公益效应:对一个人来说.C. 家庭，家终于甜蜜了
又来了:煤气泄漏的味道. Every day, the Lazo family noticed the distinct odor emanating throughout their Washington, D.C.、公寓. Frequent complaints to the building manager and landlord yielded zero results. Even after a city inspector ordered the stove’s gas leak fixed, nothing happened.
为了安全起见，拉佐一家撑开了窗户，但冬天来了. 天气非常寒冷. 当气体向外飘散时，冷空气进入室内. 他们五个都是妈妈, 父亲, 两个女儿, 还有一个儿子蜷缩在他们的床上, 裹在一层层的衣服里, 睡觉时尽量保持温暖.
搬进公寓还不到一年, 拉佐一家的设备开始出现问题. The pipes in the bathroom would leak and water would come through the ceiling. 浴室里的电源插座坏了. As time passed, the conditions worsened despite numerous talks with their landlord. 空调停止运转了. 淋浴间没有热水. Rats and cockroaches crawled through gaping holes in the wall and into their food. 在任何一个星期里，这家人都至少用捕鼠器抓到了六只老鼠.
对于胡安和安娜·拉佐来说，也许最后一根稻草是臭虫. 冷是一回事. To see their 7-year-old daughter struggle as her arms and legs swelled with itchy welts from bedbug bites was entirely different. The Lazos tried everything from buying insect poison to throwing out some of their furniture. 问题依然存在.
受够了房东的不回应, 拉佐一家不再付房租了, 希望它能带来一些改变. 它没有. 然后他们参观了中美洲资源中心(carrecen)。, 移民组织提供移民服务的社区组织, 住房, 以及为拉丁裔社区提供公民服务. Representatives at CARECEN told the Lazos about their rights as tenants and pointed them toward the D.C. 澳博app协会公益项目’s Landlord Tenant Resource Center at the 高等法院 of the District of Columbia.
代表未被代表人
The Landlord Tenant Resource Center launched in January 2004, with the help of Arnold & 波特澳博app事务所，作为D.C. 澳博app协会公益项目. 位于D.C. 高等法院, the center provides free legal information to both unrepresented landlords and tenants who have residential 住房 disputes in the District of Columbia. At the time it opened, more than 40,000 cases were being filed annually in 高等法院. Ninety-nine percent of tenants and 86 percent of landlords were unrepresented, 增加了他们败诉的几率，尽管案件有其优点.
十年后, the Landlord Tenant Resource Center is open every weekday to assist members of the community with their landlord–tenant issues. The center is staffed by volunteers from 15 of the area’s top law firms who assist more than 5,每年1000人. 志愿者提供一系列的服务, 包括起草辩诉书, providing informational materials that explain both landlord–tenant law and court procedures, 并向法律和非法律服务机构提供推荐.
2010年12月，安娜来到资源中心. 在与澳博app志愿者交谈后，他们将她介绍给了国防部.C. 澳博app事务所公益项目的辩护和司法诊所的全权代理. After the intake and screening process, the 公益性服务 Program placed her with 威廉姆斯 & Connolly LLP).
维护他们的权利
威廉姆斯 & Connolly associates 伊丽莎白 Henneke and 杰西卡 Pahl originally were assigned to the Lazo case. 亨内克搬家后，澳博app格雷格·希尔森加入了团队. 在对房东提起诉讼几天后, the landlord turned around and sued to evict the Lazos for nonpayment of rent. 根据法庭文件, the Lazos claimed that the “住房 conditions excused [the family’s] obligation to pay rent starting in December 2010 and entitled [them] to a refund of the rent paid from May 2008 to November 2010.”
现在有两个平行的案例在发生. “在这里，他们试图维护自己的权利. 然后他们被起诉，被赶出他们的公寓，”希尔森说.
这个案子对希尔森来说尤其私人. “This case hit home to me because I was raised by a single mother who barely made minimum wage, and my family occasionally lived in similar conditions in Florida when I was growing up . . . 我记得她为此付出了多大的代价，”希尔森补充道.
希尔森和帕尔花了很多时间帮助拉佐一家. They saw the 住房 conditions firsthand when they visited the apartment and met Juan and Ana’s three children. 大女儿14岁，儿子13岁，最小的女儿7岁. 希尔森说，看到孩子们“让我意识到这个案子有多重要”.
威廉姆斯的支持 & 康诺利是关键，希尔森说. 和律所承接的所有公益案件一样, 希尔森和帕尔事务所指派了一名合伙人担任顾问, 提供提示和指导.
“The firm brought to bear all its resources in terms of paralegal support and translation support. 他们允许我们聘请专家……,希尔森说, 他和西班牙语翻译一起与拉佐一家交谈. “他们说，公司的任何客户都同样重要, 无论是房东租客客户还是大公司. 根据我们的热情程度，我们对他们一视同仁 . . . 为他们辩护.”
Armed with that passion, the team built its case, documenting every issue over the next year. 有明确的胜利. The judge in the case the Lazos filed against the landlord in the 住房 条件 Court ordered the landlord to make repairs to the apartment. During the work, the Lazos moved into another unit within the building for five weeks.
“It was hard living here when you’re fighting with your landlord,” said Juan through an interpreter. 但公寓里很安静, 安全的社区，靠近一所非常好的学校, 所以他们选择留下来为之奋斗.
“I was extremely nervous because we made a deliberate decision not to settle the case, 不仅要去庭审，还要去陪审团庭审. There is a tremendous amount of pressure because although you try to temper the client’s expectations and let him know anything can happen at a jury trial, 你显然是想帮他赢,希尔森说.
9月6日, 2012, the verdict in the case the landlord filed against the Lazos for nonpayment of rent came down. 拉佐兄弟赢了.
当陪审团宣布裁决时, 我试着保持镇静, 但我内心却在欢呼,帕尔说. “在我处理这个案子的近两年时间里, I became quite close with the family and it was just such a relief to see their rights vindicated. I think it meant a lot to them to know that if the landlord wouldn’t do something about the conditions they lived in, 法院系统会.”
陪审团判给拉佐夫妇超过22美元,拖欠租金五千元, 超过6美元,法院书记官处还给他们700件, 一个由法院监控的账户，专门为租户支付租金而设立.
希尔森回忆说，当家人听到这个消息时，他们的脸上都亮了起来.
胡安说:“这对我们家来说是很大的幸福。. 房东试图上诉，但在2013年10月败诉. 所有上诉都已用尽.
”威廉姆斯 & 康诺利处理拉佐家的案子做得很好. 杰西卡, 伊丽莎白, 格雷格, 整个法律团队真正改变了拉佐一家的生活, 让家庭获得他们应得的安全和体面的住房,莉娅·迈尔斯说, D.C. 澳博app协会公益项目. “It’s an outstanding example of the importance of pro bono legal services for low-income D.C. 居民, from the brief services and legal information the Lazos received at our Landlord Tenant Resource Center to the firm’s skillful representation of the family in court.”
Since the ruling, Ana said that the landlord is more receptive to requests for changes. 她指出，在澳博app的帮助下，他们给这栋建筑带来了变化.
“It was really gratifying for me when I heard about this [case] to use what I learned in law school to represent these folks who are having similar problems [as my mom and me],希尔森说. “You have certain landlords who are acting a certain way, and I felt the impact of that. It was an opportunity for me to get justice for people who experienced something similar.”
作者:泰国披乐
摘自《华盛顿澳博app》，2014年9月
到达泰国披乐酒店 (电子邮件保护).
