BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
Last month, a South
Bronx pastor and a national
nonprofi t fi led a lawsuit in
the Manhattan courtroom
against the New York Attorney
General’s Offi ce in an effort
to challenge laws that
prevent low-income New
Yorkers from seeking free legal
advice in debt-collection
lawsuits.
That legal effort by pastor
John Udo-Okon and Upsolve
— an organization that helps
low-income and workingclass
families access legal
and fi nancial assistance — is
starting to gain steam. Five
groups, including the NAACP
and The Institute for Justice,
have fi led amicus briefs in
support of the legal effort. An
amicus brief is a legal fi ling,
where parties try to “help”
the court reach its decision
by offering facts, analysis or
perspective that the parties
to the case have not.
New York’s rules governing
the unauthorized practice
of law, prevent people
who aren’t lawyers from providing
such “individualized”
advice on responding to lawsuits,
the initial court fi ling
said.
“There is a civil rights injustice
that New York is committing
against the lowest
income communities by violating
their civil rights and
their human rights,” said
Rohan Pavuluri, CEO and
co-founder of Upsolve. “The
promise of America is that
people should be able to access
certain rights under the
law and as long New York
continues to commit this injustice
against low-income
New Yorkers restricting their
ability to get free legal advice
from a trained communitybased
advocate, we will never
keep the promise of equal
rights under the law.”
The backing from the fi ve
amicus parties, which also
includes The National Center
for Access to Justice, a joint
fi ling from 25 law professors
and Professor Rebecca Sandefur
is a rarity, as only 0.1%
of civil cases a year in district
court receive any amicus
briefs.
The NAACP in its brief
said the “unnecessarily
broad” unauthorized practice
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BRONX TIMES REPORTER, M 28 MAR. 11-17, 2022 BTR
rules “signifi cantly limit
the scope of the aid” that the
leading national civil rights
organization can offer to debt
collection defendants. Additionally,
they believe the outcome
of the case “will have
profound civil rights implications
for NAACP members
and for the NAACP’s institutional
interest in redressing
injustice and inequality.”
Pavuluri told the Bronx
Times that the backing of
groups like NAACP is a positive
step that their landmark
case could help low-income
New York — who are often
the target of debt collection
action — to be equipped with
free and “individualized” legal
advice.
An estimated 90% of
Americans sued for their debt
receive no legal representation,
often due to indigency.
In the suit, claimants state
that debt collection actions
are the most common kind of
lawsuit in New York.
Under New York’s law,
Udo-Okon, who offers such legal
Under New York’s rules governing the unauthorized practice of law,
South Bronx pastor John Udo-Okon ho offers such legal services and
advice to his South Bronx clientele, would be banned from doing so and
levied with criminal misdemeanor prosecution and civil penalties under
the law. Photo | Thalia Juarez
services and advice to his
South Bronx clientele, would
be banned from doing so and
levied with criminal misdemeanor
prosecution and civil
penalties under the law. Upsolve
also argues that applying
state rules prohibiting
unauthorized law practice to
its planned access to justice
program would violate its
rights under the 1st Amendment
of the U.S. Constitution.
According to Upsolve, an
estimated 70 million Americans
have debt in collections,
and each year, roughly 4 million
of these Americans are
sued for their debt, often for
debt that they don’t actually
owe or for the wrong amounts.
Attorney General Letitia
James is named as a lead defendant
in the case, and offi -
cials from the Attorney General’s
Offi ce did not respond
to request for comment by
publication.
Landmark First Amendment lawsuit
against NY AG’s Offi ce gains support
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