News Archive

UPDATE - 3/28/2011 (more)

Roughly 60 farm workers, who allege they were sprayed with a chemical herbicide in 2008 while working in a Mattawa apple orchard, reached a settlement with an aerial chemical application company in December, 2010. Columbia Legal Services represented the farm workers in the lawsuit. More details can be found in this news article from the Tri-City Herald.

A victim of domestic violence alleged firing after taking leave to protect her family. The parties in the first lawsuit filed under Washington's Domestic Violence Leave Act agreed to a settlement in December 2010. The Domestic Violence Leave Act, RCW 49.76, enacted in 2008, requires employers to give employees reasonable time off to attend court and take steps to ensure their and their children's safety if the employee is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. (more)

The Washington Department of Corrections has agreed to a court order requiring it to address the problem of staff sexual misconduct against women supervised by the Department.  The settlement will resolve a class action lawsuit, know as Jane Doe v. Clarke, filed in July 2007 by Columbia Legal Services and the Public Interest Law Group on behalf of current and former female prisoners who alleged they were sexually assaulted by prison guards. (more)

A group of manufactured housing tenants, assisted by CLS attorneys, settled with a manufactured housing industry group who agreed to strip language from their standard rental agreements that appeared to violate state laws governing the frequency of rent increases. This article from the Seattle PI describes the case.

"Faces of GA-U" is a short video produced by CLS in collaboration with the Access to Justice Project at Seattle University Law School. The video profiles the stories of four GA-U recipients - putting faces on the statistic of those who benefit from this modest assistance program. View the video here and find out more about GA-U here.

In August 2009, child care workers in Washington settled a class action lawsuit challenging the legality of state-initiated home searches, seizure of personal and business documents, and the inappropriate intimidation of childcare workers by state and federal officials. This news article discusses the mayor's apology and includes some details of the case. (more)

On October 30, 2008, the manufactured homeowners at Hidden Village Park (formerly known as College Street Mobile Home Park) celebrated the conversion of their community to resident ownership as a limited equity cooperative, resulting in the preservation of affordable housing for low income families. CLS attorneys supported this achievement with funding from CFED. Read the full story.