Equal Justice Alliance
The Equal Justice Alliance is the collaborative planning and coordination council of providers of civil legal assistance in North Carolina. The Equal Justice Alliance is funded by an IOLTA grant and by contributions from the member organizations.
Mission
The mission of the Equal Justice Alliance is to provide central coordination of a sustained, comprehensive, integrated, statewide system to provide the most effective legal services to people in poverty in North Carolina.
Members
The members of the Equal Justice Alliance are:
Disability Rights of North Carolina
Legal Services of Southern Piedmont
NC Prisoner Legal Services, Inc.
For more information about the Equal Justice Alliance, please contact Executive Director Jennifer Lechner at 336.688.5329 or by e-mail at lechner@ncequalaccesstojustice.org.
A man had worked full-time as a truck driver before termination, and attorneys in the LANC office in Greensboro had recently won an unemployment benefits case for him. A rising second-year law student at Elon who was a summer intern in the Greensboro office took note of the small amount of unemployment benefits the client was receiving: 13 weeks of benefits at the rate of $75 per week, rather than a larger benefit amount for the full 26 weeks. Further investigation revealed that the client’s former employer had improperly and significantly underreported wages that he had earned.
A letter with the man’s W-2 form and paycheck stubs showing average monthly wages was sent to the Employment Security Commission, who revised the benefits calculations. The client’s weekly benefit amount was increased to $494, and he will receive this amount for 26 weeks. This means that the client will receive over $9,000 of additional funds during the initial 26-week period. Moreover, he will be eligible for whatever extensions are available.
Most employment cases that Legal Aid handles involve representing clients to protect their unemployment benefits. A smaller percentage of cases involve unlawful termination and/or discrimination.