Mid Minnesota Legal Aid (“MMLA”) partners with PUC to host in-person legal clinics at Brian Coyle and Waite House to provide a variety of free legal services to low-income and elderly clients.
In this July edition of our report to PUC check out a note about how to prepare for a criminal record expungement, a story and lesson about evictions, and the clinic’s statistics from June!
Brian Coyle Center Legal Clinic
Legal Aid’s Legal Clinic at the Brian Coyle Center (420 15th Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55454) offers nearly every legal service that Mid Minnesota Legal Aid offers. See a list of our services below.
One of the services listed is “Criminal Expungements.” If you want to clear your criminal record with a criminal expungement you need to prove to the court that you have “rehabilitated” and that your criminal record is harming you. So, you should document every time your criminal record harms you. That means saving any job application denials that state you were rejected because of your criminal record. The same goes for denied rental applications. Once the time comes to expunge your criminal record you will be much better prepared to do so.
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday 9 AM – 3 PM (General Civil)
- Guardianship
- Divorce
- Custody
- Evictions
- Public Benefits
- Consumer Issues
- Criminal Expungement
- Eviction Expungement
- Damaged/Unsafe Housing
- Section 8 Issues
- Lost Security Deposits
Thursday 9 AM – 3 PM (Immigration)
- Naturalization
- Green Cards
- Derivative Citizenship
- Adjustment of Status
- U/T Visa
- VAWA
Waite House Legal Clinic
MMLA’s immigration legal clinic at Waite House (2323 11th Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55404) provides brief services and advice for immigration matters including: pro se asylum applications, pro se work card applications, and brief advice and consultations. It is open every Monday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Appointments can be made with the front desk staff at Waite House. Walk-ins are welcome, but they are not guaranteed to be seen—appointments are strongly preferred. All staff at the Waite House Legal Clinic speak Spanish and English.
A Story and a Lesson
This spring, a man came into the Brian Coyle Center Legal Clinic because he was being told to leave his apartment. For the last two years he was a live-in-caretaker for his disabled wife. Unfortunately, she passed away. Within days of her passing the owner of the apartment told him he had 14 days to remove all property from the apartment and leave. This was impossible for the grieving husband.
He tried to negotiate with the apartment owner to get more time to move out. He needed more time to find an apartment to move to. He needed more time to pack up all his wife’s and his property. He needed more time to just grieve his deceased wife. The owner of the apartment did not give him more time. Instead, the owner brought an eviction against the husband.
The man came to the Brian Coyle Center Legal Clinic, and Frank got to work. The goal was to get the man moved out before the first eviction court hearing. Fortunately, he found an apartment; however, he could not move out before the first court hearing.
The man and Frank went to court armed with an argument to buy him more time. Fortunately, they were able to negotiate with the owner to get one more week to move out.
Now the man lives in a new apartment, he moved his wife’s property into a storage unit, and the court expunged the eviction off his record. He finally has the time and space to process the passing of his wife.
The lesson here is about how to avoid getting an eviction on your record even when you are facing an eviction. When a landlord files an eviction against a tenant the eviction is on the record. But the tenant still can get the court to expunge it!
If the eviction is because the tenant did not pay rent, then the tenant has at-least until the first court date to pay that rent. Then the tenant can ask the landlord to dismiss and expunge the case. It’s the same when the eviction is because the tenant is staying in the apartment past the end of the lease. If the tenant gives up possession of the apartment before the first court hearing the court is very likely to expunge the case.
If you are facing an eviction you should talk with a lawyer to discuss how to put yourself in the best position to expunge that eviction from your record. You can come to the Brian Coyle Center, call Mid Minnesota Legal Aid’s intake line (877-696-6529), or request a free lawyer at your first court appearance.
A Look at the Numbers
In May the Brian Coyle Center Legal Clinic opened 18 new cases and closed 17 cases. During that same time, Waite House opened 10 cases and closed 7 cases! Both clinic sites saw a decrease in numbers. It is not clear why the numbers are lower. May 25th was memorial day and May 27th was Eid which may account for a few less people coming to the Brian Coyle Center. Even with lower numbers it is busy in the clinics. We are hard at work helping the clients that came in over the last few months!
Here are some graphs with each clinic’s monthly new and closed cases. New cases opened in the month are in blue. Cases closed in the month are in orange.
