Free Legal Clinic

The legal collective currently has numerous projects on the go.

HUD Lawsuit
The Common Ground Legal Collective supports the lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The lawsuit charges that HUD is discriminating against low-income black residents by refusing to reopen housing units undamaged by Hurricane Katrina, failing to repair other units and planning to destroy most of the public housing available in New Orleans without plans to replace them. The suit also declares that HUD is violating the rights of public-housing residents by evicting them despite their legal and valid leases, and of violating international law guaranteeing the right of displaced people to return home.

The legal team of Common Ground seeks to provide free legal assistance to residents as they begin rebuilding their lives after the recent hurricanes. We provide a free legal clinic every Saturday with volunteer lawyers from Louisiana Legal Aid, Loyola Law Clinic and volunteer Common Ground lawyers. We also help document police misconduct and unsafe prison conditions. Every day, we have volunteers posted outside the Orleans Parish Prison to meet with released arrestees. The volunteers collect interviews, connect people with legal assistance if possible, share resources and translate – our volunteers are virtually the only assistance that post-Katrina arrestees have access to at this time. We also have volunteer lawyers and legal assistants that are taking cases, developing potential lawsuits and participating in civic action.