ChexSystem’s suspected fraud list. Within thirty days, the company cleared her name. Additionally, and after much persistence, BayLegal was able to get the bank to return her $500.

Abhita couldn’t have been happier with the results. She was not simply given the ability to open a bank account, she took a stand to protect her rights with an advocate at her side, allowing her to achieve economic freedom for her family.

Claire Johnson is an Equal Justice Works Fellow from University of California, Hastings College of the Law.