Legal Services Advocacy Project Makes Gains for Clients in Active Legislative Session

The 2023 legislative session was historic. The well publicized “trifecta” produced perhaps the most momentous and transformative set of legislation in Minnesota’s history. Many major advancements for legal aid's clients, and all Minnesotans, that were enacted include paid family leave and earned sick and safe leave time; codification of reproductive freedoms; passage of significant gun safety laws; a 100% carbon-free energy requirement by 2040; and a massive affordable housing funding bill, which includes a permanent rental assistance fund. 

While these broader issues captured headlines, the Legal Services Advocacy Project (LSAP) worked to pass a wide range of bills across a variety of substantive areas that made significant inroads in advancing protections for legal aid clients.  

• Universal free breakfast and lunch for Minnesota students; 

• Ending school suspensions for children in grades K-3;  

• The first increase in General Assistance in 30 years; 

• Giving survivors of domestic violence a path to relief from “coerced debt”;  

• MFIP disregard for participants receiving RSDI; 

• Major MFIP sanction reform and MFIP drug testing repeal; 

• A massive Child Tax Credit;  

• Banning school seclusion for children through 3rd grade; 

• Funding to fully fund wage supports for persons with disabilities holding subminimum wage jobs;   

• Extending the period within which to file a UI appeal to 45 days;  

• Providing for an annual COLA to the housing assistance grant;

• Extending MNCare coverage to undocumented persons;

• Providing for recertifications once every 12 months for MA recipients;

• Removing asset limits for persons applying for MA-EPD; 

• Eliminating the requirement that tenants must pay back rent to assert a habitability defense;

• Making eviction filings nonpublic until the court issues a final judgment;

• Providing that the new 14-day pre-eviction notice is prima facie evidence of an "emergency" for purposes of emergency assistance eligibility;

• Payday lending reform; and 

• Eliminating the court-imposed bar to taking actions under the Consumer Fraud Act.

LSAP — which is comprised of staff attorneys Jessica Webster, Ellen Smart, and Ron Elwood — annually champions both discrete and systemic policy issues that fundamentally impact the lives of thousands of Minnesotans. They work with lawmakers, legislative staff, government agencies, legal aid staff, and dedicated partner advocacy groups to design, negotiate, and refine hundreds of new and existing laws, and always with legal aid’s clients and mission guiding their work.

MMLA and Standpoint Recognized as 2022 Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer

On February 15, 2023, outstanding individuals and teams were honored for their exemplary legal work by Minnesota Lawyer. The annual Attorneys of the Year event recognizes efforts in procuring a successful result in an important case or business transaction, leadership in professional associations, participating in newsworthy events in the legal community, performing significant public services or excellence in providing in-house legal services.

The 2022 Attorneys of the Year Awards were presented at an in-person celebration held at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Minneapolis.

Among the legal teams recognized as Attorneys of the Year were Justin Perl, Steve Schmidt, Justin Page and Eren Sutherland of Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid; along with Peter J. McElligott and Steven M. Pincus of Anthony Ostlund Louwagie Dressen & Boylan PA; and Laura Farley of Nichols Kaster, PLLP for their work on Murphy et al. v. Harpstead, 16-cv-2623 (DWF/BRT).

After almost 6 years of litigation, the team reached a settlement agreement in the federal class action lawsuit, which requires DHS to take a variety of specific steps to improve access and opportunities for people with disabilities who want to live in their own homes or apartments. Read Settlement Reached in Disability Rights Class Action Lawsuit for more about the case.

Rana Alexander of StandPoint, and Katie Barrett Wiik of Saul Ewing LLP, were honored for their work on In re Hope Coalition before the Minnesota Supreme Court. In the appeal, the high Court ruled that communications between sexual assault counselors and their clients are protected by state law. The ruling is a major victory for advocacy groups in Minnesota, reversing a district court decision that allowed a court review of a victim’s private communications with a sexual assault advocacy counselor in a criminal case. Read Standpoint Wins Minnesota Supreme Court Appeal to Protect Victims' Privacy for more about the case.

Standpoint and Mitchell Hamline Staff Honored at Minnesota Justice Foundation Awards Celebration

The Minnesota Justice Foundation (MJF) is pleased to once again host its Annual Awards Celebration in person! Join MJF at 4:30pm on Wednesday, September 28, 2022, at the Campus Club at the University of Minnesota. This year MJF is excited to welcome keynote speaker Robin Maher, longtime capital defense lawyer and federal defender, former Director of the ABA Death Penalty Representation Project, and now with the US Department of Justice, Office for Access to Justice, speaking on the topic of “The Stories We Tell: Humanity and Hope in the Justice System.” MJF will also recognize the winners of their 2022 Outstanding Service Awards.

Every year since 1991, MJF has honored the work of public interest attorneys, private pro bono attorneys, advocates, and law students whose commitment to Minnesotans with low-incomes shines as a beacon of hope and embodies the very best of our profession.

This year, MJF is pleased to present its 2022 Advocate Award to Raelene Caswell, housing advocate at Standpoint. Caswell (she/her) began her work as an advocate in 2009, and as Standpoint’s housing advocate she works alongside the housing attorney to assist tenants who are victim/survivors of domestic and sexual violence in navigating housing issues. These issues include breaking a lease due to fear of violence, asserting Violence Against Women Act housing protections, and communicating with landlords. She also provides training to advocates across the state. With the team of advocates, Caswell provides legal advocacy through Standpoint’s Action Line on housing, Orders for Protection and Restraining orders, and other safety-related concerns. She provides supervision and mentorship for Standpoint’s general interns, works with the Alexandra House, responds to victim/survivors in the hospital, and provides support on the crisis line and through shelter-based advocacy. Caswell has worked with several agencies, including the Sexual Violence Center, Cornerstone, Women’s Advocates, SafeJourney, Catholic Charities, and Freedom House to provide dignified services to those seeking safety. She is particularly passionate about preventing burnout and promoting the wellness and resiliency of advocates in the field.

MJF’s 2022 Direct Service Award goes to Bradford Colbert of Mitchell Hamline School of Law. Professor Colbert is the director of the Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners (LAMP) Clinic at Mitchell Hamline. The LAMP Clinic represents people who are incarcerated on civil legal issues. LAMP cases range from default dissolutions to complicated class actions. In addition to directing the LAMP Clinic, Professor Colbert teaches Criminal Law and Constitutional Criminal Procedure at the law school. While he was an appellate public defender, he argued Minnesota v. Carter before the United States Supreme Court (and lost). Professor Colbert has been awarded the William E. McGee Public Defender Award of Excellence and the Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year.

Also to be honored at the 2022 MJF celebration is Private Practice Pro Bono winner Kurt W. Porter of Severson Porter Law. Law Student awards go to Marilys Solano (Mitchell Hamline School of Law), Madelyn Cox-Guerra (University of Minnesota Law School) and Kevin Green (University of St. Thomas School of Law). Register to attend the event.

Standpoint Wins Minnesota Supreme Court Appeal to Protect Victims' Privacy

Last week, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that communications between sexual assault counselors and their clients are protected by state law. The ruling, a major victory for advocacy groups in Minnesota, reverses a district court decision that allowed a court review of a victim’s "notes, memoranda, records, and reports" as communicated privately with a sexual assault advocacy counselor in a criminal case. Specifically, from the high court’s ruling: “This case concerns how sexual assault counselors’ statutory privilege under Minnesota Statutes section 595.02, subdivision 1(k) (2020), interacts with a criminal defendant’s interests in a fair trial.”

Standpoint (formerly the Battered Women’s Legal Advocacy Project) filed the appeal in hopes that the Minnesota Supreme Court would take the case and set a precedent for lower courts, preventing the use of subpoenaed records in violation of a 1982 law that any "opinion or information received from or about the victim" could not be disclosed without that person's consent. Over the years district courts have sometimes subpoenaed records from sexual assault counseling agencies because attorneys have argued that those records were needed under the right to due process and full defense.

Rana Alexander, Executive Director of Standpoint

Rana Alexander, Standpoint’s executive director, was the lead attorney on this case and has been advocating for the privacy and protection of victim rights in criminal cases for years. Confidentiality is one of the most critical tools sexual violence advocates have to allow them to provide essential services to victim-survivors. 

"The Minnesota Supreme Court applied a strict scrutiny standard and it said that the state has a compelling governmental interest in protecting sexual assault victims," Alexander said. "That is a huge statement from the Supreme Court in recognizing that we are serious in the state of Minnesota about ending sexual violence." Read more in the Star Tribune and read the decision here.

LSAP Addresses Equity with New Self Storage Law

A new Minnesota storage law now allows any renter facing auction of property for non-payment to recover personal papers and health aids, like CPAP machines or wheelchairs, regardless of value. Self storage reform was one of several equity provisions adopted by the 2021 Minnesota Legislature.

Previously, self-storage facility owners could lock out renters for nonpayment of rental fees and ultimately auction off their property. Self storage facilities are sometimes utilized by people who have been evicted, foreclosed on, or are facing some other financial, housing, or domestic violence crisis and need a place to store their belongings.

The new law is an update to 1988 legislation not reviewed since 2014. The Legal Services Advocacy Project (LSAP) and the Minnesota Self Storage Association negotiated to approve language acceptable to both renter advocates and owners. In addition to the ability to recover personal papers and health aids when facing auction, renters can now recover other items if they are recipients of “relief based on need” or are survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

“Relief based on need” includes the Minnesota Family Investment Program, Medical Assistance, General Assistance, MinnesotaCare, the earned income tax credit and other government benefits programs for residents with lower incomes. Importantly, the new law does not create an eviction record for renters because it removes the process from landlord-tenant eviction law and places it in the section of law covering self-storage. Additionally, building owners must now provide more detailed notice before they can start an action to auction off property. The notice must say how much rent is owed, when access to the unit will end, and how the renter can dispute the claim of money owed.

Read “How reforming Minnesota’s law governing self-storage units became an equity issue” in MinnPost.