2017 in Review: BayLegal’s Litigation Docket

Consumer Protections

A suit against the California DMV for illegally suspending the driver’s licenses of people who could not afford to pay their traffic tickets. Although the litigation is ongoing, the DMV has already agreed to reinstate up to 400,000 driver’s licenses that it had suspended solely because the driver had failed to pay a traffic ticket.

BayLegal and our partners also filed suit and secured a favorable settlement against a court, achieving new court practices that provide at least 33,000 low-income traffic court defendants a fair opportunity to show that they cannot afford traffic fines, and to seek an alternative to immediate payment-in-full.
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Fair & Affordable Housing

An appeal aiming to ensure that state affordable housing law is applicable – and enforceable – in San José and in other charter cities throughout California.
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A successful defense of Richmond’s rent control law, a suit that ensured the continued affordability of a major housing development in San Francisco, and a civil rights complaint against a landlord who threatened a former tenant with deportation just because she is Latina and insisted on the return of the security deposit that was rightfully hers.

Family & Youth Justice

Published appellate decisions that secure the rights of immigrants who are domestic violence survivors to spousal support [Kumar v Kumar], the rights of domestic violence survivors to protection from their abusers, and the rights of foster youth to protections against government intrusion into their therapist-patient communications.

Economic Justice

Suits against welfare agencies that unlawfully reduce or deny aid to homeless people with disabilities; that deny aid to needy immigrants whose sponsors have refused to submit documentation to the agency; and that demand cash payment from families after the agency issued excess food stamps, including cases well beyond the statute of limitations.

Health & Language Access

Suits that succeeded in ensuring that the State translates Medi-Cal notices into all needed languages, and providing Medi-Cal beneficiaries with disabilities access to safe transportation to their medical appointments.