Upstate N.Y.: Potential Class Action Against County for Constant Backlog of Public Assistance Applications
Legal Services E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Author: Robert Brauchle
Source: The Observer-Dispatch, “Lawsuit: Oneida County ‘delaying access to public assistance’”
Date: January 10, 2011
The Observer Dispatch writes: “Legal Services of Central New York and Empire Justice Center have filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming the county is not processing residents’ applications for benefits in a timely manner. ‘Oneida County has a long and shameful history of delaying access to public assistance, and consequently the most fundamental necessities of life to the neediest of its residents,’ according to the suit. . . . Legal Services is a Syracuse-based firm that provides free, civil legal assistance to low-income families and individuals in 13 counties of Central New York. The suit was filed with Empire Justice, an Albany-based firm that also provides legal assistance for low-income families. ‘Members of the plaintiff class seek the county’s help in the most desperate of times,’ according to the claim. ‘They have exhausted the generosity of family and friends, used up their unemployment benefits where applicable, and turned to over-stressed soup kitchens and food pantries.’ The suit claims the county has a ‘quota’ of 10 to 12 applicants that it will interview each day and that others are turned away and told to return the next day. . . . Young said his staff would request that the suit be classified as being ’class action,’ which would cover any person who has applied for benefits in the last three years.” The plaintiffs are able to seek class action status because neither Legal Services of Central New York nor the Empire Justice Center receives funding from the federal Legal Services Corporation.