Biden: New Legal Services Will Aid Middle Class

By Kyle LaFleur

During a Middle Class Task Force event Friday in Washington, Vice President Joe Biden unveiled new steps that he believed would help middle and low income citizens stay on an even footing in the legal system.

“Our nation is a nation where every American, regardless of their age, their race, their sex, their income is by law treated the exact same, or should be treated the exact same in the eyes of the law,” said Biden. “That in a nutshell is fundamental ideal of our democracy, but it’s not enough … to say that everyone has the same legal rights.”

The newly annouced initiatives would focus on veterans, workers and those in the process of foreclosure. First, beginning December 13th, all complaints filed by workers over failures to be paid in areas such as minimum wage or overtime which can not be resolved due to limited capacity at the Department of Labor will be forwarded to an American Bar Association approved lawyer.  

Secondly, Biden announced the formation of awareness campaigns that outline veterans’ rights to legal representation.  The Legal Services Corporation has launched a new website which will help veterans to understand what legal options they hold.

The Vice President finished by outlining new mediation programs for Americans going through foreclosure.  The Department of Housing and Urban Development along with the DOJ’s Access to Justice Initiative released a joint report on how homeowners can go through mediation and find a solution that works both for them and their lender without foreclosure.

“It’s one family at at time,”said Biden. “It’s one person at a time. It’s one veteran at a time. It’s one forclosure at a time. If we do what we are saying here, if we are able to implement this you are going to affect the lives of tens of thousands and millions of people in ways that are consequential, because many of them are lost right now.”