Debt-related legal crises for low-income residents are a major, persistent problem in DC that, with legal counsel, can be avoided altogether – with success rates above 90% – or settled on terms that protect the client.  For example, legal representation can be instrumental in cases involving insufficient proof by the collector, mistaken identity, when the amount claimed is wrong, the debt has already been paid, or the debt is too old to be collected under the governing law.   

Tzedek DC offers direct legal services at no cost to low-income and working-class DC residents with debt- and consumer-related legal issues.  We are able to provide legal assistance free of charge through our partnerships with the UDC David A. Clarke School of Law, community groups, and individual lawyers and law firms from the DC private bar.