LEGAL SERVICES OF LONG ISLAND

2026 Chief Judge's Hearing on Civil Legal Services in New York

Date: September 24, 2026 

Submitted to: Hon. Rowan D. Wilson, Chief Judge of the State of New York, and Members of the Hearing Panel 

Submitted by: Rezwanul Islam, Deputy Executive Director, Legal Services of Long Island 

Introduction.

Thank you, Chief Judge Wilson, and members of the Panel, for the opportunity to appear before you today. I am Rezwanul Islam, Deputy Executive Director of Legal Services of Long Island, and I am grateful for the chance to speak about the impact of Judiciary Civil Legal Services (JCLS) funding on our work and the communities we serve. 

Who we are  

Legal Services of Long Island (LSLI) is the largest provider of free civil legal services on Long Island, serving Nassau and Suffolk Counties. From April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026, LSLI closed 6,374 total cases benefiting 13,555 people. We have over 160 staff members across three offices, and we appear in most civil venues in our service area. 

We receive funding from federal, state, and local sources. Historically, much of that funding has been tied to specific issues, such as disability or foreclosure, or to a specific population, such as those with mental health needs or the elderly. Few funding sources are intended to support the full range of services our community needs. Thankfully, JCLS funding is one of those few, and supports all of our various practice areas, including housing and consumer debt. 

I would like to introduce one of our clients who was served by our organization in two separate but related matters. Her case speaks directly to two of the topics the Panel identified for 2026: the value of JCLS funding as a stable, multi-year source that allows a single provider to carry a family's dispute through to resolution even when it resurfaces in a new proceeding, and the challenges facing litigants in eviction and consumer debt cases. 

Ms. Robinson's matter began as a non-payment proceeding. Her family lost their jobs during COVID and received Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) funds, which were paid directly to their landlord. After accepting those funds, the landlord conducted an illegal lockout and illegally evicted her family and disposed of over $10,000 of their personal property. Our journey with Ms. Robinson began in this case when we worked to restore her to her home. She ultimately chose not to return and wanted to start fresh. More than a year later, the same landlord brought a debt collection lawsuit arising from the same underlying rent dispute. Both matters were handled by LSLI attorneys, working from the same case record, at no cost to the family.  

Ms. Robinson has agreed to have her testimony submitted for the record and to appear to present remarks next.  

Remarks of Rezwanul Islam 

As Ms. Robinson described, under OTDA’s program guidance and the law, the acceptance of ERAP payment "satisfies the tenant's full rental obligations for the time period covered by the payment." Ms. Robinson's landlord had accepted that payment before filing suit for the same arrears. Although that defense existed, it took a trained consumer debt attorney to locate and assert it as one of several defenses, including unlawful and intentional eviction, breach of contract, violation of the terms of the ERAP Program, and interference with quiet enjoyment. As mentioned, LSLI also filed counterclaims for the damage to the family's property and moved to compel discovery. It was not until the threat of trial that the landlord agreed to compensate the family in treble damages of $30,000. 

Families without representation have no realistic path to finding or raising defenses like these on their own and would likely have defaulted or settled on the landlord's terms instead. The distance between a right that exists on paper and a right a family can use is exactly what civil legal services close. 

None of this could happen without Judiciary Civil Legal Services. When it arrived more than a decade ago, it transformed our organization. I was a staff attorney in its early days, and I saw the difference immediately. We hired new staff and grew our services. We reopened our consumer debt unit, which had been shut down during the Great Recession. We began a veterans' rights project. We expanded our education and disability rights unit. We started a re-entry unit. Dedicated, issue-specific funding is often too limited on its own to support a fully staffed multi-attorney unit. JCLS funding was what made building these programs possible. It amplifies the impact of every other funding source we have and creates new opportunities for impact that would not otherwise exist. 

Stability in the face of federal uncertainty 

With the uncertainty at the federal level we are currently experiencing, JCLS funding gives us the ability to plan. Because it is a stable, multi-year state commitment, we can make staffing and program decisions with confidence that the funding will still be there next year. This is one of the only programs of its kind in the entire country where a state judiciary takes so direct a role in funding civil legal services. The model created here is greatly admired by our colleagues around the nation, and New York State is a leader. That distinction deserves recognition and should be celebrated. 

Equity across the state, including rural communities 

New York has matched its stated commitment to access to justice with actual funding. JCLS funding provides resources to every community in the state and does not concentrate them in only the most highly populated areas. It treats rural communities with the same regard as suburban and urban communities. 

Our own service area is a direct example of why that matters. Suffolk County is not just suburban. Its East End is one of the most rural parts of New York State and one of its largest agricultural producers. Serving that population carries real structural costs, including greater distances between clients and attorneys, fewer local resources, and a higher cost to deliver the same standard of representation. 

New York's willingness to fund that work at the same standard everywhere in the state is what makes JCLS so important.  

Workforce sustainability 

JCLS funding has enabled us to make meaningful increases to staff salaries over the past several years. Those increases have had a significant impact on our ability to recruit and retain talented staff by allowing us to compete more effectively for the strongest candidates in the field. 

It is also important to recognize the flexibility provided through JCLS funding. One of our other major funding sources, IOLA, shares a similar philosophy that emphasizes flexibility in providing services to our communities. We greatly appreciate JCLS's efforts to align its administrative processes with those of IOLA whenever possible. As two of our largest funding partners, each with its own reporting and compliance requirements, this alignment has helped streamline administration, reduce unnecessary burdens, and allow us to devote more time and resources to serving our clients. We are very appreciative of JCLS's partnership and its commitment to promoting efficient and effective program administration. 

Innovation in service delivery 

The innovation JCLS funding has allowed us to pursue is one Long Island is uniquely positioned to lead, because we are one of the largest suburban populations in the country. Nassau and Suffolk Counties, together the Tenth Judicial District, have approximately three million residents. That is significantly less dense than New York City, but significantly more than the rural regions many of our colleagues across the state serve. That hybrid position lets us pilot a model that may not translate the same way at either extreme: building our presence directly into the courts where our clients already are. 

Wherever we are permitted to, we have worked to establish in-court intake, meeting clients where their cases are already being heard rather than requiring them to find us first. We built this first in housing court. We are now extending the same model to consumer debt matters in Nassau County, in partnership with the court system, and to family court through our new Courtroom Advocacy Project, launching this fall in Nassau County Family Court. 

None of this would have been possible without the courts themselves. The bench and court personnel of the Tenth Judicial District have been exceptional partners in this work, and the courts' willingness to welcome us into these spaces and help us reach the community cannot be overstated. Special thanks to Judge Crecca and Judge DeStefano.  

Thank you, Chief Judge Wilson, and members of the Panel, for this opportunity. We are grateful for this platform, and for the continued partnership between the courts and the civil legal services community across New York. I would like to now turn it over to Ms. Robinson.